Originally posted by Twirly
I just became a subscriber. The reason I did was to play in tournaments. I just assumed that when the tournament started I'd have to play 3 or 4 games at a time and if I won I'd move on to the next round, but when I logged on today I had over 40 games to play!!!! It looks like I'm playing everyone in the tournament twice!
So, will someone please explain to ...[text shortened]... ing a little overwhelmed and a little stupid for not knowing what I was getting into.
Thanks.
You need to study and understand the details included for each particular tournament.
Pay particular attention to the group size. Each person in the group usually will play two games against each other person in that group. One game as black an one as white.
So a small group size would result in what you were probably expecting.
So for example if the group size is 6, then that means it will be you and five others in a group. You will play 2 games against each of those other 5 players in your group so that will be 10 games. The total number of players will determine how many groups there are.
Once all groups have finished all of their games for the round, the winners will be advanced to the next round and new groups will be formed and new games will start as before, with each person playing two games against every other person in that new group.
So mainly look at the group size and the time controls. Some tournaments can take a long time to finish.
Does that help. If not then maybe someone else can explain it better.