Originally posted by trumpiSwiss-System (SS) tournaments are quite fun for Over-The-Board play. I was a USCF tournament director for several years and am quite familiar with it.
How about having Swiss-style tournaments on RHP, much like is described in this website: http://www.chessctr.org/primer.htm
The problem I see with using the SS in correspondence is that a player would have to complete his current game before the next opponent could be calculated. Tournaments would really drag out due to only playing one game (or pair of games) at a time.
Using the all-play-all or Round Robin (RR) system allows for several games to take place without any opponent calculations being necessary between each game. This seems to be ideal for correspondence play to shorten the tournament length.
RHP seems to use the RR system combined with a Knock-Out System, you lose your Quad and your out.
If you were to order by rating, top being the highest rated player in the tournament, and used this for making up the Quads, players 1-4 all play each other in Round 1. Where is the fun in that? Even the SS doesn't do this!
How about if you take the ordered list and select player 1, then player 5, and 9, and then 13 to full the 1st Quad. Player 2 for the second Quad, with 6, 10 and 14. This stair-stepping by 4's plays itself out when you hit players 4,8,12 and 16. So you would pick back up at 17 and continue.
Maybe this is what Russ does? I don't know, but it may make for an interesting tournament!
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The "Grouped Swiss" approach is a very good idea. One of the nice things about Swiss tournaments is that you obtan a ranking after the tournament. So in this grouped swiss tournament the groups are ranked. If you win your group, you move to a higher ranked group, etc. The last round determines the final ranking of the player. Three or four rounds should be nice. What do you think?
Originally posted by trumpiI think I get what you mean. You would like for everyone to continue to the end of the tournament rather than using the knockout style.
The "Grouped Swiss" approach is a very good idea. One of the nice things about Swiss tournaments is that you obtan a ranking after the tournament. So in this grouped swiss tournament the groups are ranked. If you win your group, you move to a higher ranked group, etc. The last round determines the final ranking of the player. Three or four rounds should be nice. What do you think?
In the SS you have an accumulated tournament score used for the pairings along with the rating. RHP currently doesn't seem to do this.
One downside to not using the knockout style is that guy who has lost every game, or more than he feels he should have given his opponents or blunders. You know, That Guy probably won't be interested much in continuing the tournament and may not withdraw himself (even with the proper mechanism in place to do so). The knockout style really avoids this unpleasant and mysterious situation for all. That Guy's suffering is kept to a minimum, allowing him to regroup for the next tournament. Also Round completion waits would be lessened most likely if only interested players are playing.
I still think the SS can be a lot of fun in an OTB tournament, but in correspondence I believe it would be a disasterously long tournament and would require more time from the overly busy but still quite wonderful Site Admins.
Originally posted by trumpiLooking at this again, it reminds me of the pyramid idea I mentioned for the Seiges as with the ranking and moving up.
The "Grouped Swiss" approach is a very good idea. One of the nice things about Swiss tournaments is that you obtan a ranking after the tournament. So in this grouped swiss tournament the groups are ranked. If you win your group, you move to a higher ranked group, etc. The last round determines the final ranking of the player. Three or four rounds should be nice. What do you think?
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=19964
It doesn't provide a ranking for all, but it does have some of the qualities you mentioned.