BIG tournament mistake - mine that is!

I recently upped to a paid membership, and figured I'd try a tournament. I selected the "November 2010 Banded Hardcore Grand 1650-1750". I like to play no more than 4 or 5 games at a time and I figured, like a real tournament, I'd play one or at the most two games at a time.

Instead, I found about 40 (!) games to play at once in addition to 5 I had in progress - far more than I have the time or attention to play. After a lame attempt, I went ahead and resigned all the tournament games, and of course my rating took a real beating - but so it goes.

Questions:

1) Are all tournaments set up like that, with so many games at once?

2) The games I just resigned are all marked "Rnd.1". Does this tournament have more than one round and if so, is there any way to withdraw?

Thanks in advance,

Fast Eddie B. (Ed Benson - Mineral Bluff, GA)

The first time I signed up for tournaments, I was also suprised by how much my game load increased.

But different tournaments have different group sizes. For e.g.

Duels: one opponent (i.e. 2 games each round)
Threesomes: 2 opponents (i.e. 4 games per round)
etc.

You can check the group size under tournament details. If there is an odd number to the round, the size of any group can increase by one.

The winner of each group progresses to the next round. Since you've resigned the games, you won't progress.

Also, when entering tournaments, check the time controls or else you may find yourself in a 1/0 games when you like 7/14 games.

Originally posted by FastEddieB
I recently upped to a paid membership, and figured I'd try a tournament. I selected the "November 2010 Banded Hardcore Grand 1650-1750". I like to play no more than 4 or 5 games at a time and I figured, like a real tournament, I'd play one or at the most two games at a time.

Instead, I found about 40 (!) games to play at once in addition to 5 I had in ...[text shortened]... ny way to withdraw?

Thanks in advance,

Fast Eddie B. (Ed Benson - Mineral Bluff, GA)

Before you join a tournament look at the "Group Size" as this will tell you how many games you will receive.

Group Size 4 means you will be playing 3 other players and will get 6 games
Group Size 8 means you will be playing 7 other players and will get 14 games
Group Size 20 means you will be playing 19 other players and will get 38 games

Some tournaments will last several rounds, however if you progress you will not receive any further games until each group within the round is finalised.

Thanks guys - I'm wiser now.

My rating dropped from 1653 to 1349 when I resigned those 40 games or so.

Kinda disappointing, but I can now work on dragging it back up.

My only fear is that its a little unfair for people to judge my playing strength by that lower number - earned by my own fault at not understanding how some tournaments worked, not my real playing strength.

Oh, well - live and learn.

Originally posted by FastEddieB

2) The games I just resigned are all marked "Rnd.1". Does this tournament have more than one round and if so, is there any way to withdraw?

Thanks in advance,

Fast Eddie B. (Ed Benson - Mineral Bluff, GA)[/b]

You could have withdrawn by resigning the games before they are over 3 moves old. The games would then not have been included in your rating.
Look under 'Help', 'Tournaments' to see how they all work. The Hardcore Tournaments do carry a warning 'Only for the hardcore and vacation phobic'!.

You could have withdrawn by resigning the games before they are over 3 moves old. The games would then not have been included in your rating.

Wish I had known that.

Spilt milk and all that!

I regret that in such format (but also in the site championship) one has to play all opponents Black AND White. I mean, single round, 20 games would be enough to sort things ou properly, and would be enjoyable for more users.

As for the site championship: why the need to play 14 or so opponents B&W?
the Double gameload is exaggerated in large groups format.