Q: Predicting number of simultaneous games

I'm new here so maybe this should be obvious. If so, please just point me to the place where I can figure it out.

The tournaments look interesting and exciting and I'd like to play, but on the sign-up page, e.g. for the Gamma Quickfire Midi Duel there is a warning that Playing in tournaments will significantly increase your number of active games. Not knowing how significant the increase would be, I decided I ought to check the forums. I did find one post that mentioned 16 new games appearing suddenly. Is that the standard? Does it vary and if so, what determines the variation?

So far, I've been playing 8-12 games at a time and that doesn't seem like a bad number. I suppose I could probably handle a few more without dropping off my level of play too badly, but I'm not yet convinced I want to triple it. I've seen players with 40, 50 or even more than 100 simultaneous games going, but so far the ones I've seen doing that seem to suffer from inattention. I'd like to bring my level of play up, not down. (And I don't mean my ating I mean my level of play.)

Is there some item on the tournament page that will let me figure this out? Does group size determine this? If so, by what formula?

Thanks.
Paul

To figure out how many new games you're going to get, take a look at the "Group size" column for the tournament. You will be playing two games against each player in your group.

Fore example, if the group size is 2, you would be playing 2 games (the group would consist of just you and another member).

If the group size is 4, then your group would consist of you and three other members - you would be playing two games against each of those three members, which means 3*2 = 6 games.

So you can calculate the number of games you are going to receive by the formula: (Group size - 1) * 2

EDIT: Seeing that you're new here, and haven't yet joined a clan, I recommend taking a look at this thread:
http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?id=8513

I'd gladly welcome you to the Hardcore Pawn Stars, only since I see that you tend to use 1.e4, that would mean a little foray into new opening territory for you... 🙂

-Jarno

Thanks, Pyrrho. So a tourney with a groupsize of 2 means only adding 2 additional games? That sounds like it might not be too onerous.

I think I'll put off any serious search for a clan for a little longer while I get my bearings. Yes, my opening repertoire is pretty limited at the moment. The 24 games I have finished or have in progress in the 4 weeks since I joined this site are at least as many games as the total number of games I played in the preceding 38 years, so I have to work my way back into that too.🙂 I plan to work on it gradually. Right now, my memory of what I used to know is pretty weak.

Also, the reason that I'm here in the first place is that a couple of my clanmates from a different forum (for a different game) decided to look for a good online chess site to play each other. One of them found this site, I got dragged kicking and screaming into the fray😲 and now we have 5 of us playing here. I'm the only one who has paid so far, but we may soon get enough to form a branch of that clan on this site. 😀 (I do have to say that I am rediscovering the reasons I used to love chess so much.)

Paul

Originally posted by prn
Thanks, Pyrrho. So a tourney with a groupsize of 2 means only adding 2 additional games? That sounds like it might not be too onerous.

I think I'll put off any serious search for a clan for a little longer while I get my bearings. Yes, my opening repertoire is pretty limited at the moment. The 24 games I have finished or have in progress in the 4 weeks since ...[text shortened]... (I do have to say that I am rediscovering the reasons I used to love chess so much.)

Paul

Yup, onerous or not, groupsize 2 means only 2 new games poping up to your games list. 🙂 (of course, the numbers we are talking about are games / round in the tournament.)

I think, by the way, that your friends dragged you kicking and screaming to the right place... 🙂 Abosolutely the best chess playing site on the web that I've found!

-Jarno

I agree that this is a great site! Absolutely. By the way, how long overall does a tournament usually run? With a 1 day timeout and 64 players it sounds likelly to take a while. But a 1 day timeout means that you can't leave town for a weekend without running into trouble and over the course of months ...

Thanks
Paul

Originally posted by prn
I agree that this is a great site! Absolutely. By the way, how long overall does a tournament usually run? With a 1 day timeout and 64 players it sounds likelly to take a while. But a 1 day timeout means that you can't leave town for a weekend without running into trouble and over the course of months ...

Thanks
Paul

Tournaments in general last the average lifetime of a chess player. 🙄

Or that's how it feels - the first tournament I joined on the site has yet to make it to round 2. It started last September, and has 256 participants with 7 day timeout games. Still 3 games to go till round two. 🙁

The smaller the tournament though, the larger the group size, and the smaller the timeout period, the faster the tournament will finish.

A 1 day tournament without timebank would indeed mean that you must pretty much be able to play on a daily basis for a while or risk being timed out. The automatic timeout that applies to tournaments kicks in a couple of days after you've gone past your time limit though, so if your opponent isn't too eager to claim a timeout manually, then you might get away with a weekend break.... 🙂

-Jarno

prn, if ur looking to improve ur play, i might reccommend "My System" by Aron Nimzowtsch. It's the bible to any novice player (and many not so novice 😉)

🙂¬~