Swiss System Experience.

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3 total messages Started by Roy Mongiovi Wed, 15 Jan 1986 03:02

#239

Author: Roy Mongiovi
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1986 03:02

21 lines
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Just this weekend I played in my first tournament in 10 years: the
1986 Atlanta Winter Congress.  There were 63 or so players there,
ranging from unrated to 2583.  My rating was a very rusty 1620.

In round 1 I was black against a 2250 rated player and lost.
In round 2 I was white against an unrated player and won.
In round 3 I was black against the 2530 player (bad first game) and lost.
In round 4 I was white against a 1288 rated player and won.
In round 5 I was black against a 1901 rated player and lost.

I feel sort of cheated because I didn't find out a thing about my current
rating (at least as far as I can tell).  It's greater than 1300 and less
than 1900.  Gee, I knew that before the tournament.

It this sort of thing typical of the Swiss system, or did I just "luck" out?
Is this why everyone hates the Swiss?
									Roy
-- 
Roy J. Mongiovi.	Office of Computing Services.		User Services.
Georgia Institute of Technology.	Atlanta GA  30332.	(404) 894-6163
 ...!{akgua, allegra, amd, hplabs, ihnp4, masscomp, ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!roy

Re: Swiss System Experience.

#243

Author: Chedley Aouriri
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1986 14:50

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> I feel sort of cheated because I didn't find out a thing about my current
> rating (at least as far as I can tell).  It's greater than 1300 and less
> than 1900.  Gee, I knew that before the tournament.
> 
> Is this sort of thing typical of the Swiss system, or did I just "luck" out?
> Is this why everyone hates the Swiss?
> 									Roy
> -- 

You can compute your new rating after the tournament, and find out
your current rating. So, playing a swiss tournament tells you much
more about your current strength  relatively to the other players.
Besides, I think an Open Swiss tournament is the only place where
a rusty rated player (1600) have a chance to play National,
International or Grand chess Masters.
Since the surest way to improve in chess is to play stronger
opponents, I think the Swiss system is a very good school of chess
for low and medium rated players (up to 2200).
For this very reason, it is not very liked by higher rated players,
because that's where they run the highest risk of being upset by
a lower rated pawn-pusher.
Few years ago, when I was a 1650 rated chess player, I played a
crazy swiss tournament : I won against a 2430, and draw a 2250,
but lost against a 1970 and an unrated player!!
______________
Chedley Aouriri, ITT-ATC, Shelton,CT.
....ittatc!ittvax!aouriri

Re: Yo-yoing the Swiss

#246

Author: Col. G. L. Sicherman
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1986 17:46

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> It this sort of thing typical of the Swiss system, or did I just "luck" out?
> Is this why everyone hates the Swiss?

It's an obvious drawback.  At one U.S. Open I yo-yoed for 12 rounds,
winning with White against weak players in the odd rounds, and losing
with Black against masters in the even rounds.  In New York state,
organizers often deal with overstuffed tournaments by using quarter-
pairings--a technique introduced (I think) by W. Dobrich of Toronto.
In the first 2 rounds the top quarter of each group is paired with
the 2nd quarter, and the 3rd quarter with the bottom quarter.  This
works well; I've used it myself.

	"To a Knight the chessboard presents the aspect of a densely
	 wooded forest."  --F. K. Young, _Minor Tactics of Chess_
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
CS: colonel@buffalo-cs
BI: csdsicher@sunyabva

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