We run unrated scholastic tournaments, and they’re usually five-round, all-day events with one or two byes allowed. I’m wondering if there are formats that would work well for a three-game, half-day event.
What would be a good way to structure and pair something like that? Anyone done something similar? Obviously, we’re not looking to identify the best players; we’re looking to do something that lets more casual kid players have a taste of the tournament experience and get to play some kids outside their own clubs.
What I think you’re looking for is a ‘quad’. Its’ very much a single round robin with 4 people. How you would do the pairings would be on page 294 (Official Rules of Chess, 5th edition). Quads work great if you have 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 ect., in the event. What is a quad, is having 4 players in the same section. The members will all play one game with each other.
Since its’ just casual kid players and its’ not going to be rated. Just make sure the players do not meet each other in the following tournament. Since you’re going to have a number of them, just keep a record of the players meeting each other and form the quad so the same children do not get the same colors over again.
Quads are a good idea if you are doing things by hand – there are pre-made wallchart forms (well, there used to be, and they are easy enough to recreate), and all have to do is post the pairings. If you are using a computer, hexes or octos (6- or 8-player three-round swisses) are just as fast and a little more flexible. (Having one player drop out of a quad is disastrous, but with six or eight you can usually work around it. Also, it is easier to accomodate a number of players not divisible by four with a swiss.)