How do you run your ladder?

[KeithAmmann]

@jwiewel

Our weekly club ladder (runs almost 40 weeks each ladder year with one ladder game/point availabe to a player on each such night) uses 1 vs 2 pairings with a proviso that you cannot be repaired against an opponent unless you’ve each had four different ladder nights against other players since you last played each other (drops to two in the final two months). Only the players that show up are paired (and are thus able to get game points on the ladder) and a no-show is not counted in the four (or two) nights. Strong players joining in the middle of the year may have a number of rabbit-hunt nights, but can work their way to the difficult upper reaches of the ladder in a failry reasonable time. Each year the ladder restarts with everybody having zero games and game points.

This is interesting. I never thought to try running a ladder this way. What we do, and what I’ve seen elsewhere, is allow lower-ranked players to challenge higher-ranked players, starting from the bottom and moving upward. Are there any other ways to run a ladder?

[Brian_Mottershead]

@anjiaoshi

@jwiewel

Our weekly club ladder (runs almost 40 weeks each ladder year with one ladder game/point availabe to a player on each such night) uses 1 vs 2 pairings with a proviso that you cannot be repaired against an opponent unless you’ve each had four different ladder nights against other players since you last played each other (drops to two in the final two months). Only the players that show up are paired (and are thus able to get game points on the ladder) and a no-show is not counted in the four (or two) nights. Strong players joining in the middle of the year may have a number of rabbit-hunt nights, but can work their way to the difficult upper reaches of the ladder in a failry reasonable time. Each year the ladder restarts with everybody having zero games and game points.

This is interesting. I never thought to try running a ladder this way. What we do, and what I’ve seen elsewhere, is allow lower-ranked players to challenge higher-ranked players, starting from the bottom and moving upward. Are there any other ways to run a ladder?

1 versus 2 pairings with repairing possible after N rounds is the “Australian Draw” system, which is very similar to a ladder tournament, except that in a ladder tournament, players do not have to participate in every round.

[MichaelAtkins]

Towson Chess Club in the 1970’s had a ladder board. Slots held names from positions 1 to about 90. You could challenge someone up to 5 spaces above you. From what i remember, you took someone’s place if you beat them, with them moving down 1-2 places. A loss kept positions the same and I think a draw moved the lower person up one space. You could only refuse to play someone once, the next refusal would result in changing a position with the refuser moving down a slot or two. It was not USCF rated at the time, but would be now.

It then morphed into a ladder based on ratings, with everyone starting out at 1500. The rating was modeled on the old USCF Postal rating system with +/- 50 being the maximum change per game based on difference in ratings.

Many ways to skin a ladder so to speak

[jwiewel]

@MichaelAtkins

…
Many ways to skin a ladder so to speak

We used to have a pyramid (1 spot on the top row, 2 on the second, etc.) and you could challenge up a step (the lower steps were often populated by the less active players so the additional challenge options were needed to have a decent chance of actually having somebody available to challenge). That was replaced by our current system. A ratings ladder predated both of them.

You are right that there are many ways to skin a ladder, but there is only one correct way. Of course, that one correct way happens to be the one that works best in the situation, so there all sorts of very different setups around the country and it is likely that each is the “one correct way” for its site at that particular time.