Hi - I’m playing the US Open, but have never done so previously. I’m wondering (1) when the pairings are posted before each round, and (2) if they are posted to the internet. Many thanks for hopefully taking the time to answer.
I dunno about the US Open.
But here near Seattle, at a recent major chess tournament, all the pairings were posted on nwchess.com.
I cannot remember exactly, but I think the technique was to feed an output of SwissSys into a little custom program that created plain HTML, which was then simply uploaded before the round.
Anyone with a smartphone (hand-held computer?) could thus bypass the crushing crowd around the pairings sheet taped to the wall.
I would have expected by now that SwissSys could output the pairings info as well formatted HTML sections or pages? Does it?
At a CCA event in Las Vegas in December 2012, we received a text message telling us our pairing for the next round.
For the evening schedule (which is the one I always play), the pairings usually go up about an hour before the round - so around 6:00 PM for the 7:00 PM round. Some years I have seen them go up earlier, 1.5 or even 2 hours before the round. Note that pairings may be delayed for round 7, which is the round where all of the schedules merge.
My experience has been that pairings are posted on the internet but not always in a timely manner. So, if you’re coming from off site each day and want to check pairings on the web, it’s not a guarantee that you’ll find them up in time to do preparation at home.
– Hal Terrie (Chair, U.S. Open Committee)
Mr. Terrie - I have a question. What do you think of the idea of pairing the traditional schedule ASAP (if not at the conclusion of an evening’s round, by, say, 10am or so the next day)?
Rationale: I don’t think withdrawals are as big a risk at the US Open as they are in other events. And, of course, the earlier pairings would give more time for preparation, which should help make for better chess, especially among the stronger players.
Caveats: Having never worked the back room of a US Open, I don’t know what organizational issues might prevent this. I could also be woefully underestimating how many late or last-minute withdrawals occur in that schedule. And, of course, an exception would have to be made for any rounds where other schedules merge into the traditional schedule (which I think is just round 7 this year).
Thanks for your time.
Half point byes may be requested up to two hours before the round (and all before round four). The four-day re-entry option means that withrawal/re-entry can be done even after round five. About four hours in advance of round six might be the earliest the traditional schedule could be paired. The round seven merge means that even one hour in advance might not be meetable. Rounds eight and nine would have the highest risk of withdrawals affecting the pairings.
At the National Open in June there were a number of last-minute Saturday re-entries, so the morning round could not have been firmly paired the night before. We did Sunday morning pairings on Saturday night and we had to re-pair at least half of the sections on Sunday morning. The US Open’s single section structure means that any withdrawal can cause a re-pairing.
My memory is that local players actually are legitimate withdrawal risks, and even out-of-towners might be if they can change their travel plans (heck, the one National Open I actually played in I was suffering from a cold and withdrew before round six - though I did let them know at the start of round five, and I spent that evening with my wife at one of the shows).
I thought there was one US Open that had to have its final round re-paired less than hour before it was to be played, and that was due to a GM withdrawal that caused a cascade effect through almost every scoregroup.
The year before the Philadelphia US Open the sole leader of the unrated class received a final round forfeit win against his no-show expert opponent.
My memory is that the US Open, due to the (relatively) small prizes in comparison to the expenses, is less susceptible to a craze of re-entries than other large events. It is not all that likely that late bye requests would be made by anyone on the top 20 boards or so, and it’s those players who can use preparation time more than any others.
I would not expect that the seventh round could be paired very far in advance; I believe I mentioned this as a caveat. I don’t know how many players typically drop out of the US Open early; I figured Mr. Terrie might have a better idea, as he attends all of them and currently chairs the tournament committee.
Again, the primary purpose of pairing early would be to allow the top players more prep time. Such players are unlikely to drop out.
This can be covered with a “subject to change” disclaimer in the page header and footer.
This has happened in big tournaments before. There’s no way to prevent something like this, absent a very tough policy regarding withdrawals. Again, though, I imagine this is quite rare. And I don’t think this particular issue, by itself, warrants not pairing early.
I would love to see this but in practical terms, I don’t think it would work out - unless they were labeled as projected pairings only for information purposes. In practice, even with pairings posted an hour before the round, there are frequently issues that force a repair. That happened several times last year - pairings posted at 6:00 PM were taken down at 6:30 for a repair.
You can try to set strict rules for byes or withdrawals but what are you going to do when some bonehead calls half an hour before the round and says he can’t make it tonight? Just stick his opponent with the forfeit win? If time is available, you do the repair. What else can you do? You can’t have house players standing by for every conceivable score group and rating.
The online crosstables are usually updated by early in the day, so it is possible to figure out - within a certain range - who your likely opponents are. That’s usually enough to guide your preparation, even if you have to study 3-4 players. There is time for that.
– Hal Terrie
I suspected something like this would be the answer I would get. And I think both you and Mr. Wiewel are correct in that it’s likely not practical.
I was just thinking of the FIDE Open at last year’s London Chess Classic. Pairings were done the night before each round. Very civilized. I know it’s not possible to do it with more than one round a day. The US Open, having a traditional schedule, seemed possible. But unless the tournament took a “hard deadline, no exceptions” approach on things like withdrawals and half point byes, this idea probably doesn’t work. Unfortunately, this approach would be at odds with current practice in the US for larger tournaments, so it’s probably not doable.
Thanks for your time.
Don’t forget, however, Article C.04.1.F.6 of the FIDE handbook:
There is no “repairing” in a FIDE Swiss.
I didn’t forget it, but I don’t think it forbids re-pairing.
I suspect this rule depends largely on the interpretation of “officially made public”. One round of the tournament I mentioned was re-paired after pairings were posted (a requested bye was not marked in Swiss Master). I’ve paired a number of FIDE swisses for CCA, and put up early pairings with “Subject to change” on them that have indeed changed. And there have been a number of FIDE swisses in the US (including US Opens) that have had individual rounds re-paired multiple times. The 2013 World Open provided a few examples of this in the Open section.
Of course, since this year’s US Open is not FIDE rated, that is not a concern. Unfortunately, for reasons previously enumerated, early pairings are likely not possible.
The use of FIDE pairing systems for FIDE rated or FIDE norm events is not required. The pairings chapter in the FIDE handbook is part of C) General Rules and Recommendations for Tournaments, none of which is required, including C4) FIDE Swiss Rules and C5) FIDE Tournament Rules. Organizers may hold FIDE rated or FIDE norm tournaments without using any of these rules, so there is no problem with revising pairings after they are posted.
The FIDE rules that are mandatory for FIDE rated and FIDE norm events are called E) I. Laws of chess.
Bill Goichberg
Yes but remember that B.01 and B.02 in terms of regulations also applies for rated and norm events that must be followed.
The 2013 US Open is not the 2012 London Classic. No reason to make a comparison, especially as the 2013 US Open is not to be FIDE rated.
Larry S. Cohen
The idea was not to directly compare the two events. The idea was more to point out that events with one round per day have an easier time making advance pairings. I could just as well have cited almost any European festival-style event.
Or non-European events such as the Canadian Open, happening just a days drive away from Madison… sites.google.com/site/ottawache … -open-2013