I am starting some tournaments in my area and have determined quads to be the best option for a 3-round, one-day event. Now I need to figure out prizes, but all the TLAs I find say the EF and $xx.xx to 1st in each quad, or something similar. Given that quads often turn into swisses or quads+a swiss due to turnout, what does that mean for prizes? I’ve never played in one. Is it common practice/understood that a 5-7-person swiss (as the bottom section in quads, or the only section if not enough players) will have only one prize available?
For example, a common setup is: EF is $20, 1st in each quad gets $40. With 19 participants (3 quads + 1 swiss with seven people), would I just give $40 to first in all sections, including the swiss? Or should I offer a second place prize in the swiss as well? What is usually done?
First, I would normally have a house player (worst case me) so that there is an even number. So the bottom section might have 6 players. I would add a class prize of $20 for the bottom three rated players. Then that section would be returning the same percentage of entry fees in prizes as the quads.
Well, the first bit of advice (which I’m sure you have already heard) is try like heck to have an even number of players. Having five players in a three round swiss is really unfortunate, since a majority of the players will have full point byes. Having seven players in a three round swiss is marginally better, but you will still have three full point byes for seven players (a significant minority). Really, really try to move heaven and earth to find that odd number of players. Consider playing in the event yourself, if need be, or if you are planning to play, consider not playing in the event if there will be an odd number of players.
Having said all that, there’s no hard and fast rule concerning what to do about prizes. If you have a six (or seven) player swiss, since you were advertising 50% of the quad entry fees as prizes, I’d strongly suggest adding a second prize that is half as large as the prize for first place in the quad. (You’re taking in an additional half [or three quarters] of a quad’s worth of entry fees, so it seems reasonable to pay out half that in prizes.)
If you end up with a five player swiss, and you have bulldozed heaven and earth without being able to find another player, I don’t think I would add a second prize.
It might be tempting to run a five-player round robin if you have five players. Be careful, though – even though each player would face four opponents, you will need a total of five rounds, not four. Think of it this way – one player must sit out each round, and there are five players. (You would use the six player round robin table, and the player who would normally be paired against player number 6 would instead sit out that round.) This is unlikely to work unless you have very low rated players who are likely to finish quickly; even then, you would have to get all the players to agree to playing five rounds, and you’d probably have to shorten the time control as well (again, with unanimous consent).
Finally, you should impress on your players that withdrawing from a quad brings on extremely bad karma.
Tom posted his reply while I was writing my lengthy answer. I agree wholeheartedly with his advice about having an even number of players, but I’m not at all sure I agree with making the additional prize a class prize for which only the bottom three players are eligible. I think I strongly prefer a second place prize for which all six players are eligible.
In the quads I’ve seen where cash prizes were awarded, the procedure Ken described was used.
You also need to familiarize yourself with how prizes are awarded in the event of ties. For quads, it’s simply a matter of dividing the prize money equally between or among the winners (keep in mind that 2-way, 3-way, and even 4-way ties can occur). For 6-player swisses, you can have a tie for 1st place, or you can have a single 1st place winner but a tie for 2nd place.
If you use yourself as a house player, put yourself in the section dictated by your rating, rather than in the bottom section. The latter would be unfair to the other players in the bottom section.
If, despite all efforts, you end up with a 5-player section, you can run that section as a free-for-all round robin, giving each player 4 games. Decide all the colors in advance, so that everybody will have two whites and two blacks. A common scheme is “both odd or both even, larger number has white; odd vs even, smaller number has white”. (For example, 3 has white against 1, but 2 has white against 5.) Start two of the games. As soon as one game finishes, ask one of the players in that game to immediately begin his game with the player who is sitting out. As soon as another game finishes, ask one of those players to begin with the player now sitting out, etc.
This free-for-all method will generally work well in the bottom quad, because lower-rated players tend to finish quickly. And, free-for-all gets the section finished faster than the “normal” procedure of waiting for both games to finish before starting another round.
Thank you, Everyone, for your quick replies! And thanks especially to Ken for providing so much detail. I will probably go with a $25 EF, paying out $50 to first in all sections and $25 to second in a swiss with 6-7 players. And I am working on a way to ensure an even number every time.
