Team Pairing Restrictions - Only If Necessary

Running Chess Tournaments
1

Does someone (Tom?) happen to know the details behind the WinTD Only If Necessary team pairing restriction?

Do most of you use that setting? Is that the one used at scholastic nationals?

2

Based on what I’ve seen, it will transpose extensively within a score group to avoid pairing teammates, almost as if it is a little weaker than avoiding rematches (it won’t break up a score group).

I’m not sure about most, but I do. Scholastic events often have a team component and thus the players and coaches can have a very strong opposition to teammates being paired with each other but will generally accept it when it is pointed out that more than half of the score group is from one team.

Pair teammates=No or pair teammates only above a certain score can be seen at the nationals. Those will break up score groups to avoid such pairings.
3

I assume Nationals would be using “No” and then overriding to allow teammate pairings at or above 6(?) points. In either case (“Only if Necessary” or “At or Above X”) it reduces teammate pairing from an absolute no, requiring breaking score groups if necessary, to not breaking score groups, but also doing whatever is possible otherwise to avoid pairing teammates. For instance, if a score group had

Alfred (1800,TEAMAC,due White)
Betty (1750,TEAMB,due Black)
Cam (1700,TEAMAC,due Black)
Doris (1650,TEAMD,due White)

and it was pair teammates only if necessary, Alfred would play Doris and Betty would play Cam even though it mucks up the colors. If one of those pairings was a repeat, then it would interchange to have Alfred play Betty and Cam play Doris. Only if there was no other way to pair the four without a repeat would Alfred play Cam.

4

Your example is interesting. Why would WinTD not pair Alfred-Betty and Doris-Cam (which is the result of an interchange of Betty and Cam) even if Alfred-Dors and Betty-Cam (result of transposing Cam and Doris) did not constitute a rematch? That’s the only pairing of the score group that gives everybody due color and does not pair team mates.

5

Actually with standard settings it would depend upon whether colors were due for equalization or alternation. With the former, it would, in fact, do the interchange to get the colors right and avoid the teammate pairing. With alternation, it wouldn’t.

6

As an additional note to “B”: “Scholastic events often have a team component and thus the players and coaches can have a very strong opposition to teammates being paired with each other…”

I would add that the opposition to pairing teammates works two ways: 1) The coach of (in particular) a leading team may feel that it is holding the team back from scoring additional points and 2) Opposing coaches/teams who are trying to catch such a team may be concerned that the team is guaranteed points by pairing its members, whereas that team might lose all such games if they were paired against non-team opponents.
7

Okay, that’s helpful. I should have more clearly worded part B of my original question. Let me try this rephrase: in a scholastic event with team prizes in which you’ve determined that you will avoid pairings of teammates but you don’t want to have an absolute ban on teammate pairings (i.e. if with 2 rounds to go you’ve got 4 undefeated kids all from the same team you are going to pair them and let them duke it out rather than break up the score group and pair them all down), which WinTD option do you typically use/prefer? At least in Utah, people care about team prizes, but they care about the individual quite a bit more. Jeff’s comment would apply to Utah, i.e. coaches will complain if teammates are paired but they’ll back down if it’s because more than half the score group is from their team. I think we’ve typically used the Only if Necessary setting in WinTD but I’m asking for the experience/opinions of others.
8

I suggest reading at estima.com/chess/wintdhelp/inde … tents.html

I’ve personally always liked the 28N2 or 28N1 variants, and in those situations from the choices of “Yes”, “No”, “Only As Necessary” - once chooses “No” but then put the trigger score in the Pair Teammates At or Above box in the Pair a Round Dialog Box.
9

I like to use 28N1. Set the Pair Teammates dialog setting to “No”, but put in the appropriate trigger score in the “Pair Teammates At or Above” dialog box so that the computer will not pair teammates in +1 or lower score groups, but for +2 or higher score groups it will not go out of score group to avoid a teammate vs. teammate pairing. There is no such trigger score for rounds one and two. For round three use “2”, for round four use “2.5”, and for round five use “3”.

This all assumes that you have both team and individual prizes. If your event has only team prizes, then just don’t pair teammates no matter what.
10

What does +2.5 mean?

Alex Relyea

11

Not +2.5. 2.5 points.

12

Oh. Does WinTD force you to set that manually each round? That seems annoying.

Alex Relyea

13

Yes, it has to be set manually each round. It takes no more than a few seconds, so it’s not really a problem.

14

It is not a problem if the user remembers to do it. Having to tinker with settings before each round does not feel “natural” to me, but obviously others’ mileage may vary.

15

When you tell WinTD to pair the round the dialog box for this pops up in your face, so it’s pretty hard to "forget " to do it.

16

You are better at this than am I, Gunga Din. I’m sure I could most competently demonstrate how to “forget” to change the setting.

17

The best method to use by far is leave the “pair teammates=no” setting and set the number of points to pair teammates at or above. I’ve personally had to do this in both rounds 6 and 7 at previous national scholastics and it is the easiest way to keep teammates from playing each other at point levels below what is needed at the top of the standings to allow the tournament to determine an individual winner.

18

I agree. It would be nice to be able to set it at the beginning of the tournament.

19

Hey guys, this really isn’t rocket science here. You set it at “2” for round 3, and then set it for half a point higher each succeeding round. You can’t forget to attend to this because you have to do something with the dialog box before you can pair the round. While nothing can be made fool proof - fools are far too clever for that - this comes pretty close.

20

I understand its not rocket science. I also understand that as get I older, a momentary distraction can - and has - caused me to miss something that is un-missable. Being able to set it all at once when I am focused would make that simpler.

Tonight I needed to stop by the grocery store and pick up apples. The grocery story is a half block from my house, and I have to drive by it to go home. As I turned the corner, 500 feet from the grocery store I thought about the apples. Then I thought about something I needed to share with my surgeon about my recovery from some semi-recent surgery. The next thing I knew my garage door was going up and I was about to pull in - and realized I had forgotten the apples. I don’t think that makes me a fool, although it does mean that at my current age I can’t multi-task the way I did earlier - and I haven’t learned to keep my focus.

I doubt I’m the only TD capable of this issue.