I’ve been to several clubs over the last couple of years, and I was interested to see that clubs have many different formats in determining their champion. How does your club determine its champion?
Here are the formats that I’ve seen.
Swiss System: This is the most common one I’ve seen, either a four or five round swiss played on club nights.
Pros: Anyone and everyone can play, short time commitment for tournament (four or five weeks), easily scheduled.
Cons: Short time commitment also means one outstanding player could play just the club championship, then not play the rest of the year, also usual drawbacks for a swiss system (some players schedules are easier, ties in large fields are probable)
Round Robin: This is the format that my old club had in CO. Nine months out of the year we had a sort of grand prix of all the rated events that we did, and the eight players who scored highest qualified for the eight-player round robin club championship.
Pros: Relative equality of schedule, games can be played in any order, gives players a chance to play in a RR.
Cons: Long time commitment (player who starts halfway through the year would probably have to wait til the following year).
Knockout: Players are ranked by rating and then play two-game matches a la March Madness (With sixteen players, #1 plays #16, the winner of which then plays the winner of #8 and #9). If tied, then the match goes to tie-break games (blitz).
Pros: Everyone can play. If a number is not a power of 2, then the top few players get byes in the first round. (With 23 players, seeds 1-9 get byes in the round of 32 while seeds 10-23 play). The knock-out format is exciting as the short matches and blitz playoffs can lead to upsets.
Cons: Some gross mismatches in the first round or two (1800 vs 1000). Players can be eliminated after playing only two games.
Challenger vs Champion: To be the champ, you gotta beat the champ. This format is similar to how the World Championships used to be conducted. The reigning champion received a bye to the final, and there were qualifying tournament(s) to determine a challenger. The champion and challenger would then play a match (four games in the club I saw, although I think six would be better).
Pros: The longer the match, the more likely the better player is to win. With a four or six game match, losing one game doesn’t sink your chances as much as a swiss or knockout.
Cons: Match can be dull if one player is head and shoulders above the other. Club needs an activity for other players while the championship match is going on.
My personal favorite is the round robin that we had. Most players don’t have the chance to play RRs, (except quads), and it was fun playing and preparing for one. The Grand Prix system worked a nice medium, a player had to stay fairly active in order to be in the top 8, but it wasn’t necessary to play every single week and event to make it.
Which format does your club use? Does anybody use a different one other than those I mentioned? Which format do you prefer? How big (# of active players) is your club, and do you think that would change your answer?
The format that worked well for the Lincoln Chess Club during the years I ran the event was a 3 or 4 round Swiss which was used to seed several round robin flights. We’d play one game a week for about two months.
Our club at Borders in Monroeville, Pa. uses the Swiss System. The championship is played over four Wed. in May. It is the largest event we hold and is unrated so that everyone can participate. The swiss is best to fit our needs.
Many years ago when I was a teenager, I competed in the Pittsburgh Chess Club Ch. At that time the format used was a round robin. The tournament was contested over 9 weeks. The club’s top six rated players, the previous year’s champion, the club junior champion, and two qualifiers from a preliminary tournament made up the list. It was a tough event, especially for the qualifiers. Several city and state champions were in the mix. I liked this format very much. It taught me the depth to which one could prepare for an individual opponent and really motivated me to study in ways that a swiss system would not. Probably would not have tried as hard to become a master had I not played in this and other round robin events.
In Peoria, Illinois we have a two level round robin type of event.
We usually have at least ten or twelve people that qualify to play the championship through various qualifying events throughout the year and a few are invited because of rating, to fill in the numbers.
The initial group is broken into 2 separate groups, with equal rating balance between the two groups.
The two groups each play a round robin giving a winner from each group that would then play a mini-match for the championship.
My club has a Swiss for the club championship (5 rounds) and a Round Robin for the traveling Knights Cup. Any member can play in the Swiss. Throughout the year there is a ladder (one game counting per ladder night) and Knights is filled with the top eight available on the ladder, with the second eight going into the Squires and a 5-round Swiss available for anybody else (pair only those that show up). The new ladder season starts as soon as the Swiss is over, so the people that aren’t playing in the round robins get a 2-week jump on the new ladder season (generally 35-37 ladder weeks in the year).
The round robin aids in making the ladder games more important, and also satisfied the RR-event requirement for four different TDs looking at moving up to ANTD.