pran Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Yes, I did find two articles on David's website. They were helpful to get a basic understanding, but I am now looking for something more. A few questions: 1) I am in the US where players are used to playing 2 or 3 boards per round (24-28 in a session) in club play, often in a Mitchell movement. I think that players (especially at the club level) enjoy the social aspect of frequently switching opponents. I think they would resist a change to Swiss Pairs if they played against only 4 opponents in a session. So, I am particularly interested in how efficiently Swiss Pairs can be run if there are something like 8 rounds of 3 boards each. Does the pairing time add significant time to the event? 2) For multiple session events, let's just focus on two sessions for simplicity, is there typically a qualifying session and a finals/consolation session? 3) I imagine that including a match element to the scoring helps to retain interest late in an event even for those that are apparently out of the running. But, there must still be some inclination to drop from an event if a pair is doing poorly. Does this something that is acceptable? I can remember times many years ago where it was routine for Swiss Team participants to drop from an event with a couple matches yet to be played. I have not seen this recently, but I wonder if this might be the case when there is not a "complete movement" that must be finished. 4) Is there "stratification" in Swiss Pairs? It is the way of the game in the US today. I understand I'm hijacking a thread, I hope no one minds. I can answer this based on Scandinavian experience (assuming "modern times" with computer scoring and pairing): 1: No, there will be no delay if the pairing in round 3 is based upon the stanza after round 1, round 4 based on round 2, and so on. No, there will probably not be any significant delay if this pairing is done for each round based upon the stanza after 95% of the boards in the last previous round (e.g. round 1 for round 2, round 2 for round 3 and so on) have been completed. Yes, some significant delay must be expected if the pairing is done after the last previous round has been completed. 2: Do as you like, we most often have two or more sessions effectively contiguous as one complete event. 3: I am not aware of this ever having been a problem with us. 4: I am unsure of what is meant by "stratification", but if it implies some compensation when a currently very high ranked pair is drawn against a currently very low ranked pair then this is not at all an issue here. The following points might be relevant in this connection: a: there is no masterpoints or similar for any individual round although an organizer sometimes offer gifts to round winners. b: seatings are always based on the accumulated (total) stanza at the time, not just on the results in the last completed round alone. c: Our scoring program appears very competent in optimal seating across the entire field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimG Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Does ACBLScore support Swiss Pairs? What software do you use with the BridgeMates? This software has the option of staggering the pairings or waiting until all boards are complete? Or, do you manually indicate when to start pairings? Are there minimum field sizes that make Swiss Pairs feasible? Or, small sizes that make a regular MP event a better option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pran Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Does ACBLScore support Swiss Pairs? What software do you use with the BridgeMates? This software has the option of staggering the pairings or waiting until all boards are complete? Or, do you manually indicate when to start pairings? Are there minimum field sizes that make Swiss Pairs feasible? Or, small sizes that make a regular MP event a better option?I have no idea about ACBLScore.We use Ruter (a Swedish program). Ruter allows us to draw (automatically) when last round is 95% completed, when last round is completed, or when previous round is completed. (We may even cancel an automatic draw and force a new draw manually at any time.) Number of rounds should be at least 8, exceed the number of prizes and preferably be between 20% and 40% of the number of contestants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted October 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Does ACBLScore support Swiss Pairs? What software do you use with the BridgeMates? This software has the option of staggering the pairings or waiting until all boards are complete? Or, do you manually indicate when to start pairings? Are there minimum field sizes that make Swiss Pairs feasible? Or, small sizes that make a regular MP event a better option?In the EBU we have used Jeff Smith's SwissPairsScorer for a number of years and are now taking it over as the rebranded EBUscore which is free to EBU affiliated clubs. We have the option at the start of specifying current-round assignments or round-in-arrears, but we manually select the moment at which to do the assignments so we can do it before everyone is finished if we want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimG Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 Ruter allows us to draw (automatically) when last round is 95% completed, when last round is completed, or when previous round is completed. (We may even cancel an automatic draw and force a new draw manually at any time.) Number of rounds should be at least 8, exceed the number of prizes and preferably be between 20% and 40% of the number of contestants.When you do 95% pairing, am I correct in assuming that the 95% of boards that have been played are scored for pairing purposes? At least 8 rounds? So, an evening of four seven-board rounds would not be desirable no matter the size of the field? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted October 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 I've run single-session Swiss Pairs in clubs and used 5x5-board rounds, which is a reasonable balance. It still takes longer than a normal 24/26 board game though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pran Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 When you do 95% pairing, am I correct in assuming that the 95% of boards that have been played are scored for pairing purposes?I do not know the algorithm in detail but observe that pairing is always done based on the total score percentage for each contestant involved at the time of the pairing. Thus different contestants might have their percentages based on different number of boards when 95% scoring is used. And again please be aware that I have no experience with 95% scoring, most of us here (including me) just don't like it. At least 8 rounds? So, an evening of four seven-board rounds would not be desirable no matter the size of the field?Correct. We do instead run 9 three-board rounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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