Adding a break mid-tournament?

[Ailfionn]

Is it possible to set up a tournament with a 'mid-session interval'? Some of our older members find concentrating online to be more difficult and I thought it might be a good idea to add, say, a 5 min break after a set number of rounds.

 

I've looked through the forums but can't find any reference to doing this, though I think it'd be a common requirement

[paulg]

Traditionally, by which I mean before March, the concept of taking a break in the middle of a tournament and not playing bridge relentlessly was strongly disliked and disapproved of by the BBO playing public. The influx of more traditional club players striving for a like-for-like replacement of their club playing environment has seen more calls for new BBO features. Unfortunately it is not a time for minor features to be added so I doubt we'll see something for this.

 

However you could just add minutes to one round. For example, if a round is normally 16 minutes for two boards, add another 5-10 minutes and tell people to take the break BEFORE starting play in the round. As the round finishes when everyone has completed the boards, it doesn't work to take the break at the end.

 

After the round has finished you can reset the round time back to normal.

[Ailfionn]

Thanks for your response, Paul (and all the very helpful videos!)

[pescetom]

Taking a break HAS been added by BBO.

 

You just add +break4+ for a break after round 4 (or whatever) and +bduration=10+ for a break of 10 minutes (or whatever).

[EDIT: as pointed out below, this works with +howell+ only]

 

However it froze on me the other day, so I suggest you follow the related thread (under BBO Tournament Directors Forum) before experimenting further..

[squeezergb]

Firstly for the other Paul G's suggestion. A downside to this is that if you make the round longer the cut off time after which the last board in round is not allowed to be played also gets greater. So if you have 7 mins-a-board but make it 10 this round so you have a 6 minute break it actually means that when you start playing with 14 minutes to go you have to play the first board quicker than you would in a straight 14 minute round to be able to play the second board.

 

With the +break6+ and +bduration=5+ hack these only work in Howells. It would save the TD so much work if ut could be added to 'clocked' Mitchells. Almost every club I run wants a break and it is such a hassle in clocked events