Using tournament breaks

[paulg]

Hi

 

I am assisting an SBU Virtual Club prepare a large Swiss Pairs tournament - eight rounds with a 30 minute break after four rounds. I believe putting the following in the description will do this:

 

+break4+ +bduration=30+

 

I've only seen breaks mentioned when using Howells so I just wanted to confirm a couple of points:

• that it will work on a regular pairs event using the Swiss format?
• will this work for any tournament director or does it need to be enabled?

Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[squeezergb]

It did not work in a 'clocked' non-howell event when I tried it 3 or 4 weeks ago.

[gordontd]

I've been told when I asked that these only work for Howells.

[pgrice]

Can't help with the question of who is permitted to do what ... but I played in a Swiss Pairs hosted by Bedford Bridge Association that used the +break3+ hack There were 16 tables and 6 x 6-board rounds with a break after 3 rounds. The time allocated for round 3 was increased to create the "break". We had 6 different opponents. About half the field played the same pair twice, at least 1 pair had two rematches! Other than rematches, things just worked.

[paulg]

Can't help with the question of who is permitted to do what ... but I played in a Swiss Pairs hosted by Bedford Bridge Association that used the +break3+ hack There were 16 tables and 6 x 6-board rounds with a break after 3 rounds. The time allocated for round 3 was increased to create the "break". We had 6 different opponents. About half the field played the same pair twice, at least 1 pair had two rematches! Other than rematches, things just worked.

I spoke to the BBA and they confirmed that +break3+ did not work and it is only for Howells. They added time to round 3 and told a table not to play trick 13.

 

Many thanks for the pointer to a Virtual Club running Swiss Pairs.

[mycroft]

I guess alternatively, you could add the time to round 4. Those that take the break, get it before round 4; those that don't, get it after (and gripe about how slow the rest of the room is, just like IRL).

[Vampyr]

Can't help with the question of who is permitted to do what ... but I played in a Swiss Pairs hosted by Bedford Bridge Association that used the +break3+ hack There were 16 tables and 6 x 6-board rounds with a break after 3 rounds. The time allocated for round 3 was increased to create the "break". We had 6 different opponents. About half the field played the same pair twice, at least 1 pair had two rematches! Other than rematches, things just worked.

 

Is it possible to specify no rematches? (Also, how are the pairings done, since I doubt BBO converts the MPs to VPs).

[paulg]

Is it possible to specify no rematches? (Also, how are the pairings done, since I doubt BBO converts the MPs to VPs).

You cannot currently specify no rematches.

 

There is no conversion to victory points. It is more like what the Scandinavians call Barometer Pairs, so the pairings are done based on your current 'raw' score (either matchpoints or cross imps, depending on what you've chosen).

[mycroft]

I'm sure the effort to convert each "match" to VPs on the ACBL 20 point scale (sorry, Barry's in 30-land, i.e. "Win-Loss, with director tie-breaks", right?) will be well appreciated.

 

Yes, this is a joke.