Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

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Gordon Cadden
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Gordon Cadden » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:21 pm

Played in the Isle of Man tournament, back in 1991. Julian Hodgson was the strongest player competing.
The prize money was good, but nowhere near the 50K range. Stewart Reuben was the Controller.
Michael Adams will be struggling with this kind of competition.

Graham Borrowdale
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Graham Borrowdale » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:49 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Graham Borrowdale wrote:
So what happened to that waiting list? :roll:
Good point. That was detailed here (back in June):

http://iominternationalchess.com/news-m ... losed.html
Alan Ormsby wrote:"There are 28 players on the reserve list who have completed an entry form and are hoping for a place to become available in the Masters. In addition, there is a reserve list for conditions if players to whom I’ve offered conditions have to withdraw."
It makes no comment on how players will be selected from the reserve lists if places become available. Picking the highest rated player on the list wouldn't be an unreasonable selection method.
I was not being into entirely serious!
If the world champion wants to play I expect most organisers of opens would find a way to squeeze him in.

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Thu Sep 14, 2017 12:50 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: Is this pairing method new, or was it done this way in previous years?
It's new as of this year.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Sep 14, 2017 4:46 pm

LawrenceCooper wrote:"Oh, it's mate" I caught myself exclaiming after playing through the end of Bu-Svidler :lol:
Wrong thread? Or am I missing something?

LawrenceCooper
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by LawrenceCooper » Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:06 pm

David Sedgwick wrote:
LawrenceCooper wrote:"Oh, it's mate" I caught myself exclaiming after playing through the end of Bu-Svidler :lol:
Wrong thread? Or am I missing something?
Correct, wrong thread. Post removed.

Ian Thompson
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Ian Thompson » Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:34 pm

IoM Masters Terms and Conditions wrote:
Swiss Pairing System, including a random draw for the first round pairings

The first round draw to determine pairings will be fully random, i.e. any player can be paired against any other player. The draw for the top seeds will be public. Lower seed pairings will be made at random by computer. This is a brief step-by-step process:

1. Number 1 seed draws manually for colour and his opponent is chosen by drawing a number from a bag.
2. The next highest seed still in the bag takes the opposite colour from the number 1 seed and draws a number from the bag, determining his opponent.
3. This process is repeated to produce the first 8 pairings. If a player draws their own number then it is put back into the bag and the player draws another number.
4. The process is handed over to the computer to produce the remaining pairings, with the stronger player in each fixture having the opposite colour to the stronger player on the board above.

As of round 2, pairings will be made according to the Dutch Swiss pairing system, using the most recent Swiss-Manager pairing program.
Presumably, the desired effect of this is that a relatively weak player gets to play against a very strong player who they wouldn't normally have the chance to play.

I suspect the undesirable effect is that it makes it more likely that there will be colour imbalances to deal with in the pairings, and a bigger than normal risk of someone getting 6 games with one colour.

Richard Bates
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Richard Bates » Thu Sep 14, 2017 6:47 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
IoM Masters Terms and Conditions wrote:
Swiss Pairing System, including a random draw for the first round pairings

The first round draw to determine pairings will be fully random, i.e. any player can be paired against any other player. The draw for the top seeds will be public. Lower seed pairings will be made at random by computer. This is a brief step-by-step process:

1. Number 1 seed draws manually for colour and his opponent is chosen by drawing a number from a bag.
2. The next highest seed still in the bag takes the opposite colour from the number 1 seed and draws a number from the bag, determining his opponent.
3. This process is repeated to produce the first 8 pairings. If a player draws their own number then it is put back into the bag and the player draws another number.
4. The process is handed over to the computer to produce the remaining pairings, with the stronger player in each fixture having the opposite colour to the stronger player on the board above.

As of round 2, pairings will be made according to the Dutch Swiss pairing system, using the most recent Swiss-Manager pairing program.
Presumably, the desired effect of this is that a relatively weak player gets to play against a very strong player who they wouldn't normally have the chance to play.

I suspect the undesirable effect is that it makes it more likely that there will be colour imbalances to deal with in the pairings, and a bigger than normal risk of someone getting 6 games with one colour.
Wouldn't it have made more sense to only randomise one half of the draw, maintaining the "desirable" effect but mitigating the undesirable?

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:12 pm

Does this new pairing method make it more or less likely that titled players will meet in the first round? Maybe someone can do some calculations as well as comparing to other pairing methods.

More seriously, is this a pairing method accepted by FIDE? Can any FIDE-rated Swiss tournament come up with any method they like to do. first round pairings?

David Robertson

Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by David Robertson » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:28 pm

Richard Bates wrote:Wouldn't it have made more sense to only randomise one half of the draw, maintaining the "desirable" effect but mitigating the undesirable?
By which you mean (?) - in a field of 200, you rank 1-100 by grade; then randomly assigned 101-200 as their opponents. If so, I like this idea. It stops the silliness of 1 v. 186 compared with 2 v. 5; but preserves a healthy element of potentially amusing match-ups

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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:31 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Does this new pairing method make it more or less likely that titled players will meet in the first round? Maybe someone can do some calculations as well as comparing to other pairing methods.
Irrelevant to this tournament; considerably more than half the field is titled. You'd need to test it out on a weaker tournament.
More seriously, is this a pairing method accepted by FIDE? Can any FIDE-rated Swiss tournament come up with any method they like to do. first round pairings?
FIDE-rated tournament, yes, pretty much. Title-norm tournament, you've got to specify your pairing method up-front.

Richard Bates
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Richard Bates » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:41 pm

David Robertson wrote:
Richard Bates wrote:Wouldn't it have made more sense to only randomise one half of the draw, maintaining the "desirable" effect but mitigating the undesirable?
By which you mean (?) - in a field of 200, you rank 1-100 by grade; then randomly assigned 101-200 as their opponents. If so, I like this idea. It stops the silliness of 1 v. 186 compared with 2 v. 5; but preserves a healthy element of potentially amusing match-ups
Yes.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Sep 14, 2017 7:51 pm

IM Jack Rudd wrote:Title-norm tournament, you've got to specify your pairing method up-front.
Given the strength of the tournament, potential Norm seekers would be in the second and third quartiles. Perhaps some outsiders in the forth. Top half Norm seekers will have exchanged the certainty of a lower rated pairing for the chance of a useful one, whilst those in the second half will have done the opposite.

David Sedgwick
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by David Sedgwick » Thu Sep 14, 2017 10:18 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:More seriously, is this a pairing method accepted by FIDE? Can any FIDE-rated Swiss tournament come up with any method they like to do. first round pairings?
If you want to do something unusual like this, It is advisable to obtain clearance from the FIDE Qualification Commission before you announce it.

The Chess.com Isle of Man International did that.

Chris Rice
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Chris Rice » Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:06 pm

Some impressive stats in the Chess.com report Chess.com Isle Of Man, By The Numbers. Wesley So is not going to play the Isle of Man for obvious reasons and this is confirmed in the ChessBase report. However, given the intense discussion earlier today regarding the ratings and Candidates places I would just highlight the following:

"His withdrawal from Isle of Man most likely increases his chances to keep his average rating edge over Kramnik, as the conventional wisdom is that it's difficult for an elite player to avoid losing points in an open tournament — even a very strong one. Actually gaining points is even harder. That's the dilemma facing both Kramnik and Caruana, as rating qualification is now their only route to Berlin."

Nick Burrows
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Re: Chess.com Isle Of Man Tournament 23 Sep to 1 Oct 2017

Post by Nick Burrows » Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:57 pm

I just noticed that this guy caught cheating https://chessbase.in/news/jeel-shah-cheating-dubai/ is in my section :x