(Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.
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IM Jack Rudd
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by IM Jack Rudd » Fri Jun 25, 2021 6:22 pm

I suppose what you could do is use date of birth as your seeding system rather than rating. Don't know how well that would work in practice.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Jun 25, 2021 6:59 pm

Wadih Khoury wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:56 pm
I'd rather have a scientific and transparent way to do it.
A card shuffling arbiter would likely do it with the aid of bending rules on floats. So you have two adults on two points and two juniors on one and a half. Rather than pair 2v2 and 1.5v1.5, pair 2v1.5 and 1.5v2.

Possibly also using Jack's idea of ranking by date of birth, pairings would be done provisionally using normal software. Swops are then made to remove junior v junior pairings and the revised pairing re-input. Probably junior v junior pairings have to be allowed in the final round, on the top boards at least. If the first round is ranked by age and no changes are made to the final round, it's only three rounds that have to be tampered with. Actually the first round can also be done by listing the adults in rating order, the juniors similarly and just pairing them as a match. Leftovers play one another.

Alex McFarlane
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Alex McFarlane » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:33 pm

A slight modification to Jack's suggestion.
Computers pair by PIN and not rating so it would be possible to put the adults in in rating order and then the juniors in rating order. That may limit the number of mismatches caused by DoB.

I would also suggest that you should advertise that you intend to minimise the number of adult v adult games. A number of adults do not like playing juniors and would not enter your event if they know that the chances of them playing 5 or 6 juniors is very high. Better they don't enter than complain noisily at the event. Their demand for the return of their entry fee will also affect the financial stability of the event if granted. If not granted, they might even have a valid small claims court action as the event was misrepresented as a normal Swiss.

NickFaulks
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:50 pm

Alex McFarlane wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:33 pm
A number of adults do not like playing juniors and would not enter your event if they know that the chances of them playing 5 or 6 juniors is very high.
Does this sum up in one sentence what is sick about English chess?
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Paul Buswell
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Paul Buswell » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:56 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:50 pm
Alex McFarlane wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:33 pm
A number of adults do not like playing juniors and would not enter your event if they know that the chances of them playing 5 or 6 juniors is very high.
Does this sum up in one sentence what is sick about English chess?
No

PB

Wadih Khoury
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Wadih Khoury » Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:24 pm

Alex McFarlane wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:33 pm
A slight modification to Jack's suggestion.
Computers pair by PIN and not rating so it would be possible to put the adults in in rating order and then the juniors in rating order. That may limit the number of mismatches caused by DoB.

I would also suggest that you should advertise that you intend to minimise the number of adult v adult games. A number of adults do not like playing juniors and would not enter your event if they know that the chances of them playing 5 or 6 juniors is very high. Better they don't enter than complain noisily at the event. Their demand for the return of their entry fee will also affect the financial stability of the event if granted. If not granted, they might even have a valid small claims court action as the event was misrepresented as a normal Swiss.
Of course Alex, that's why I will not do anything unless I know it's a transparent, automated, process. Players are entitled to know the pairing method in place, and any biases it may introduce.

Worst case I ignore all that hassle and keep it ECF only rated (which would be a shame, because many are asking for it)

NickFaulks
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by NickFaulks » Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:56 pm

Paul Buswell wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:56 pm
NickFaulks wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:50 pm
Does this sum up in one sentence what is sick about English chess?
No

PB
So what else is sick about English chess?
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

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MJMcCready
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by MJMcCready » Fri Jun 25, 2021 11:13 pm

Perhaps that the British Chess Championships is in plight and is not indictive of the strength and depth of the nation, and is in fact, nowadays far removed from it?

Tim Spanton
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Tim Spanton » Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:36 am

Switzerland has opened its borders to fully vaccinated Brits.
It has also, if I am reading the information correctly, lifted requirements for wearing masks indoors at cultural and amateur sporting events, as well as at professional sporting events, and lifted restrictions on how many people can sit at a table indoors (presumably also removing any need for social distancing).
This makes for some interesting chess possibilities as soon as next month, for example Fide's calendar includes Basel (Jul 17-20) and Biel (Jul 24 - Aug 4). I played at the latter last July (see https://beauchess.blogspot.com/2020/07/ ... of-it.html and following posts).
The Swiss CHess Tour http://www.swisschesstour.com/ may also ramp up its activities.

NickFaulks
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by NickFaulks » Mon Jun 28, 2021 8:35 am

Perhaps I am being fooled, but everything I read this morning suggests to me that, with Hancock out of the way, we may see chess once again played under normal conditions in the UK. Fingers crossed.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

Wadih Khoury
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Wadih Khoury » Mon Jun 28, 2021 7:39 pm

I have just pre-booked a venue for a 6 round 60+30 ECF and FIDE rated congress on August 7-8th. Based again in the Cheney school in Oxford.
Hopefully I will get enough interest in the middle of the summer holidays.

It is open to all ages (but must be under 2200 FIDE due to the time controls) and will still have health protocols (some mandatory, some advisory), though the experience at the board itself should be close to "normal". It will operate 2 to 4 sections (minimum 10, maximum 16 per section), with allocation based on rating (average of ECF and FIDE), with a minimum of 20% juniors and 1 woman/girl per section to help develop junior and women chess.

I am currently writing the tournament rules and protocols and hope to get the registration form up and running tonight or tomorrow.

Obviously, all dependent on the government's decision and the evolution of the pandemic metrics.

Roger de Coverly
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Jun 28, 2021 7:56 pm

Wadih Khoury wrote:
Mon Jun 28, 2021 7:39 pm
Hopefully I will get enough interest in the middle of the summer holidays.
One point in your favour is that there's no August British Championship Congress.

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Adam Raoof
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Adam Raoof » Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:09 am

I am happy to say that I sucessfully navigated two modestly proportioned (one 4 player, one 6 player) and fully covid compliant over the board events in Hendon this week, my first OTB tournaments since March 2020. All the players enjoyed the novelty of chess in three dimensions but reported experiencing significant amounts of rust!

Check here - https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/chess-england - for the results and for pairings of upcoming tournaments.

Check my events including Golders Green on the calendar at www.chessengland.com

Check here - http://bit.ly/chessinhendon for details of further events in Hendon.

Completed

24 June: Hendon - a 4 player event for players rated Under 1600 won by Kieran Macphail with 3/3

25-27 June: Hendon - a 6 player event (average rating 2228!) won by FM Peter Batchelor with 4/5

Coming Up

1st July - Hendon Under 1600 - 6 player mini swiss tournament (FULL)

(3-4 July Hampstead Congress online) - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/p/ham ... s-congress

5-6 July - Hendon Under 1900 - 6 players (FULL)

10 July - Golders Green Rapidplay (60 places, just 5 places left!)

12-13 July - Hendon Under 1900 - 6 players (just 3 places left)

17 July Golders Green Rapidplay (60 places)

19-20 July - Hendon Under 2200 - 6 players (3 places left)
Adam Raoof IA, IO
Chess England Events - https://chessengland.com/
The Chess Circuit - https://chesscircuit.substack.com/
Don’t stop playing chess!

Brian Towers
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Brian Towers » Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:46 pm

Wadih Khoury wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:28 pm
I am however still struggling to find a way to reduce the likelihood of pairings between juniors.
I'm struggling to understand why this is difficult. My version of Swiss Manager has an option in the "Pairings" menu called "Forbidden Pairings". Yes, I know it is a lot of work but still easier than trying to do it with pairing cards. Also a bit puzzled why the IAs who have replied seem to be missing this from their versions of SM.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

Wadih Khoury
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Re: (Chess) Life Returning To Normal

Post by Wadih Khoury » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:04 pm

Brian Towers wrote:
Tue Jun 29, 2021 12:46 pm
Wadih Khoury wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:28 pm
I am however still struggling to find a way to reduce the likelihood of pairings between juniors.
I'm struggling to understand why this is difficult. My version of Swiss Manager has an option in the "Pairings" menu called "Forbidden Pairings". Yes, I know it is a lot of work but still easier than trying to do it with pairing cards. Also a bit puzzled why the IAs who have replied seem to be missing this from their versions of SM.
I moved away from all these ideas and will be simply running 2-4 sections, with a guaranteed minimum number of junior/women per section.

Regarding the "avoid pairing" options, I have it too on VegaChess, the thing is it only works well if there are substantially more adults than juniors. Otherwise you may end up with not enough legal pairings. (e.g with 6 juniors and 4 adults, you will have 4 legal pairings and the 5th one is a junior vs junior and the software will return an error. You can then of course manually pair them, but you end up with really weird pairings)

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