Cappelle International 2012

[Peter Turner]

I do not know how the system works but what may be of interest to you is that with 497 players, after 3 rounds there are only 4 players on 3/3!! ( I hope using '!!' will not be a problem )

[Peter Turner]

Sam & George won their round 4 games and have been rewarded, see below:-

Round 5
Neil McDonald 2457 GM ENG v John Cappon 2240 FRA
Sam Franklin 2187 ENG v Michail Brodsky2558 GM UKR
Jacek Tomczak 2555 GM POL v George O’Toole 2177 ENG
Sam & George on 3/4
Now here's a strange occurance - today (Monday) Neil played boards 19 & 20, in round 5 Sam is on board 19 (a live game board) and George is on board 20. Round 5 starts at 1pm (UK time)

[Paul Cooksey]

We should take a moment to appreciate Bogdan Lalic's efforts too. He endures a love hate relationship with chess. But when in the right frame of mind is a fearsome player, 23 Nc7 in his round 3 win agianst Vorobiov (2580) is a case in point.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. cxb5 a6 6. bxa6 d6 7. Nc3 Bg7 8. Bg2 O-O 9. Nf3 Nbd7 10. O-O Nb6 11. Re1 Bxa6 12. h3 Nfd7 13. Qc2 Ra7 14. Rd1 Qa8 15. e4 Bb7 16. b3 f5 17. Ng5 fxe4 18. Bxe4 Nf6 19. Bb2 Nxe4 20. Qxe4 Nxd5 21. Qe6 Kh8 22. Nxd5 Bxb2 23. Nc7 Qd8 24. Qf7 Rxf7 25. Nxf7 Kg8 26. Nxd8 Bf3 27. Nde6 Bxd1 28. Rxd1 Rxa2 29. Rd3

[John McKenna]

Thanks to all the info above I am seeing the mass-participation tournament in a better light. The French may even have found a good use for the idea of borrowing (in this case just 'dummy' points rather than 'real' money) from the future!?
I'll certainly be watching Samuel and Bogdan if they appear live today.

[Peter Turner]

Good morning John

The top19 boards are live so Bogodan & Sam on 16 & 19 should be covered today. See pairings below which also show the 'bonus' points credited to each player for pairing purposes:-

16[5][3] DEGRAEVE Jean-Marc 2569 LALIC Bogdan2469 [5][3]
19[5][3] FRANKLIN Samuel G A2187 BRODSKY Michail2558 [5][3]

[Roger de Coverly]

See pairings below which also show the 'bonus' points credited to each player for pairing purposes:-

16[5][3] DEGRAEVE Jean-Marc 2569 LALIC Bogdan2469 [5][3]
19[5][3] FRANKLIN Samuel G A2187 BRODSKY Michail2558 [5][3]

The middle tritile have 1 dummy point at the start; this increases to 1½ when they reach a score of 1½ and to 2 when they reach a score of 3.

This seems to confirm Jack's hypothesis as to the pairing scheme. The practical effect is that they have now, for the moment, caught up with the GMs, so normal seeded pairing rules apply, unless they encounter someone from the bottom third who is still doing well.

Look at board 18

18 [5] [3] MIRZOEV Azer 2560 ROMBALDONI Axel 2464 [5] [3]

That's a really big gap 2464 to 2187, for such a large tournament. The lowest rating of the +2 people on the first round was 2203 and the first round top board "other player" was 2416, so perhaps it's not so surprising that players in that rating range failed to reach 3/4.

[John McKenna]

Good morning to you, too, Peter, and to Roger as well. Looks like an interesting day as things begin to take shape for the run in to the finish.
I suddenly see that veteran Evgeny Sveshnikov (2499) and junior GM Illya Nyzhnyk (2588) should also be live in this the 5th round.
While one expects Ukranian produced talents like Illya to be up there it must be an indication that the ECF is doing something right for Samuel and George to be up there with him at this stage.

[David Sedgwick]

I think they are using the relatively new French phantom points system. Basically you give players dummy points based on rating and points already scored, and then pair normally ... I haven't figured out how the dummy points are created and removed, because I don't think they are fixed for the whole tournament.

The last tournament I played in in France used this rule:

The top tritile have 2 dummy points throughout.
The middle tritile have 1 dummy point at the start; this increases to 1½ when they reach a score of 1½ and to 2 when they reach a score of 3.
The bottom tritile have 0 dummy points at the start; this increases to ½ when they reach a score of 1½, 1 when they reach a score of 3 and 2 when they reach a score of 4½. (Had the tournament been more than 9 rounds long, it would have been 1½ when they reached a score of 4½ and 2 when they reached 50%.)

The dummy points are used for all rounds except the last two.

I looked into this at the time of last year's Cappelle La Grande International.

I think the pairing system used is that described in the attached PDF document, which is taken from the French Chess Federation website. The attached Word document is my translation of the key points.

The method is not actually particularly new; the document is dated September 1995. Nor is it French in origin; it was devised by Phil Haley, a leading (English) Canadian arbiter.

Curiously, however, I've not been able to find an English language version anywhere (other than my own translation).

[Ian Thompson]

While one expects Ukranian produced talents like Illya to be up there it must be an indication that the ECF is doing something right for Samuel and George to be up there with him at this stage.

I think it's more likely down to the pairing system than the ECF - Samuel and George have both played 3 lower rated players and 1 higher rated player, and all their games have been won by the higher rated player. Nyzhnyk, on the other hand, is probably disappointed to have dropped two half points to players rated somewhat lower than himself.

[Roger de Coverly]

The method is not actually particularly new; the document is dated September 1995. Nor is it French in origin; it was devised by Phil Haley, a leading (English) Canadian arbiter.

There's two systems described. The first ACCELERATED PAIRINGS – HALEY SYSTEM is similar to the approach used in the UK and has the usual side effect of postponing the "master v beginner" pairings to the third or fourth rounds.

The one in use in Capelle is, or appears to be, the TAPERED ACCELERATED SWISS SYSTEM. A key feature is that acceleration of sorts continues until the 7th round (of 9).

A French tournament of around 100 players that I took part in from 2007 to 2010 used the Haley system. In 2011 it switched to the Tapered system.

Acceleration which potentially runs for over two thirds of the tournament is, or appears to be, the new feature. I'm not sure what system Capelle used in previous years.

Another feature is that they have computer software available to generate both types of pairings.

[John McKenna]

Thanks for pointing out those underlying facts, Ian. The paths of the English duo and the Ukranian are not the same. Still, even though I am speaking only about a partial snapshot, I didn't notice any other 'juniors' on the top 20 boards.
Also saw from Lawrence Cooper's latest International roundup that Gerald Parfett (1644) has 2.5 and the following pairing -
board 170 (3) (2.5) G.P. - R. Van Meegan (1949) (3) (1.5) so 3 'dummy' pts. each but 2.5 against 1.5 real ones. And, only a 305 pts. ELO difference.

[Peter Turner]

You may not have noticed this pairing:-
54[4][2] JABLONSKI Noham 2280 BAUER Christian 2679 [4][2]
Bauer is the top rated player but did not play the first 2 rounds, now working his way through the field.

[John McKenna]

Valiant attempt by Samuel against GM Brodsky but he lost it.

[Peter Turner]

It was tough for Sam & George today, both lost but still have titled players tomorrow. Neil won so our little group are all on 3/5. Round 6 pairings:-

Mehdi Roger 2094 FRA v Neil McDonald 2457 GM ENG
Andrey Baryshpolets 2486 IM UKR v Sam Franklin 2187 ENG
George O’Toole 2177 ENG v Joseph Sanchez 2526 GM PHI

[John McKenna]

Thanks for the pairings.
Peter Turner >Christian Bauer is the top rated player but did not play the first 2 rounds, now he is working his way through the field.<
Was he unavoidably delayed, I wonder, or has he worked out how to offset his 'dummy' points? It would probably be too high a price to pay if he started 0/2 though.