TimG, on 2015-October-13, 06:43, said:
Yes, I did find two articles on David's website. They were helpful to get a basic understanding, but I am now looking for something more.
A few questions:
1) I am in the US where players are used to playing 2 or 3 boards per round (24-28 in a session) in club play, often in a Mitchell movement. I think that players (especially at the club level) enjoy the social aspect of frequently switching opponents. I think they would resist a change to Swiss Pairs if they played against only 4 opponents in a session. So, I am particularly interested in how efficiently Swiss Pairs can be run if there are something like 8 rounds of 3 boards each. Does the pairing time add significant time to the event?
2) For multiple session events, let's just focus on two sessions for simplicity, is there typically a qualifying session and a finals/consolation session?
3) I imagine that including a match element to the scoring helps to retain interest late in an event even for those that are apparently out of the running. But, there must still be some inclination to drop from an event if a pair is doing poorly. Does this something that is acceptable? I can remember times many years ago where it was routine for Swiss Team participants to drop from an event with a couple matches yet to be played. I have not seen this recently, but I wonder if this might be the case when there is not a "complete movement" that must be finished.
4) Is there "stratification" in Swiss Pairs? It is the way of the game in the US today.
I understand I'm hijacking a thread, I hope no one minds.
I can answer this based on Scandinavian experience (assuming "modern times" with computer scoring and pairing):
1:
No, there will be no delay if the pairing in round 3 is based upon the stanza after round 1, round 4 based on round 2, and so on.
No, there will
probably not be any significant delay if this pairing is done for each round based upon the stanza after
95% of the boards in the last previous round (e.g. round 1 for round 2, round 2 for round 3 and so on) have been completed.
Yes, some significant delay must be expected if the pairing is done
after the last previous round has been completed.
2: Do as you like, we most often have two or more sessions effectively contiguous as one complete event.
3: I am not aware of this ever having been a problem with us.
4: I am unsure of what is meant by "stratification", but if it implies some compensation when a currently very high ranked pair is drawn against a currently very low ranked pair then this is not at all an issue here.
The following points might be relevant in this connection:
a: there is no masterpoints or similar for any individual round although an organizer sometimes offer gifts to round winners.
b: seatings are always based on the accumulated (total) stanza at the time, not just on the results in the last completed round alone.
c: Our scoring program appears very competent in optimal seating across the entire field.