From: sloan@cis.uab.edu (Kenneth Sloan)
Subject: Re: funky pairings
Organization: CIS, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:19:06 GMT

In article <BxKBH0.8KF@news.orst.edu> linb@ucs.orst.edu (Benjamin Lin) writes:
>In article <1992Nov11.035859.9471@cis.uab.edu> sloan@cis.uab.edu (Kenneth Sloan) writes:
>>Let's see - three players already had a bye, and thus at least 1 point.
>>Of the others, only 1 other player could possibly have had a score of
>>zero.  From the range of ratings you report, I suspect that there were
>>no draws to complicate matters.  So...your bye sounds entirely plausible.
>>
>>No blunder here.
>>
>>Sounds like a fun tournament, though.  The pairings for the fourth and
>>fifth rounds must have required considerable....creativity.
>>
>
>The FPB was given correctly, according to the rules.  I just feel that
>the other players were screwed.  In these dinky tournaments where I live,
>the players who get the HPB's and FPB's always seem to win the prize!

Well - as previously, and often, noted:  Swiss system tournaments are
not particularly good at determining class prizes.  Even in a larger
tournament, the players not at the very top, nor the very bottom, tend
to oscillate between being paired up and down.  Whether you win the
class prize or not is often determined by which phase you happen to hit
in the last round.

Personally, in your situation - in round 4 I would have much preferred a
HPB to a FPB, since it probably maximizes your chances over the last two
rounds.  With a FPB, you are likely to be hammered in the last round.
With a HPB, you have a shot at winning the last round game.  Think of it
as a Swiss Gambit Delayed.  It might have been worse - it is possible to
tie (actually, even to win - but that's unlikely) for a class prize by
receiving a bye in the *last* round.  How's that for screwing your
opponents?

Also - the bye has to go to *someone*.  Unless the TD starts being
"creative" about pairings and byes, no one should complain about being
"screwed". 

The advice that I give all of my students is:  "check the pairings sheet
to see where and who to play.  Play good chess.  If they give you
something to take home with you, smile and say `thank you'.  if they
don't give you something to take home....say `thank you' anyway."

One of my current hobby horses (you may have noticed that I keep a full
stable) is the use of computerized pairings.  For most tournaments, I
think that this is a huge mistake.  But...the one unquestioned benefit
of computerized pairings is that the computers are valuable, and must be
kept in a back room somewhere - this means that the TD gets to do the
pairings in peace, instead of in the middle of a crowd of volunteer
assistant TD's, all eager to see what the pairings are 5 minutes ahead
of time. 

In my next tournament, I think I'll claim that there's a computer back
there, and arrange for a locked room to do all of the administrative
work.



-- 
Kenneth Sloan                   Computer and Information Sciences
sloan@cis.uab.edu               University of Alabama at Birmingham
(205) 934-2213                  115A Campbell Hall, UAB Station 
(205) 934-5473 FAX              Birmingham, AL 35294-1170
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess