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Subject: Re: Looks like it might be a 3 way ftie for first

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:00:38 01/19/03

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On January 19, 2003 at 22:10:53, Ricardo Gibert wrote:

>On January 19, 2003 at 21:23:11, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On January 19, 2003 at 18:31:55, Russell Reagan wrote:
>>
>>>On January 19, 2003 at 18:18:00, Sune Larsson wrote:
>>>
>>>> means Ruffian/Crafty/Yace sharing 1st place with 7/9
>>>
>>>Crafty beat both Yace and Ruffian. Ruffian beat Yace, and Yace lost to both
>>>Crafty and Ruffian. So, Crafty should be the winner. Or are they playing tie
>>>breakers?
>>
>>
>>That's not really done in swiss events.  The tie-break for this event
>>was (IMHO) not very well thought-out.  IE who wants to use blitz games to
>>settle the final standings of a long time-control tournament?
>>
>>I would suggest the following for future CCT events.
>>
>>If two are tied for first, have a play-off game, same time control.
>>
>>If more than two are tied, either use a traditional tie-break or forget
>>about it.  IE at the ACM events, we had "co-champions" that were ranked by
>>the tie-break scores.  We never had playoffs at any ACM event, nor at any
>>WCCC event I attended although I do remember at least one tie-break with
>>Belle playing, probably in 1980.
>>
>>But in any case, blitz games for a standard time control tournament makes
>>no sense, no matter how you look at it.  If nobody is happy using the
>>normal sum of opponents scores, which is really pretty useless when you have
>>too many rounds as we do, then co-champions would be the simplest and most
>>accurate outcome.
>
>
>But I like the blitz playoffs! Between humans players they're too random, but
>chess engines get plenty of depth to be able to play some decent chess.
>

However, an engine can be tuned for blitz or tuned for longer games.  Is it
fair to have the engine play the main games at a slow time control, then when
a couple tie, to use a totally different time control?  Does that _really_ show
which of the two should have won the tournament???

>
>>
>>Other points to ponder:
>>
>>1.  too many rounds.  You really want to have log2(entries) rounds, rounded
>>up to a integer.  For 48 players, that would be 6 rounds.  The more rounds
>>held _beyond_ that, the more likely there is to have a log-jam at the top
>>since the top players can not play each other a second time, and they will
>>end up playing lower rated players, giving more a chance to join them.
>
>
>Log2(entries) is the correct formula if all the games are decisive, but the
>draws changes things significantly. Even fewer rounds are enough to
>differentiate the contestants.
>
>For example, in all 5 CCT events, there was a contestant in clear first after
>just 5 rounds.

That's the point.  If you go beyond log2, you run into problems.  It might
seem like a good idea, but it introduces a problem with the "logjam" issue.

>
>Also, consider that major swiss events typically have fewer than log2(entries),
>so even fewer rounds than log2(entries) works.

no doubt at all there.  The ACM events were 4 rounds for years, and the last
few years were expanded to 5.  The WCCC events were 5 rounds, at least
through 1989, the last one I played in.

>
>What I don't like about a small number of rounds is luck is too big a factor. To
>me, 9 rounds is a kind of minimum. The old WCCC events with just 4 rounds were
>ridiculous. You might as well draw names out of a hat.
>
>This is all why I still like the 5 round double RR idea.
>
>
>>
>>2.  More time between rounds.  It makes little sense to end a round and 1 minute
>>later start the next.  Hardly anything started on time, suggesting the start
>>times were too optimistic.  I'd suggest 2.5 hours per round rather than 2, which
>>would make it more relaxed.
>>
>>3.  If a player is more than 10 minutes late, he forfeits that round, period.
>>If he is more than 10 minutes late in two rounds, he is kicked out of the
>>event.
>>
>>It was a fun event, and was well-run, with the mention of the problems
>>given above...



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