Format For Championship

  

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John Knudsen    (2006-07-01)
Format For Championship?!

8 games with 1 player at one time?! That is rather unusual, to say the least. I have never heard of such a thing... What is the reasoning behind that? John


Thibault de Vassal    (2006-07-01 17:44:41)
Format For Championship

Hello John.

After all, if it wasn't unusual, the interest would be lower for sure... :)

So you noticed, the 8 players with the highest established correspondence chess ratings play a pure knockout tournament.

I thought about this format a long time ago (and a long time). Combining a knockout tournament (more "spectacular") and a round-robin cycle (everyone can play, no more than 5 cycles) gather together the advantages of both. It is one of the reasons I made FICGS... I think pure knockout or pure round-robin wch cycle is not efficient enough for chess championships.

The other thing you'll notice in the rules : "The special rule is that in case of equality (4-4), the winner is the player with the strongest tournament entry rating if all games are draw, the player with the lowest tournament entry rating if not all games are draw. The winner is qualified for the next stage."

This rule (in case of equality in the round-robin tournaments, the player with the strongest TER is qualified too) is another way to avoid short draws... It may sound strange at a first sight, but I really think it's fair enough and a good way to find most probably the really strongest players in the last stages. Anyway, it's amazing for sure :)


The FICGS chess wch rules :

http://www.ficgs.com/membership.html#tournament