Hi all

Following on from the e-mails, this is just to try and find out who would be up for a tournament, and if so what we want to try and do. I'm assuming Wednesday evening will be popular, here are some possibilities

1. Swiss tournament. A classic format that I'm sure everyone is familiar with. If we're doing this it would be good to have an idea of how many are interested, as the number of rounds has to be set in advance. A 4 player 6 round tournament doesn't work very well, and neither does a 20 player 3 round tournament! 10 minutes seems like a popular time control but we do have alternatives, including increments per move.

2. Arena tournament. This is a tournament that has a fixed length of time, rather than a set number of rounds. It might be a good one to try first to see how many people actually join. Basically, at the start of the tournament you are paired against someone else, then after the game you will be paired against somebody else once there is a free opponent. There may be a wait depending on how many people enter, the more the better. You are free to pop in and out during the tournament, which typically lasts 90-120 minutes. We can choose the duration along with the time control, possibly something a bit quicker like 5 minutes plus increment would be more suitable to get more games in.

3. Longplay. Another possibility is to arrange a longplay tournament over several weeks. We'd have to do this manually as the chess.com tournaments require the games to immediately follow each other. The way I see it is that you'd be given an opponent each week and you'd arrange a time to play. This could be a couple of, say, 15 minute games with increment or perhaps a longer single game, for example 90 minutes plus increment.

4. Ad-hoc. This is kind of what we're doing now, with a few of us being online each Wednesday and sending challenges. If we're happy to continue doing this, not a problem.

Any feedback on which (if any) of these you'd be up for would be appreciated, or any other ideas, and I'll be happy to help get it set up.

Heywood Chess Club

Super Admins