What tournament formats do you prefer?

Hiyas, ive set up a few tournaments now and thought i would ask peoples thoughts about what format of tourney they prefer. What is it that makes ye choose one tourney to join and not another?

A couple of choices we have are:

Max group size - how many people that play per group.. this can range from 2 and i have seen up to 12 people in a group. Do ye have a preference?

Max number of players - from 7 - 100 (depends to some extent on the TD's membership, how many they can set as max) Sometimes i will set a lower number however in order to get tournies started sooner rather than wait weeks fer it to fill all up to 100. Does this number make any difference to ye? The more people, the more points but also generally the longer it takes given some may take vacation etc.

Themes - clearly some themes will be more popular than others. Some people perhaps may only play non themed tournies.

Time Control - 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, 10 days, 14 days..

Personally i prefer 1 and 3 days. I have yet to set one up on longer controls.

Max Avg Time/Move - 2 hours is really the lowest reasonable, but even myself who is here often is on 1 hour 56mins and could easilyslip over 2 hours, so i tend to set 3 or 4 hours for "fast play" tourneys, and 5 hours for others.  I tend to prefer a tourney that doesnt take 3 months or longer to finish heh, which is why i use this setting. Thoughts?

Rating Range - do ye prefer Open tourneys ie anyone can join regardless of rating; or do ye prefer rating ranges? eg a <1500 one, a 1500 - 1800 one, a 1800 - 2100 etc

Rated/Unrated - tourneys can be rated or not. Does this matter to ye?

Concurrent games per opponent -  This can be 1 or 2. ie you play either one colour first, then after, as the next colour; or you play both white and black at the same time. This impo is and should be related to the next choice below. I tend to choose 2 if a themed tourney, so that it is as fair as possible. If group size is small, then i may choose 2. If larger, 1.  Choosing 1 will double the time that the tournament takes.

Number of simultaneous games - this is the number of games ye play at once, it depends on the group size and the number of concurrent games setting. eg a group size of 5 and concurrent games of 2 means 10 simultaneous games.

This for me is the most deciding factor if i join a tourney or not. Some TD's set up tournies that mean ye will play 22 simultaneous games... that is far far too many to add to my game load which is normally now about 30 (too many already heh). I would play 8 simultaneous as a maximum, but prefer less, which is why i tend to have 4-6 simultaneous when i setup tournies.  

Anything else ive fergotten?

Cheers fer reading this and replying if ye choose to do so. I think it would be useful fer me and indeed anyone else who sets up a tourney to see what popular opinion is, that way we can maybe cater better to peoples wishes. Cheers :)

Max Group Size - 5 or Below, It helps to keep the groups manageable.

Max # of Players - I have no preference really. Sometimes I like 16 or less for a real quick tournament, but 100+ can be fun too (will take a while longer though)

Themes - I like themes since it helps me learn pros/cons of openings.

Time Control - Definitely 1 or 3 days. I used to really like 1 day tourneys more, but I am currently overwhelmed.

Max Avg Time/Move - This one doesn't mean too much to me. But, I think 5 is reasonable. I personally think that the time control is more important.

Rating Range - Open, without a doubt. Only way I can play high rated players. And it limits the amount of complaining about people who's ratings rise above the rating limit during the tournament.

Rated / Unrated - Rated, half of the fun for me.

Concurrent Games - I don't like concurrent games. I would rather focus on one game per opponent and make the adjustments for the next game.

# of Simultaneous Game - Like you mentioned, it will be a factor of the concurrent or not and group size. For me, I like 4-6 games at a time. That way, I can enter quite a few tourneys and play a couple of non-tourney games.

Hope this helps. 

Hi Mr Pistoleer,

I've got a few tourneys under my belt now and have developed some preferences.

I'm happy with either 1 or 3 days.  I wouldn't consider anything longer than that because of the length of time likely to slip away before it can get finished.

I also prefer playing two games concurrently with each opponent for the same reason:  it saves time.

Rated!  I wouldn't enter an unrated tournament.  The ratings don't mean a helluva lot but they provide at least some motivation to play well. 

I don't want to add too many games to my list -- so I'm looking to add no more than 8-10 games which usually leaves me with somewhere between 20-30 games at any given time. 

I've learned to avoid large, multi-stage tournaments.  It only takes a couple of slow players to bog them down completely.

Theme tournaments?  Definitely! They're a great way to step out of your comfort zone and play openings you wouldn't normally consider ... especially the gambits.

And one final thought about tournaments:  until they were introduced I normally had 6-12 games going at any one time;  now I usually have 20-35 and am enjoying my chess a lot more.  Of course, the down side of is that my back side is virtually welded to this chair.

Heh Tim

Enjoy the tournaments here, but find the 1-3 day format easier to manage, anything longer and people take advantage. i like to get them finished as fast as possible.

I prefer the rated tourney's- a little measure of how one stacks up against other players. Open is definitely the best way to go if your looking to play against higher rated opponents. I try to play with anybody, but some high rated players avoid the  lower class like the plague.

Also prefer the concurrent format to help speed things along, with a max of 50 or less. 

Hope this helps. 

i like ones i win .... havent found one yet so :

td:lostapiece players 1, lostapiece. all other factors are irrelevant

yey! i wo n......(just a bit of overtired fun:) ....)