Today the four official proposals by Hricova are discussed.
http://www.eurogofed.org/egf/proposals2010ec2.pdfProposal Hricova 1A
(12 player round-robin, seeding by ratings)
+ The round-robin system has a high pairing quality.
+ 11 rounds create a high confidence for the numbers of wins.
+ Usually the champion and his closest competitors play the same number of games.
+ The champion is determined by European-only games.
+ The system fits rather well into the congress schedule.
+ The system is simple (or, in case of optional playoffs, of
intermediate complexity)
o For the final results ordering in case of ties on the number of wins, one has the choice between a) shared title, b) tiebreaker Direct Comparison applied iteratively, c) tiebreaker Direct Comparison not applied iteratively, d) tiebreaker Direct Comparison applied only to exactly two tied players, e) doubtful tiebreakers, f) playoff games with shorter thinking times (this requires finishing the 11 rounds,
e.g., on Thursday so that playoffs can be played on Friday or
Saturday)
- The seeding to the championship has a very low quality. E.g., if peak rating during the last 12 months is used, then players with 0 rated games during that period are compared with players with 100 rated games. Therefore the strongest European might not be seeded.
- Only few players play in the EC.
- Top non-Europeans do not play the top 12 Europeans in the Open-EC.
- If playoffs are used at all and in the rare case of 3+ playoff rounds (5+ players), a slightly shorter playing time is needed for the playoff games.
Proposal Hricova 1B
(12 player round-robin, seeding: 3 players of previous EC + 4 players of previous Open-EC + 2 optional wildcards for players with rating 2500+ + X players by rating)
+ The round-robin system has a high pairing quality.
+ 11 rounds create a high confidence for the numbers of wins.
+ Usually the champion and his closest competitors play the same number of games.
+ The champion is determined by European-only games.
+ The system fits rather well into the congress schedule.
+ The system is simple (or, in case of optional playoffs, of
intermediate complexity)
o The seeding of 4 players of the previous Open-EC gives the Open-EC good meaning for the next-to-top Europeans and gives the EC fresh blood every year but qualifies the 4 players due to one year old results.
o For the final results ordering in case of ties on the number of wins, one has the choice between a) shared title, b) tiebreaker Direct Comparison applied iteratively, c) tiebreaker Direct Comparison not applied iteratively, d) tiebreaker Direct Comparison applied only to exactly two tied players, e) doubtful tiebreakers, f) playoff games with shorter thinking times (this requires finishing the 11 rounds,
e.g., on Thursday so that playoffs can be played on Friday or
Saturday)
- Wildcards replace qualification by playing strength by qualification by politics. The rather small size of the EC players field makes this impact particularly severe.
- The seeding of 5+ players to the championship by rating has a very low quality. E.g., if peak rating during the last 12 months is used, then players with 0 rated games during that period are compared with players with 100 rated games. Therefore the strongest European might not be seeded.
- Only few players play in the EC.
- Top non-Europeans do not play the top 12 Europeans in the Open-EC.
- If playoffs are used at all and in the rare case of 3+ playoff rounds (5+ players), a slightly shorter playing time is needed for the playoff games.
Proposal Hricova 2A
(10 rounds Swiss of 16 players, seeding by ratings)
+ The champion and his closest competitors play the same number of games.
+ The champion is determined by European-only games.
+ The system fits well into the congress schedule.
- Unless the title is shared, tiebreakers for the final results ordering play a great role for determination of the winner.
- 10 rounds Swiss of 16 players is not a well understood system with respect to a) pairings and b) the effect of pairing difficulties on the tiebreakers for the final results ordering. It might happen rather easily that making good pairings during the last rounds will become difficult to impossible because of the low ratio between players and
rounds.
- The seeding to the championship by rating has a very low quality. E.g., if peak rating during the last 12 months is used, then players with 0 rated games during that period are compared with players with 100 rated games. Therefore the strongest European might not be seeded.
- The number of players is relatively small. The strongest player might be missed.
- Top non-Europeans do not play the top 16 Europeans in the Open-EC.
Proposal Hricova 2B
(10 rounds Swiss of 16 players, seeding: 4 players of previous EC + 4 players of previous Open-EC + 2 optional wildcards for players with rating 2500+ + X players by rating)
+ The champion and his closest competitors play the same number of games.
+ The champion is determined by European-only games.
+ The system fits well into the congress schedule.
o The seeding of 4 players of the previous Open-EC gives the Open-EC good meaning for the next-to-top Europeans and gives the EC fresh blood every year but qualifies the 4 players due to one year old results.
- Unless the title is shared, tiebreakers for the final results ordering play a great role for determination of the winner.
- 10 rounds Swiss of 16 players is not a well understood system with respect to a) pairings and b) the effect of pairing difficulties on the tiebreakers for the final results ordering. It might happen rather easily that making good pairings during the last rounds will become difficult to impossible because of the low ratio between players and
rounds.
- Wildcards replace qualification by playing strength by qualification by politics. The intermediate size of the EC players field makes this impact rather severe.
- The seeding of 8+ players to the championship by rating has a very low quality. E.g., if peak rating during the last 12 months is used, then players with 0 rated games during that period are compared with players with 100 rated games. Therefore the strongest European might not be seeded.
- The number of players is relatively small. The strongest player might be missed.
- Top non-Europeans do not play the top 16 Europeans in the Open-EC.