Take me to the Haup ... oh, baby
While everything has been calm at the Championship so far, the same cannot be said for the Hauptturnier. Since the first week Christiansen and Theil are no longer participating and Edward Dean (1698) has been added. So now the Haup is a 10-person, 9 round-robin affair. However, it looks like there is a lot of scrambling going on to make up games from the byes in earlier rounds.
I don't know anything about the circumstances of the withdrawals and it is certainly not my intention to cast aspersions; nevertheless, it is worth pointing out that unlike swiss-system tournaments, withdrawals from round-robins are much more problematic.
posted by David Glickman @ 4:19 PM
5 Comments:
Bryant Vernon has now joined the hautturnier as well.
Bob - I believe I had included Bryant in the initial list of 11.
I believe the only larger round robin tournaments (i.e., not counting quads) traditionally held by the club are this Championship, the Hauptturnier, and the Paramount. According to my understanding, the Paramount is the only one which is double round robin, plus it is the only one with no prizes.
It might be interesting to know how withdrawal rates compare over time among the club's round robin tournaments. Or perhaps additionally examine only those withdrawals which might adversely affect prizes (or maybe 1st and 2nd places for the Paramount since it has no prizes). If a tail-ender withdraws in the last round, that should not materially affect the ultimate placing of serious contenders. The idea would be to see, for the club, whether certain aspects of a round robin seem conducive to preventing withdrawals, or at least to preventing withdrawals influencing final placing of serious contenders.
Ken -
The Hauptturnier also does not provide for prizes, except for having your name engraved on the plaque (which for most of us is probably more valuable than a nominal monetary prize).
In my many years of playing in the Hauptturnier and Paramount, I don't recall someone withdrawing. In the Championship there have been a few, typically related to disputes over rules, scheduling, etc.
Thanks for the clarification re: the Hauptturnier's lack of prizes, David. There was actually one withdrawal after 6 out of 10 rounds from the lower section of the 2003 Paramount, but my understanding is that that was due to the player's work issues.
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