SwissSys improvements

[David Lavin]

Please provide your suggestions for improving SwissSys and I will forward the suggestions to the prorammers periodically.

[Tony Ficzere]

Please provide your suggestions for improving SwissSys and I will forward the suggestions to the prorammers periodically.

Would it be possible to have an option built in to provide FIDE pairing rules? Its good that they are building in an option to output the FIDE crosstable, and this would be a natural enhancement.

[David Lavin]

Would it be possible to have an option built in to provide FIDE pairing rules? Its good that they are building in an option to output the FIDE crosstable, and this would be a natural enhancement.

Tony: Outputting FIDE crosstables is already a feature of Version 8. Check the utilities.

You can also use FIDE pairing rules. Just check the pairing rules dialog

Are you using the up-to-date version available for free from teh CFC?

[Tony Ficzere]

No, I am using an older version. I have downloaded the newer version, will let you know after I use it.

[Tony Ficzere]

I have downloaded the latest version, and run a test tournament to get the feel of it.

It would be useful if the data file imported the FIDE number under ID#2 for FIDE events. Unless I am missing something, I would have to enter FIDE numbers manually.

Anybody out there know another way of doing this?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Parings/Round robin pair table... must have possibility to sort by various parameters (name, start#, score, rating); column # should be the first in the table.
And in pricipale the Round-Robin tournament should be treated like a round-robin.

[Pierre Dénommée]

Even though it says that it is following FIDE rules, it doesn't. There is much more to FIDE rules then just setting the alternation and equalisation limit to 3,000. For example, a player that has gotten a full point bye in the first round cannot be paired with a player having a score of 0.5 in the second round if there exist a legal pairing that can avoid it. Getting a full point without playing is an advantage and giving this player an weaker opponent in the next two rounds is not permitted. In the pairing explaination windows, there is no mention of downfloaters or upfloters but this concept is central to FIDE Dutch pairings. Furthermore, for FIDE, there is no such thing as an unrated : every player must be assigned an estimated rating. In France, it is based on age when no information is available.

A.1 Rating

It is advisable to check all ratings supplied by players. If no reliable rating is known for a player the arbiters should make an estimation of it as accurately as possible before the start of the tournament.
(to convert German Ingo or British BCF use rating = 2840 - 8 x INGO = 600 + 8 x BCF)

There are 4 FIDE endorsed Swiss Pairing algorithms. The one we are interested in is there http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook?id=83&view=article . It is written rather cryptically and it is not easy to grasp everything.

This one http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook?id=85&view=article akready has a free Linux pairing software.

There are probably other flaws but with a 2 rounds limitation, it is not easy to spot them.

[David Lavin]

I asked Thad, who created SwissSys, about the FIDE issue and this is his replay.

"Thanks for the forward of the question about FIDE rules. The FIDE pairings checkbox enables all the FIDE rules, including the ones your commentator mentions. There is no separate checkbox for such things as "Don't allow consecutive floats", because the one checkbox covers it all. As for the rating issue, it is always up to the TD to provide a valid rating, whether FIDE rules are in effect or not."

Thad also says that he would be more than happy to receive these questions and comments directly and will deal with them personally. His email address is Thad Suits <suits@initco.net>