Quads

A Quad tournament is where you get to play a round robin with three players close to your strength, a three round tournament.

Swiss tournaments are the norm in the US, but excluding class specific swisses, you are going to face people variably stronger or weaker than you.

In an Open Swiss, masters arrive knowing that they might only have one super difficult game, the last round, and will face weaker players gradually getting stronger throughout the other rounds.

Some players take a strategic first round 1/2 point bye to make easier work in the tournament: sleep in, one less game to work thru.

For strong players: play slightly weaker players longer than they would with normal entry.

And for weaker players the plus is: not get a random one point bye thus wasting unscheduled time waiting for the next round.

Usually monthly the BCF has one weekend Quad (game 60) runs all day, and could have as many as 3 Wednesday night "Early Bird" Quad tournaments (G/30) that go from 6pm to 9:30pm.

The Quad is a cool format because you are going to play three challenging games against like strength players. If you come to BCF Quads on a regular basis you will be facing many of the same players as you did in the previous quad.

So you can prepare for these games, and the games take on a higher level of enjoyment and quality.

Chess, unlike in the rest of life, it is morally ok and very satisfying to seek and exact vengeance.

What would your ideal chess tournament be?

How do you feel about strategic byes?

Please Comment.

Mike Griffin 09/09/2008