I decided to go with smaller sections this season, to avoid numerous player clashes and large rating differences within sections. This does mean we will have a 5-team Kasparov section. Please direct your complaints to me here, or on FICS.

Seriously though, I think smaller sections are increasingly the way to go to make the competition fairest, and to give the most opportunities to the most players. I hope everyone enjoys T77!

Hi Sbc,

thank you very much for your efforts :) I really like the sections the way they are.
Just to make sure: Am I right that TL77 will be based on a double-round robin?

Best regards
schachbjm

Double round-robin for all sections except Kasparov. Kasparov plays 5-rounds with 4 games (each team gets a bye), followed by a 'position round' (1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th). No playoffs, since it seems redundant with smaller sections.

Hi sbc,

nice idea for the double RR. Probably the 'best move' in view of the low numbers of teams.

Great work!
j

saw this too late.

also think it's the best solution, well done!

a final round like it is played in the kasparov would be nice for all sections - it's kind of rewarding in my point of view. redundant or not ... it's like the freestyle after the regular season. I tell my team always: no matter if we win or loose the finals, just go there and be proud that you made it there. enjoy it.

Honestly I don't recall ever seeing everybody so pleased with the distribution of teams and I agree it was the best solution for this season. My question is: if we eventually move up to 24 teams or more again, are we sticking to this format?

We have 26 teams entered right now (jaberwock will process them tomorrow). If anyone has any initial thoughts on how sections should be arranged, feel free to share them here. Consider it a 'veil of ignorance' thought experiment.

With 25 teams, 5-5-5-5-5 is the first scheme that comes to mind, but I don't fancy it at all for two basic reasons:

- 5-team sections are the least attractive as they generate fewer games and no playoffs;
- there would be bigger gaps in Spassky and Alekhine. Furthermore, I talked to Lcalcino last week and he said Inca_Arequepay is willing to play in Fischer this time. They won back-to-back titles in Spassky (T79-80), have a 2099 average and their board 1 is over 2300, so the challenge makes sense for them.

Therefore, if we stay at 25 teams, I'd suggest 6-6-7-6:

Fischer - almost a 2100+ section;
Spassky - all teams in the 1900s;
Kasparov - ranging from high 1800s to high 1700s;
Alekhine - from mid 1700s to mid 1600s.

Wishing everybody a healthy and happy 2021 packed with good chess!
Best,
Beto.

With 25 teams, 5-5-5-5-5 is the first scheme that comes to mind, but I don't fancy it at all for two basic reasons:

- 5-team sections are the least attractive as they generate fewer games and no playoffs;
- there would be bigger gaps in Spassky and Alekhine. Furthermore, I talked to Lcalcino last week and he said Inca_Arequepay is willing to play in Fischer this time. They won back-to-back titles in Spassky (T79-80), have a 2099 average and their board 1 is over 2300, so the challenge makes sense for them.

Therefore, if we stay at 25 teams, I'd suggest 6-6-7-6:

Fischer - almost a 2100+ section;
Spassky - all teams in the 1900s;
Kasparov - ranging from high 1800s to high 1700s;
Alekhine - from mid 1700s to mid 1600s.

Wishing everybody a healthy and happy 2021 packed with good chess!
Best,
Beto.

We have 20 teams this time (assuming no late submissions). I'll keep this thread open until Friday, 22:00, so make your thoughts known. As a starting point, pchesso suggested a 4-6-6-4 split in the other thread.

21 teams, is this it? If yes, I suggest 4-5-4-4-4, as that would keep our five RW teams all in different sections, and right now I don't see other club/player clashes in that scheme. Or are there? It's easy to miss something.

However, if the consensus is to go for bigger sections that would put two RW teams in one sections and/or require a couple RWs to be swapped in order to resolve player clashes, we'll likely manage.

It would help me to know the section layout quickly, though.

Have fun in T84, everyone!

P.S. Thanks to PreZandy, kurumim, LightKnight for organizing the Warm-up tourney.

21 teams, is this it? If yes, I suggest 4-5-4-4-4, as that would keep our five RW teams all in different sections, and right now I don't see other club/player clashes in that scheme. Or are there? It's easy to miss something.

However, if the consensus is to go for bigger sections that would put two RW teams in one sections and/or require a couple RWs to be swapped in order to resolve player clashes, we'll likely manage.

It would help me to know the section layout quickly, though.

Have fun in T84, everyone!

P.S. Thanks to PreZandy, kurumim, LightKnight for organizing the Warm-up tourney.

First of all I'll state that I think it's highly likely that I'll end up withdrawing one of my teams. I knew before submission that I would probably need to switch wojowhiskey and Miltie around. That would give my 2 bottom teams a new rating of 1807.75 and 1764.25.

Unfortunately the 4th bottom team is currently rated 1858 that is quite a bit higher than expected so I don't think it's practical to get the two teams to work especially considering the amount of overlap. There's also a clash with mcstorytaller between MRM and TrickyMove that adds to the complications. It's kind of situation where if I knew the ratings of the other teams I'd have entered just two teams but as I didn't know beforehand I ended up with a team that didn't work.

So if I did go down to two teams then remaining team would have a rating of 1764.25 and MRM would be removed.

As far as sections go I think 4-4-5-4 might be best to avoid clashes and too big rating gaps.

So we have 15 teams this time. A bit of an awkward number, as we'll need a 5-team section somewhere (looking at potential clashes, possibly in Fischer). Please make your suggestions below, and I'll make a final decision on Friday night.