Friday, April 29, 2011

[plvmgucx] Random pairings chess tournament

A "round robin" chess tournament which is not actually round robin.  Pairings and color are chosen randomly each day immediately before the start of each game.

While random, the probabilities need not be uniformly random.  Previously played opponents and color imbalance get lower probability, though not zero.

The goal (I don't know if it'll work) is like Chess 960.  With, say 14 possible outcomes of opponent and color (for an 8 player tournament), one cannot deeply prepare a single opening, so the player's own skill, and not of their opening preparation team, will be on display.

A slight variation: players are sequestered from each other so they don't know who they are playing.

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