What is the fairest and most exciting format for the US Championship?
1. The current format of 64 player – 9 rds SS – 2 sections – playoff match
2. The previous format of 64 player – 9 rds SS – 1 section
3. Shrink it down to 32 player – 9 rds SS
4. Change to 16 player – Knockout format
5. Change to 12 player – Round robin
6. Another suggestion?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I’ve always preferred a round-robin format for championships, but even better would be a round-robin to select a challenger for a match with the champion. “Round-robin + match” would probably be too difficult logistically to hold for a yearly championship, however.
16 player round robin would be my 1st choice but I don’t mind the 64 player swiss all in 1 section because I love those 64 square autograph chessboards.
64 player swiss in one section. Add a tenth round and the odds of a needing a playoff is lessened.
World cup style. 16 groups of four play 6 round, double round robin style. Top player from each group advances to 16 person knockout. Each group should be seeded based off rating.
Swiss Tournaments are inappropriate for confering any title other than “Winner of this X Tournament”.
For anything like a zonal tournament (that sends qualifiers to an inter-zonal), round-robin is needed. This means 12 entrants is about all that is practical (otherwise costs too much).
But a couple of the round-robin slots need to be given to winners of large Swiss style qualifying tournaments. This is needed to preserve the principle that ANYBODY has a chance to win the tourney.
If all players except 12 are excluded just based on their rating, heck just use rating to declare a winner and save everybody the hassle.
Gene Milener
http://www.CastleLong.com
I don’t really like dividing the field into two pools, and I really hate it if the final match is not held at a classical time control. What’s the point of running 9 rounds of swiss to find two people to play a rapid game for the US championship?
6. the winner of the tournament plays a match against last years champion.
the champion should retain his reign until defeated by a challenger.
this is a much more exciting and much better way to go. Everyone may not realize it but this is the way the champion was always decided. then we got away from it. ( big mistake ) now is our chance to return to the old original way of determining the champion.
Match between Champion and Challenger.
Way to Go.
How can we ask for this from Fide when we dont do the same for ourself.
the 64 player tournament must end. that was a mess. ONLY the top players are allowed to play for the winning the roll as Challenger to the Champion.
the most that is needed is maybe up to 12 players in a short tournament. enough for one to show he is the Challenger. The players should be the strongest ACTIVE players. those with the highest rating while playing a minimum number of games over the previous 12 months.
this can all be very easy to setup and accomplish. it should cost much less than the 64 player arrangement.
Keep it simple. Invite only the top players. forget everyone else. they get to qualify by playing chess and getting their rating up there. if they have not earned a high rating by the fire of tournaments, then they just dont get to play. those who have proven to be among the best are the chosen ones to play.
The US Championship is NOT about helping the low rated players make norms. it is about one and only one thing. getting the best challenger to challenge the champion.
if you want to include say the winner of the World Open and the winner of the US Open and 10 other top players that is fine with me.
Choice #2.
“are inappropriate for confering any title other than “Winner of this X Tournament”.”
where X = US Championship.
Swiss is just fine for this kind of national championship event.
Of the alternatives listed:
Fairest = Round-robin
Most exciting = Knockout