There’s an extra online club tournament this week, with a Swiss Tournament 8pm Thursday 23rd July on lichess.org.
The tournament is a 5-round event in which players have ten minutes each per game. This means that the individual games are 20 minutes: 10 minutes each player with no increment, just like the popular Arenas on Tuesday evenings. This is to give a like-for-like comparison between the two types of online tournament.
So what are the differences between an online Arena tournament and a Swiss Tournament?
The main difference is the Round structure of a Swiss Tournament. In those, all the participants play the same number of games (5 in Thursday’s tournament). In an Arena event, players can end up playing a different number of games, depending on how quickly their games end: try to get as many games as you can in during the length of the tournament to maximise your chances of points. As soon as your game ends and the system can pair you against another opponent, the next game begins. In a round-based tournament, if your game ends quickly you must wait for all the other games of that round to end before being re-paired for the next Round.
With an Arena, the Tournament ends when the pre-determined time is up: for our Tuesday tournaments that’s one hour. For a swiss tournament, the tournament ends when all the Rounds are completed: Thursday’s tournament is five rounds. There will be a 1 minute gap between the last game of a Round ending and the next Round starting (a setting that could be changed in any future tournament).
The swiss tournament on Thursday will be on the same online chess host as the Arenas – lichess.org. There are some differences between the types of tournament on that system: for example no winning streaks or draw streaks in a Swiss tournament – and no option to go ‘Berserk’. Berserk is a fun option in the Arenas where you can gamble half your time in a game for the chance of getting an extra point – if you win.
The swiss tournament is set up ready to join. The event starts at 8pm, tomorrow Thursday 23rd July.