Tournament on Jan 8

There's been a lot of interest and chess club hasn't even officially started yet! This is good sign.
I'm so pleased that the parents are fully behind the kids. It's often not the case. Some concern was expressed about this tournament.

This is a match play team tournament. It's the only one all year where the coach must select his 5 players. For details on the ratings read this blog all the way through. Match play is an exciting way for teams to play against each other. Normally huge teams have a big advantage because they can play 40 kids and just use the top 4 scores. So this plays in our favor because we are a smaller club. Also teams with one or two really good players have a huge advantage because that's the kid who scores 7 at statewide. Two sevens is impossible to catch. Again, I think the match play favors Salem Hills. We don't have any superstars, but we can lose at boards 1 and 2 and still win the match with our 3, 4, and 5 players.

That's the other nice thing about this. Our #3 #4 and #5 player never have to play the top players. It's a chance for a player who typically wins 3 to win all 5! It's also a chance for a player used to winning trophies to go 0-5 and become a little humbler. And it give the top players a chance to play top-notch players all day long.

Here's how it stands as of 8:30 Thursday evening.

Dincer, Ethan - probably not - has a conflict in the afternoon, may play in the open
Thai, Robert - Yes (board 1)
Long, Michaela - Yes ( board 2)
Mockovak, Jules - Have not heard
Scufsa, Addison - Have not heard
Robinson, Joseph - Yes (On the team, Board 3, 4 or 5)
Campbell, Chase - Yes ( Board 4, 5 or Open section)
Olson, Jack - Probably (Board 5 or Open)
Jarvis, John Paul - Have not heard
Thai, Donald - Yes (Board 5 or Open)
Dempsey, Charlie Yes ( will play in open)
Others - will play in Open

Ratings: Normally I couldn't possibly do this with players I've never met, but I am a computer programmer and have written software to analyze the SCA tournament results and rank all players. I have confidence in the accuracy of the results and I have done statistical analyses of rankings vs outcome at the statewide tournament and found them to be very accurate. So I'm using them to select the team for this tournament and I'll be using them as a starting point for club rating. Our club ratings will diverge from the SCA ratings once club starts and I will use club ratings next year for this tournament.

The way the ratings work is your first rating is a your 5 opponent's rating plus 400 if you win, or -400 if you lose with a minimum of 100. Then you average all 5 scores.
After that the winner receives points from the loser. It's 16 points plus or minus 1 point for every 25 points between your ratings.

Examples: You play someone 112 points higher and win - you get 16 + 4 = 20
You play someone 180 points lower and win - you get 16 - 7 = 9 points.
You play someone 380 stronger and lose. You lose 16 - 15 = 1 point.
There is a maximum of 32 and a minimum of 1 point for any game.
Suppose you draw against someone 100 points stronger - you gain 4 points from him.

So you can see that there is little penalty for losing to a really good player, and there is not much of a reward for winning against an easier player. Big rewards can be won by beating stronger players and you can lose big points for stalemating a beginner. So be careful when playing someone really easy - you could lose big points. On ther other hand, don't be afraid to play a really good player - there is little penalty for losing and big rewards if you can even get a draw!