Mini tournaments are tournaments for up to 32 players, that can be started by any full member of Scheming Mind. A lot of people find this kind of competition more enjoyable than individual games.
Mini-Tournament Types
There are three major types of mini tournaments:
- Single round robin (all-play-all in a single game), uneven number of players between 3 and 15,
- Double round robin (all-play-all with both colours) tournaments, for any number of players between 3 and 10,
- Knockout (winner of a two-game match qualifies to the next round), for 8, 16, or 32 players.
Single Round Robin
All-play-all single round robin mini tournaments involve playing every other player in the tournament once (single game). Each player will play the same number of games as white and black (therefore the number of participants is uneven). Games are normally scored as 1 point for a win and 1/2 point for a draw, but the tournament organiser has the option to award three points for a win and one for a draw. The tournament winner is the player scoring the most points when all the games are completed and tie breaks are taken into consideration.
Ties are broken using the Sonneborn-Berger scores (the sum of the scores of defeated opponents plus half the scores of drawn opponents).
Games normally start as new players join the tournament (the first games will start when the second player joins), but the tournament organiser has the option to ensure that games start at the same time by delaying the start of all the games until the closing date of the tournament or until all the seats are filled.
The start date of each game will be five days after the new player joins or immediately after Black's first move, whichever is first, unless the player with the move has holiday booked, in this case games will start on his or her return date.
Tournaments with no participants will be deleted after two weeks, tournaments with empty slots at the start date will be reduced in size.
Games won on time will earn tournament points regardless of the number of moves entered (but only rated if more than five full moves have been played).
Double Round Robin
All-play-all round robin mini tournaments involve playing every other player in the tournament twice, as white and black (so the round-robin tournament for 10 players mean 18 new games). Games are normally scored as 1 point for a win and 1/2 point for a draw but the organiser has the option to award three points for a win and one for a draw. The tournament winner is the player scoring the most points when all the games are completed after tie breaks.
Ties are broken by direct encounter scores (results of games against opponents on the same score) and then Sonneborn-Berger scores (the sum of the scores of defeated opponents plus half the scores of drawn opponents).
Other rules are the same as for single round robin tournaments.
Knockout
When you enter a knockout tournament, you play a series of rounds. When a winner is determined for a round that player advances to the next round of play and the loser is knocked out of the tournament. The eventual winner will have won all their rounds.
Each round will consist of two boards, with each player taking one game as white and one as black.
One of these two games will randomly be selected as the primary game. Players will not normally know which board is the primary board until both games are completed, although the tournament organiser has the option to make this information visible. The winner of the primary game will have won the round; in the event that the primary game is a draw, then the secondary game will be used to determine the winner of the round. There is one exception to this rule; players who lose one of the games on time (and win the other one) will be eliminated by disqualification, whichever of the games was primary.
In the event that both games are a draw, the player who played as black in the primary game will be declared the winner of the round.
Pairings in the first round are made at random. Pairings in subsequent rounds are determined by first round pairings.
In order to ensure that the tournament progresses, games where one player has run out of time are automatically claimed by the system.
Byes are awarded in tournaments where all the slots are not filled by the closing date.
Playing in Mini-Tournaments
To play in a mini-tournament, you must find one and join it.
Finding Available Tournaments
The easiest way to locate tournaments available to join, is to go to the Community menu and choose Search Mini-Tournaments, then select the various parameters of the tournament you wish to join. The list of matching tournaments is displayed and note to indicate whether you can join this tournament. While reviewing the offers, pay attention to the tournament type, size, and clock used, also note whether the tournament is thematic, and ensure whether it is in the game variant you expect.
Alternatively one can use Friends' Mini-Tournaments, or Public Mini-Tournaments options, to display all tournaments (both recruiting, and running) - in the former case organised by friends who have tagged you, in the latter, by anybody. Especially the second list tend to be rather long and uneasy to navigate, but it gives more detailed view of the kind of competition available.
In rather unlikely case no suitable tournament is found, full members may create new tournaments.
Entry Restrictions
There can be restrictions placed on tournament entry. Some tournaments limit rating of entrants, some allow only established members to join (there are two variations here - members present on the site for at least 1 month and for at least 3 months), those restrictions can be combined. There are also special tournaments only for new members (people who joined less than month ago); tournament organisers may also restrict entry for players who have recently defaulted on games.
Guest members cannot enter tournaments.
Joining the Tournament
After locating an interesting tournament in the list, click on it, review the detailed information, and if you are still interested, click the Join button. You are immediately put on the member list. Some games will be started immediately, some (if the tournament is not yet full) in a few days or even weeks, when the next players join.
Unless at least two players join within a month of the tournament being started, it will be automatically deleted.
Double-check the game variant, and clock. Amazingly often it happens, that somebody wanting to play standard chess, joins a variant tournament instead, or that a player preferring slow pace joins one with blitz clock.
Leaving the Tournament
Once you joined the tournament, it is impossible to leave it.
Incomplete Tournaments
Any public mini-tournament with no players is deleted one week after it is created. Private mini-tournament with no players is deleted after one month.
Any tournament which has only one player is deleted six weeks after it is created.
If not all the slots of double round robin tournament are filled after two months, the size of the tournament is reduced to the number of current players in the tournament.
If not all the slots of knockout tournament are filled after two months, byes are awarded to the not-yet paired players (see this tournament for some extreme example).
Timed-out Games
Timed-out games are forfeited and awarded to the other player.
Moreover, in knock-out tournaments, in case of a tie, the timing-out player is always eliminated.
Creating Mini-Tournaments
Full (paying) members of the site are allowed to create new mini tournaments.
Before You Start
Before you create mini-tournament, please ensure there is no similar tournament currently recruiting members. If there are a few similar tournaments recruiting at the same time, they are all likely to start incomplete, such a situation is also confusing for people searching for the mini-tournament.
Pay some attention not only to the tournaments you can join, but also to others. For instance, imagine you are rated 1700, and would like to create some tournament for people of similar strength. If there is currently some tournament recruiting people open for ratings 1800-2200, then it makes more sense to create tournament for rating 1500-1800, than for 1600-1900.
Actually Creating the Tournament
To create a tournament, full members can choose Start a Mini-Tournament from the My Games menu. The member creating the tournament can choose the parameters of the tournament, including the variant (standard chess or other variant), time control, number of players, and restrictions on entry (membership length, rating range). Finally, decide whether you want to play the tournament yourself (even if not, you will be able to join it later, but only, of course, if you satisfy the entry criteria).
Give the tournament meaningful and attractive name! There can be plenty of ideas, but for some reason people tend to be more eager to join Mikhail Tal Memorial or Jubilee Tourney #1000, than My tournament or Johny. Do not exaggerate, nevertheless. Also, as the tournament list does not show clock and rating limits, it can make sense to mention them in the name (for example, Benko Memorial (1500-2000,30+1)). At the same time it is not necessary to mention the variant, type (knockout/round robin), or thematic opening in the name - this information is nicely shown by the interface separately.
Note: except special cases (like people creating tournaments for new players, people organising some kind of special competitions) it is usually recommended that the tournament creator plays in the tournament.
Tournaments for Limited Audience
Tournament entry can be limited to people from tagged freinds.
This is recommended way if you want to organise a special kind of tournament for a limited audience. Such a setting pays attention to the changes of the selected list, so if you happen to add new buddy, and the tournament is not yet full, he or she will be allowed to join.
Thematic Tournaments
Thematic tournaments are tournaments with a predefined opening (for instance, in French Defence thematic all games start from 1.e4 e6).
Norm Tournaments
Some tournaments allow earning title norms.
Managing Tournaments
Once created, the tournament needs no special care. There are nevertheless some options available to the tournament creator.
Modifying Tournament Parameters
Most of the tournament parameters can be modified, if necessary. In particular, it is possible to change the tournament size, switch it from private to public, modify the clock, etc (in fact, only the name can not be changed).
The changes can be made as long, as nobody (except possibly the tournament creator) has joined the tournament.
To modify a mini-tournament:
- enter the tournament info screen,
click Edit tournament parameters link,
in the opened tournament parameters window, make necessary changes and click Submit.
Deleting Tournaments
In case no one joined it, the mini-tournament can be deleted (this option is worth considering for instance if you created mini-tournament just to find that similar one is already recruiting); to do this, simply change the closing date to a date in the past.