Slide system
The slide system is a practical way of using a round-robin tournament . It is especially feasible when individual players (not teams) meet and the duration of the individual rounds is very short.
With an even number of players, with n players, each player must play n-1 games. There are n / 2 games in each round , there are n-1 rounds. A total of (n-1) · n / 2 games are played. Example: 8 players, 7 rounds with 4 games each, there are 28 games in total.
The slide system is known above all for playing chess and here in particular for staging blitz tournaments , which are often organized according to this principle, especially for small events (club level). The following illustration is based on the game of chess, but can be transferred to any other game.
Essence and advantages
The essence of the slide system is that each player moves one place in the seating arrangement from round to round (see below). This ensures that he will meet every other player exactly once during the tournament. The use of pairing tables or computer programs is just as unnecessary as the announcement of the pairings by announcement or notice. As a rule, the boards at chess tournaments are set up according to the slide system in such a way that each player alternately plays with black and white.
Slide system with an even number of participants
The players move from round to round one place clockwise (to the left of the player). At one end of the row of tables, a player remains in his seat during the entire tournament (in the example image: seat 1) and is "skipped" when changing seats. This role can be understood as a place of honor (e.g. for the oldest or a disabled player) or left to a participant of the z. B. Favorite is. This player plays alternately with black and white, so turns his chessboard over before each game . At the other end of the row of tables, you normally take the next seat in clockwise direction, i.e. move to the opposite side of the board on which you have just played.
Example: The participants play against each other in pairs in the first round (in the following illustration the participants are marked by numbers) ...
Runde 1. (1 gegen 14, 2 gegen 13, ... ) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
... then one participant remains permanently seated (in this example number 1; there has to be one participant at the end of the table row, not in the middle!) While the others "slide on" clockwise ...
Runde 2. (1 gegen 13, 14 gegen 12, ... ) 1 14 2 3 4 5 6 13 12 11 10 9 8 7
Runde 3. (1 gegen 12, 13 gegen 11, ... ) 1 13 14 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 9 8 7 6
... until you almost end up at the starting position again
Runde 13. (1 gegen 2, 3 gegen 14, ... ) 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 14 13 12 11 10 9
If there is an odd number of participants, a dummy participant can be added whose opponent does not play in one round.
Slide system for an uneven number of participants
If the number of participants is uneven, all players move one place clockwise from round to round. There is no player who holds his place. At one end of the row of tables, the place on the same board is changed as described above (in the example picture: at the right end of the table; places 4 and 5) At the other end there is (at least virtually) the place for the respective game-free participant (in the example picture: place 9 ).
Slide system for teams
Team blitz tournaments can also be held using this procedure. You have to replace “one board” with an entire row of boards the size of the team and the “table row” of the individual tournament with the sequence of the team rows.