May 082012
 

This image was sourced from Martyn @ Negaro's Flickr photostream

Today I offer readers something a little different. A poll! The subject, “How many points should a match win score in a chess league?” I was prompted to put this up when I saw a recent article in the Halifax Courier by our friend and colleague Adrian Dawson of Halifax Chess Club who said this:

There may be a motion going forward to the forthcoming AGM that, instead of receiving 2 points for a win, a team may be awarded 3 points (like in football), which may be an interesting concept, as it may discourage the draw aspect of the game. If it had been in place this season Todmorden ‘A’ would be sitting at the top of Division one at this stage of the season. (In fact they would have won the championship had this rule been in place — Ed.) It often happens that the top boards tend to draw and the decision of the match hangs on the result of the bottom boards.”

Adrian goes on to encourage any and all players who are interested in this idea to attend the AGM and have their say in the debate.

Well, I certainly wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from attending the AGM which is an important event in our local chess calendar. However, I know that there will be plenty of folks (not just at Hebden Bridge Chess Club) who have a view on this but won’t be able to attend the AGM. That’s why I’m running the poll below. The question is a simple one and I’d be interested in getting the views of all our readers and visitors whether they are from Calderdale or not. I’ve taken the liberty of adding in a third answer option as well the one Adrian has proposed. This highlights an alternate approach (used in Calderdale’s annual Team Lightning tournament) which would be to place teams based on their board results and not their match results. This rule change would certainly discourage draws on individual boards in league matches. If this third option had been in place this season then Huddersfield ‘A’ would have won the League 1 title by half a board point!

Please take part and register your opinion on this topic. If you’d like to leave a comment against this post as well to expand on your point of view then that would all be useful grist to the mill for the AGM to consider. If you aren’t a Calderdale player then maybe tell us how it works in your local league and whether or not you think your scoring system is fair.
[polldaddy poll=6207387]

  3 Responses to “Your Point Being…?”

  1. Mmm,my initial response being leave it as it is … a draw can be a fair and interesting result … I shall ask around …

  2. Hi there are lots of possibilities to try and encourage decisive results ignoring the well earned draw for a moment, you could consider for each game 1 pt for a draw, 2 pts for a win with bonus pts similar to certain rugby compettions for how well you win, very subjective or extra 1/2 pts for drawing/winning against someone 10-15 pts higher than yourself. Maybe having a secong game for drawn games under the amargeddon rules ( White 3 mins only has to draw/win against black 5 mins has to win) to force a decision. All suggestions woth trying maybe, before commiting a whole season to a change in a trial comp, not sure how the game scores thing would work open to be very tactical in team selection how would this be affected by more than 5 players on a team per season. Could we look at mixing the whites/blacks for each game, with white on board 1, 3, 5 for the home team.
    My vote ultimately would be to leave it and try some alternatives before going for the wholesale change.
    Cheers

  3. It was onlu a suggestion I made but from the poll, although sadly there have not been many contributors, it looks like the majority want things to stay as as they are.

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