Quads
Quads offer our members regular, competitive Chess & Go with a flexible schedule.
Pairings & Results
See the Google Doc.
What are Quads?
Our members optionally participate in our January-thru-June Quad Season. Up-to-four players are paired into Quads for an all-play-all tournament. Quads are month-long events where games are played gradually through-out the month as you are able.
Playing all your games is strongly encouraged but can’t always happen, and Quads are designed to be flexible and account for busy lives! Unplayed games are scored as nil, and inactive players are dropped to protect active-players from inactive opponents. No harm done, Rule #1 is to have fun!
Go Quads & Chess Quads work slightly differently.
Chess Quads
Quads are rank-ordered and the top Quad is called the Championship. The winner of each Quad will get promoted to the Quad above. The last-place finisher will get demoted to the Quad below. As players join/leave promotions & demotions may happen differently to balance the Quads.
Go Quads
Quads are rank-ordered and grouped according to strength, with the goal of keeping opponent’s within 9 stones of each other. All games are played with a handicap to make the games even. If you rank-up, you will be promoted to a more suitable Quad. Go Games naturally take longer than Chess games which presents an extra challenge for playing all of your games. To accommodate this, Go Quads are played over a 3-month period, with 3 games versus each opponent in that time.
Super-Quads
Summer & Fall are outside of Quad-Season and are more casual. Our members compete in low-stakes Super-Quads, a huge (and silly) all-play-all tournament that lasts 3-months. These events allow the entire club to play together while letting our members enjoy the summer and holidays without the pressure of more-serious competitive play.
Schedule
Quad-Season runs from January-thru-June and decides the Club Chess & Go Champions. Summer & the Holidays, July-thru-December, are a more casual Off-Season & Pre-Season. They are more relaxed, 3-month-long Super-Quads that offer some fun competitive play during the hotter months. Some seriousness returns in the Fall as Pre-Season decides the Tie-Breaks for the start of next-year’s Quad-Season!
| Schedule | Season | Grand-Prix |
|---|---|---|
| Jan-Jun | Quad-Season | Winter & Spring |
| Jul-Sep | Off-Season | Summer |
| Oct-Dec | Pre-Season | Holiday |
Sign-Up/Opt-Out
Please speak to Dean at club-night if you’d like to sign-up or opt-out. There is a sign-up (and an opt-out) form on the clip-board which should be filled in.
If you become inactive you will be dropped. If you know you’ll be away - let Dean know in advance and he can adjust pairings. You can rejoin at any time. Just speak to Dean - in some cases we can get you onto the super-quad right away.
We only recommend Quads to members who average at least 50% attendance.
Tie-Breaks
When two players score the same points tie-breaks are used to decide which player is promoted/demoted. The following tie-breaks are used in order:
- Head-to-head score.
- Games played.
- Previous Grand-prix.
This means that if you are paired with someone who out-performed you in the previous Grand-Prix, you must out-perform them in the current Quad or lose on tie-breaks!
NB. If head-to-head score creates a “circular-tie”, the previous Grand-Prix becomes the tie-breaker. This is a rare case, but can happen when e.g. if three players scored 2-0 against each other; A beats B, B beats C, C beats A. The players finish according to their position in the previous Grand-Prix.
Championships
Quad-Season decides that year’s Chess & Go Champions. Players compete in a season-long race from January-thru-June by winning Championship Points. At the end of the season, the player with the most Championship points wins the title. (The Championship will be decided by a play-off if two-or-more players are tied on Championship points.)
Players earn Championship points according to where the placed in their Quad and which Quad they played in:
| Chess/Go Quad | Pos | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Championship/Dan | 1st | 5 |
| 2nd | 3 | |
| 3rd | 2 | |
| Challenger/SDK | 1st | 3 |
| 2nd | 2 | |
| 3rd | 1 | |
| Any/DDK | 1st | 2 |
| 2nd | 1 |
Grand-Prix
Each quarter Quad players compete in the Grand-Prix. At the end of the Quarter, the player to accumulate the most Grand-Prix points over 3-months wins. (The same tie-breaks as Quads apply.)
Grand-Prix points for each month are calculated as:
score + games played + check-ins
There are four Grand-Prix races each year, one for each season:
| Grand-Prix | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Winter | Jan | Mar |
| Spring | Apr | Jun |
| Summer | Jul | Sep |
| Holiday | Oct | Dec |
You may only win one Grand-Prix per year. Previous winners are ommited from subsequent standings, although they still earn points for tie-break purposes. The highest any previous winner can place in any Grand-Prix later that year is 2nd.
Prizes
- Quad Winners
- Winning any Quad earns you promotion & Championship points.
- Grand-Prix Winners
- Winning the Grand-Prix earns you the Grand-Prix Mug (and a better tie-break during the next Grand-Prix.)
- Championship
- Once Quad-Season ends, the player with the most Championship points wins the Champion title & a trophy.
See the Club History for a record of our Champions and Grand-Prix winners.
Rules
- Have fun! (No-one wins if you’re not fun to play with!)
- A Grand-Prix lasts 3-months. You may join at any time. Grand-Prix Points: Games played + score + check-ins.
- Go is paired quarterly. Play 3 games vs each opponent, the winner scores a point.
- Chess is paired monthly. Play both colors vs each opponent.
- Please withdraw before pairings if you plan to skip-a-month, travel, or otherwise be inactive.
- Check-in to signal to your Quad-mates when you’ve arrived.
- Time-Controls must be G10+5 for Chess or G5+30sx5 for Go.
- Place a QUAD GAME sign next to your game.
- All games played at the club and unplayed games score nil.
- Touch-a-piece-move-that-piece! (Or capture that piece!)
- Tie-Breaks: head-to-head score, game-count, previous Grand-Prix.
- Inactive players may be dropped from the Quad to protect active-players from inactive-opponents.
- Quads may be repaired/rebalanced as players join/leave.