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A McMahon system tournament is a tournament design for games such as go and chess that attempts to generalize and improve upon the Swiss system. As in a Swiss tournament, all players compete in the same number of rounds against various other players. Unlike Swiss, the players do not all start with zero points, but are awarded initial points based on their rating prior to the tournament. This gives starting advantage to higher rated players, but they will play tougher opponents from the very start. The system features an "upper bar", set to a specific rating, so that all players rated above that are considered to have a chance to win the tournament, and start with the same number of points.
McMahon pairing matches players in each round against opponents that have equal or almost equal numbers of points so far. Players gain a point for each round they win or half a point for a draw. The player with the highest number of points after the last round is the tournament winner. Some set of tie-breaking rules must be chosen in advance to be applied if two or more players achieve the same number of points.
The system is named after Lee McMahon of Bell Labs, and was originally used as a club ranking system at the New York Go Club. It was then adopted for Go tournaments in Britain, and has since become the most popular tournament system used in Go. Use of the McMahon system does not determine policy on other tournament questions such as whether to pair players from the same club, whether to use accelerated pairings, whether Go games should be even or handicap, etc.
The advantage of the McMahon system over the Swiss system is that it requires fewer rounds to find a winner, and that it avoids extreme match-ups (very strong players against very weak players) in the earlier rounds. By matching up possible tournament winners earlier, the system allows for more games amongst this group, and thus improves sampling. In other words, the sorting effect of wins and losses propelling players up and down is applied all along to refine what is believed to be a pretty good initial ordering, rather than being wasted merely to bring similarly skilled players together into roughly sorted order, and thus the McMahon system achieves a more accurate final sorted order. It also is said to deliver better playing experiences to players at all levels.
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A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed.
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a single-elimination system or one of several other different playoff formats. Playoff, in regard to international fixtures, is to qualify or progress to the next round of a competition or tournament.
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A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden-death tournament, is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion. Each match-up may be a single match or several, for example two-legged ties in European sports or best-of series in North American pro sports. Defeated competitors may play no further part after losing, or may participate in "consolation" or "classification" matches against other losers to determine the lower final rankings; for example, a third place playoff between losing semi-finalists. In a shootout poker tournament, there are more than two players competing at each table, and sometimes more than one progresses to the next round. Some competitions are held with a pure single-elimination tournament system. Others have many phases, with the last being a single-elimination final stage, often called playoffs.
A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost two games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimination tournament, in which only one defeat results in elimination.
A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn. A round-robin contrasts with an elimination tournament, wherein participants are eliminated after a certain number of wins or losses.
Duplicate bridge is a variation of contract bridge where the same set of bridge deals are played by different competitors, and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, every hand, whether strong or weak, is played in competition with others playing identical cards, and the element of skill is heightened while that of chance is reduced. This stands in contrast to Bridge played without duplication, where each hand is freshly dealt and where scores may be more affected by chance in the short run.
A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor does not play all the other competitors. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but does not play the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. With an even number of participants, all competitors play in each round.
This page is a glossary of tennis terminology.
Mus is a card game widely played in Spain, France and Hispanic America. Originated in the Basque Country, it is a vying game. The first reference to this game goes back to 1745, when Manuel Larramendi, philologist and Jesuit Basque, quoted it the trilingual dictionary (Basque-Spanish-Latin).
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the single elimination, the best-of- series, the total points series more commonly known as on aggregate, and the round-robin tournament.
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The Page playoff system is a playoff format used primarily in softball and curling at the championship level, and the Indian Premier League and Pakistan Super League cricket tournaments. Teams are seeded using a round-robin tournament and the top four play a mix of a single-elimination and double-elimination tournament to determine the winner. It is identical to a four-team McIntyre system playoff, first used by the WANFL, SANFL and VFL in Australia in 1931, originally called the Page–McIntyre system, after the VFL delegate, the Richmond Football Club's Secretary, Percy "Pip" Page, who had advocated its use. A form has been adopted in the Canadian Premier League national soccer competition.
In sports, a bye is the preferential status of a player or team that is automatically advanced to the next round of a tournament without having to play an opponent in an early round.
In a group tournament, unlike a knockout tournament, there is no scheduled decisive final match. Instead, all the competitors are ranked by examining the results of all the matches played in the tournament. Typically, points are awarded for each match, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per match.
Swiss system tournaments, a type of group tournament common in chess and other board games, use various criteria to break ties between players who have the same total number of points after the last round. This is needed when prizes are indivisible, such as titles, trophies, or qualification for another tournament. Otherwise players often share the tied spots, with cash prizes being divided equally among the tied players.
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A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.
A duplicate bridge movement is a scheme used in a duplicate bridge session to arrange which competitors play which opponents when, and which boards they play. The arrangement has to satisfy various constraints which often conflict to some extent, requiring compromises. The resolution of these compromises is to a considerable extent a matter of taste, so players should be consulted as to their preferences if this is practicable.
Schnapsen, Schnapser or Schnapsa is a trick-taking card game of the bézique (ace–ten) family that is very popular in Bavaria and in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and has become the national card game of Austria and Hungary. Schnapsen is both of the point-trick and trick-and-draw subtypes.