ONLINE 9-HIGH SWISS PAIRS

1. Starting series TWENTY ONE on Monday 7th May 2023, one 12-board match per week (Sunday-Saturday) each week following.  Entries must be emailed to online-swissp@gcba.org.uk 
2. No player can be NGS-JACK or above; if one player is NGS-10 then partner must be NGS-8 or below; any combination of NGS-9 and below is allowed.
3. Matches for each week will be announced by email (but does depends on results being reported to the CTD).
4. Match allocations will be done on Swiss principles (top scorers play top scorers, etc, so you meet pairs of similar strength); we are having 6 matches in the series and no repeats.
5. This game is being organised by the GCBA for Gloucestershire players, but partners from outside the county are allowed.
6. Late entries to the competition are no problem, and such pairs will come in with a 50% score.

Any further queries will be managed by the GCBA CTD.

The VP scale in use is as follows :

SOME HISTORY

Looking at the stats over the twenty series (I have a massive spreadsheet of these)

• We have had 56 different pairs across the 20 series.
• Only two pairs (Boreham & Jackson, Reeves) have played all twenty series, which means 120 matches (less the odd one that could not be arranged).
• Alan & Teresa Thomas came in only for the last match in series one and have played 115 matches.
• Ralph Brookes & Diana Davies have missed two series because of holidays but have now clocked up 108 matches.
• Ron Dowell & Peter Martin missed the first three series but have been in ever since and clocked up 102 matches.
• Three other pairs have clocked up 16 series each and could hit their hundredth match in the next series (Arkell & Foreman, Bailey & Mussi, Clayson & Wall, Little & Wilkinson)
• Eight pairs have played all of the last 10 series - of which not mentioned above are Jim Berry & Cyril Green, David Bruce & David Knott, Martyn Moxley & Neville Shorrick

And from a different perspective (subject to minor adjustment once series 20 finishes)

• Best average score for a regular pair is Jonathan Bailey & Pauline Mussi (12.64 VPs per match) but they have dropped out and the best of the current pairs is Ralph Brookes & Diana Davies (11.84 VPs per match)
• The Reeves have managed four wins, and two pairs have managed 3 wins, and a total of 11 different pairs have won at different times; Derek Boreham & Moya Jackson have managed 2^nd place three times but never first.
• In terms of improvement, across the last ten series compared to the first, Karen Rix & Liz Rowley have shown the greatest improvement of about 1.42 VPs per match.
  • and looking at series 16-20 compared to series 11-15, that honour goes to Janet Little & Louise Wilkinson

1.  As soon as you get notification please contract the other pair to found out their BBO names and to arrange a day and time to play.  Note that BBO is much less busy morning and afternoon than it is evening.  To make it easy to arrange matches, you could keep 1030 every Monday morning as free time for this match?

2.  To create the match on BBO follow the following steps (all players are assumed to have a BBO account - if not here's how to sign up https://youtu.be/KrY6ZqVGvX8)

• First login and all players must go to "Casual" and then one player from the four must go to "Start a Table".  
• Set the scoring method (top left, drop down list) to Matchpoints and put GCBA Swiss Pairs in the title
• Click on "Permission required to play" and click on "Invisible" (this is need to stop random people coming to the table) and then pull on the scroll bar until you see the "Reserve Seats" option and fill in the four names of the two pairs.
• Now hit "Start Table - competitive game" and an invitation will be send to exactly your three other names to come to the table. Then you play.
• The scores will be visible in the HISTORY tab on the right; your result will be matchpiointed against the result of (eventually 15) others who played the same board. Some of these scores will be from good players, some from bad and they may seem a bit random, but that should average out over 12 boards to give you a fair result.
• After you have played 12 boards make a note of the %age for each pair (this quite often changes, and sometimes noticeably, after the event if matchpointing is not complete when you finish).  You need to email the result to online-swissp@gcba.org.uk, who will convert it to VPs using the above scale and enter it on the system.   Everyone should then hit the BACK or HOME button to leave the match.
• If anything goes wrong during this, BBO-message to patr1cks, or send me an email, or phone 01242 570710. 

5.  If a match cannot be scheduled within the week then it will be declared an 8-8 draw.  If someone has to sit out the system gives them a score of 14 VPs.  Cumulative results will appear on the GCBA website.

6.  Do your best to support the principle of FULL DISCLOSURE, being profuse in your explanation of bids and your carding agreements. You can create a BBO convention card - video showing how is here.   And there is a nice video also available on alerting your own bids.  You are also encouraged to make your profile honest and complete - so that your opponents can tell against whom they are playing.

Any further questions or useful ideas - please email online-swissp@gcba.org.uk