From: SalvaAC <at> AOL <dot> COM
Date: 6 nov 1998
Subject: Re: Sushi Open - Best way to organize a tournament in small

George,

>From what experience I've had, usually when there are prizes involved and a
large disparity in strength of players, a handicap system is usually employed.
As far as rating the players, we've been fortunate here in Chicago to play
some very strong players both here and in Washington DC who are able to give
us a good idea of our ranking and appropriate handicaps.  One thing I've
always seen done is have some sort of tournament where everyone keeps playing,
rather than an elimination type tourney.  For our larger tournaments here,
we've been fortunate to have people donate prizes - even if they are very
small ones - so that everybody can come away with something.  If there are few
enough people, we've done round robins (even a long one-day tournament with
eight players we did that last month).  The other plus is that it gets your
beginners a good number of games to play and gain some experience.  And the
post mortems afterwards are always of great benefit.  Other popular choice is
a Swiss system.

I think the most important thing, really, is just to do it.  Bring in whoever
you can.  Even if it isn't perfect, if everyone is enthusiastic and having
fun, that's really the entire point behind it all.

Bonne chance!
Tony