Sunday 6 June 2010

A table of Odds

'Novelty' tournaments are one way for a chess club to provide a bit of variety to the regular calendar. On format used is the 'Handicap Tournament', where players either recieve a time or material handicap.
Time handicaps are fairly straight forward, where the time each player recieved is based on the ratings difference. One event I played 25 years ago had 30 minute games, where (IIRC) there was a 2 minute difference in time for every 100 rating point difference (with a minimum of 5 minutes for the stronger player). For example if there was difference of 200-299 points the clocks would start with 19-11 while a >1000 point difference would see 25-5 on the clocks. However I still think a stronger player can overcome the difference in time far more easily than a difference in material.
Much for common (in Canberra at least) is the material handicap tournament. As a rule of thumb the handicap is 1 pawn per 100 points difference. Of course you wouldn't give up 6 pawns for a 600 point difference, instead surrendering rook+pawn. Having run just such a tournament today here is a table of odds for the rating brackets we used. (NB This is based on 'traditional' odds, like Queen's rooks and f pawns, but I couldn't actually find a list on the internet, at least in the 5 or so minutes I spent searching)

  • less than 100 - no odds
  • 100-199 f pawn
  • 200-299 Q Knight for stronger player, f pawn for weaker
  • 300-399 Q Knight
  • 400-499 Q Knight + f pawn
  • 500-599 Q Rook
  • 600-699 Q Rook + f pawn
  • 700-799 Q Rook + Q Knight for stronger player, f pawn for weaker
  • 800-899 Q Rook + Q Knight
  • 900-999 Queen
  • >999 Queen + f pawn

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