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A system of rules for conducting Tournaments, which while requiring even less time than the present system, shall secure equitable results
The method for conducting Tournaments, which I have to propose, involves two departures from the present method. First, I propose to make a `match' last only half a day… secondly, I propose to give only 3 prizes. The rules for a Tournament of 32 Players would be as follows --
(a) The Tournament begins in the middle of the 1st day, so that there is only one contest that day -- the 32 Players being arranged in 16 pairs.
(b) A list is kept, and against each name is entered, at the end of each contest, the name of any one who has been superior to him -- whether by actually beating him, or by beating some one who has done so (thus, if A beats B, and B beats C, A and B are both 'superiors' of C). So soon as any name has 3 'superiors' entered against it, it is struck out of the list.
(c) For the 2nd day (morning) the 16 unbeaten men are paired together, and similarly the 16 with 1 superior (the Losers in these last-named pairs will now have 3 superiors each, and will therefore be struck off the list). In all other contests they are paired in the same way: first pairing the unbeaten, then those with 1 superior, and so on, and avoiding, as far as possible, pairing two Players who have a common superior.
(d) By the middle of the 3rd day the unbeaten are reduced to two, one of whom is certainly 'First-prize-man'. These two do not contend in the afternoon contest that day, but have a whole-day match on the 4th day -- the other Players meanwhile continuing the usual half-day matches.
(e) By the end of the 4th day, the 'First-prize-man' is known (by the very same process of elimination used in the existing method): and the remaining Players are paired by the same rules as before, for the 2 contests on the 5th day. If, in section (a), the Tournament was begun in the morning, the two men named in section (d) being still allowed a whole-day match, nothing would be gained in time, as the Tournament would take 4½ days, while much would be lost in interest, as the first prize would be settled in 3 days.
To illustrate these rules, I will give the complete history of a Tournament of 32 competitors, with 3 prizes. If the reader will draw out the following Tables, in blank, and fill them up for himself, referring, if necessary, to the accompanying directions, he will easily understand the workings of system.
Let the Players be arranged alphabetically, and let the relative skill with which they play in this Tournament, be --
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