Permanently seated pairs in Swiss Pairs
I'll be running a Swiss Pairs in a month and a half, and for the first time I may have 2 (or possibly more?) sitting pairs taking part. Is it preferable for both the sitting pairs to be sat in the same direction, or opposite directions? And if more than 2, again what is recommended approach? Thank you
Comments
Probably it doesn't make a huge difference, intuitively I'd avoid seating them the same way just so they're not being compared on all the boards for the whole event. But for a Swiss this probably isn't a key consideration.
If you have 3 sitting pairs and one pair is more able than the others you can set 2 sitting pairs to play each other on the first round. This may be important when you don't have many tables, better to be prepared than have a problem later in the event. The moving sitting pair can then be set as sitters for the subsequent rounds.
"Make the assignments for Round 2 by clicking the ‘Do Round 2 Draw’ button on the Assignments screen.
a: if two sitting pairs have played each other on the first round then you will need to check that the
moved sitters are at the new table. Next go to the “Sitters” tab and select the correct pair and then
the correct table and make sure they are correctly added to the list of “Sitters”."
As far as the orientation is concerned I don't think it will make much difference to the result.
Good luck with the event, many enjoy the prospect of only playing against their "peers", rather than the "stronger" pairs.