There is something about that knockout football format: Two venues, two legs, one winner. It’s tense. Teams can be dominant at home and fall apart elsewhere. Or vice versa. Only half the story appear on the scoreline. And then the other half gets explained by the away goals rule; this mechanism that rewards attackers when … Read more

Fans were confused by the away-goals rule. For decades, it made two-leg games fair. The rule was a mathematical backup for away teams. Under this scenario, if the away team had enough goals on the board, a draw would of been a win. That meant you could go into another team’s home ground and get … Read more

Practicing puzzle problems at home give you the confidence to go into a local quick tournament; however, sitting down next to someone who types as fast as computer may not be a good thing. That’s when math overtakes intuition. There are rating systems for events like that that try to anticipate those moments. A rating … Read more

As I mentioned before, being in charge of running tournament final introduces a unique sort of anxiety. It’s all about the tables, watching the clock tick down, knowing that this best-of-five match has the potential to stretch out into an entire evening. It’s never very obvious what math looks like for these series. Our brains … Read more

Once the registration period ends, it’s time to start bracketing. Now you’re looking at a list of people’s names and trying to slot them into some kind of format that will accommodate a certain number of participant. It’s not just a mathematical problem; it’s also a logistics one. It is a logistics one. You want … Read more

For tournament directors with limited rounds to play out big fields, it is a stressful time. With only 5 rounds for 90 players, a problem arise: traditional Swiss pairings cause the field to split rapidly into either zeros or perfect scores. There is no middle ground. Before top players stabilize into their proper places, they … Read more

Sometimes it takes three months for a game of chess to end. Sometimes you think about that move over your lunch break. Maybe you look at email way past midnight. Then there’s this moment when the rating comes through. This is judgment, right? You gain or lose points. It is a number on a screen. … Read more