The following slightly unusual set of Ladder rules have been devised with three main purposes in mind:
- To reward those who play regularly at the expense of those who do not.
- To provide an incentive for stronger players to play regularly if they want to win.
- To enable any player to challenge any other player. Given the relatively small number of people who turn up to play on any particular night, it would be too restrictive if challenges were limited by relative positions on the Ladder,.
I am not sure how well the proposals will achieve this or indeed work fairly in practice but lets give it a go! All suggestions for improvement welcome.
Rules
- The Ladder will operate for the whole year concluding the week before next year’s AGM. There will be a prize for the person then at the top of the ladder.
- All club members will be included on the Ladder initially reverse order of estimated playing strength with the stronger players at the bottom.
- To qualify for inclusion in the final placings at the end of the season, a player must have played at least 6 games. No more than 3 games can be played between the same opponents.
- Games will normally be played to league time limits and the minimum time that may be agreed between players is 30 minutes each. Colours will be established by drawing of lots or toss of coin.
- Ladder positions will be displayed on the notice board along with a Results Sheet. Players should enter the results of games played on the Sheet including the date and actual time that the game was completed. The Tournament Secretary will update the Ladder itself adjusting for the impact of games in the strict chronological order in which they were played.
- Anyone may challenge anyone else regardless of relative positions on the ladder. The result will affect the Ladder as follows:
- If the game is a draw both players will rise one place on the ladder.
- If the game is decisive, the winning player will rise three places on the ladder. The losing player will remain in his previous position unless he drops a place as a result of the winning player overtaking him.
- In order to enable players who are already in the first three places to benefit from drawn or won games, “empty rungs” will be created as necessary between the players and these rungs will remain as a part of the ladder to be climbed or descended thereafter. Thus if the player at the top of the ladder wins a game, there will then be three empty rungs between him and the second player.