All Grades
WHY WHY WHY are some Open tournaments called "All Grades"??
What means "All Grades"?
Look in the Manual for a definition and its not there
Although it defines Intermediate, Junior, Restricted Multigrade etc
At my club's annual tournament this year (which we described on our poster as "Open B" but which was labelled "All Grades" on the website) one pair who were first in their grade combination were aggrieved the didn't get a prize.
Evidently they thought it was Multigrade (which does award prizes for the top pair(s) in every grade combination) and which it was not and never as been
And last year we had a enquiry from someone who wanted to know whether two open players were eligible.
That "someone" was a member of the NZB Board
More compelling evidence of the misleading designation of the tournament would be hard to find.
And one wonders how many others didn't enter (when they otherwise would have) because they didn't think they were eligible
Why can't Open tournaments just be called "Open"??
Latest Posts on this Thread
- KAREN MARTELLETTI11 Jul 2019 at 09:14AM
You make some good points Nick
It was called this to make it clear to participants that anyone of any grade can play, as it was thought the word "Open" was a barrier and only for Open players. I will pass this onto Rona Driscoll who is the Tournament Organiser who set this up.
- RONA DRISCOLL11 Jul 2019 at 01:17PM
Time for some facts....
For many years clubs in the South Island have called their open tournaments "all grades". This is to emphasise the fact that open tournaments are open to all grades of player, not just to open players. And as I understand it, most of the South Island open/all-grades tournaments award prizes on the division basis, whatever the tournament are called. Players are divided into 3-4 divisions, based on rating points, then prizes are awarded for top placings within each division. Apparently this approach is most successful in the South Island.
In the Waikato Bays region we have tried renaming open events to "all grades" to encourage greater participation. However this initiative has not been successful, and several clubs have gone back to calling their tournaments "open". In any case, few clubs have been interested in awarding prizes on the division basis. Most clubs prefer to award prizes to the overall placings, or to various grade combinations.
You can call your 8B/3A/5A tournaments open or all grades as you choose. 5B, 8B and 3A tournaments may also be called "multigrade" if you wish to present prizes to various grade combinations. 8B tournaments can also be called "restricted" when open players may not play together.
If the name of your tournament is not correct on the tournament schedule, simply send an email to your regional committee and it can be corrected.
Rona Driscoll, National Tournament Schedule Co-ordinator, tournament.schedule@nzbridge.co.nz
- Brad Johnston12 Jul 2019 at 02:05PM
This seems spurious to me:
In the Waikato Bays region we have tried renaming open events to "all grades" to encourage greater participation. However this initiative has not been successful, and several clubs have gone back to calling their tournaments "open". In any case, few clubs have been interested in awarding prizes on the division basis. Most clubs prefer to award prizes to the overall placings, or to various grade combinations.
There's no hard-and-fast rule about how clubs should determine if or what 'extra' prizes they should give out after a bridge tournament. Surely awarding prizes to various grade combinations is semantically the same as having a multi-grade tournament; where the grades are selected based on the ranking of the players involved - (nominally Open-Open = Rank 1; Open-* = Rank 2; Int-Int = Rank 3; Jun-Jun = Rank 4) - with Rank 1 players eligible only for prizes in the final standings and players from each other Rank are eligible to win the overall prizes or prizes from their grades.
The only reason that I can see that bridge players aren't receptive to this style of tournament is that the mechanisms behind them are opaque, and people are dissatisfied when they expect a tournament to award 'additional' prizes they might be eligible for and doesn't (cue posts like Nick's trying to figure it out -- a lot of people would simply be confused and decide not to play and do something else). NZ Bridge and bridge clubs as a whole are beholden to try and encourage as many people as possible to try and enjoy tournament play; and a more welcoming and clear environment (and a realistic shot at prize-money!) goes a long way to making it more pleasant for people to voluntarily give up their weekends for a card game. - GILES HANCOCK12 Jul 2019 at 07:02PM
The problem is using "Open" for a national grade. All tournaments should be open, and then it becomes redundant what they are called.
My biggest issue is the over-use of the masterpoint allocation for a tournament as a label for the quality of players - 10A, 5A, 8B etc
We need better, simpler labelling that will attract new tournament players.
- ADELE C HUGHES03 Sep 2019 at 12:52AM
aaaa
- NICK WHITTEN02 Oct 2021 at 01:11PM
What is an “Open Player”?
Imagine a new immigrant, who has passed all levels of ESOL with distinction, wanting to know what an “Open Player” in Bridge is.
On consulting the dictionary for meaning of “open” as an adjective the following definitions will be found.
1 Opposite of “closed” as in “a bird flew in through an open window”
2 Exposed as in “there is a dangerous open drain in the street”
3 Unrestricted as in “the council has as open meeting every month”
Plus several other uses connected to one of these (but to describe “a contestant above a certain proficiency level” does not feature at all).
None the wiser, he consults the NZB Manual on this website.
It is not in the definitions on pages E3-E4.
Ultimately he finds a definition, further down the same section, along with the definitions of Junior and Intermediate:
Open: Local Master 0*–4* and 100+ Rating Points or Local Master 5* and above or Provincial Master or higher rank.
(I won’t comment on whether he is any the wiser or not
)Why not, in the interests of Plain English, replace the word “Open” as a player’s grade with “Expert”.
If that is done anyone, who has barely passed ESOL 101, will immediately know what an “Open Tournament” is from definition 3 above.
And the “All Grades” term (which, incidentally, doesn’t have a definition anywhere in the Manual) can be consigned to the garbage bin where it belongs.
You need to be logged in to reply to threads.
Click here to log in.
Click here to log in.
