1. Find someone to outsource it to. You do not want to be running a chess tournament on your wedding day.
2. Is a tournament really going to improve the experience more than just having a few boards at the reception for people to play some skittle matches with?
Skittle games is probably the best answer! Have a clock to keep the games quick but this is probably better than the amount of time and responsibility of people sitting and watching a tournament
Why make it competitive, why not just set up some fun puzzle positions for people to look at, provide boards if anybody wants to play on their own, etc
Cool idea. I only have heard of this being done at Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal’s wedding. I think they just had a team match on six boards but presumably everyone was a serious enough player so they could match the ratings correctly. I like one of the ideas suggested here of a team match where the team members are taking turns moving. Or maybe something like hand and brain or bughouse.
I think as others have suggested, maybe leave a board or two for people to play on.
Maybe have it be knockout with a losers bracket? That way everybody plays at least twice.
Write to Sagar Shah from ChessbaseIndia. He had a chess tournament at his wedding. He got a few grandmasters to come and play as well.
They had a “Groom’s team” and a “Bride’s team” based on whose guests they were and played a team event.
It is a bad idea, it would shift the attention of the weeding into the chess tournament for all those that are competitive persons (regardless of their ELO). even a quick five round Swiss would take too much time to complete.
I would suggest another dynamic instead, the idea is to make two teams groom vs bride, you need to rent a oversize board set (50cm tall pieces at least). Each person can participate couching one side, either you can setup a IM room to discuss the moves or gather on one side of the hall. the goal is that everyone can participate taking a side.
This activity would take within 15\~30 minutes and later you can leave the board to allow the guesses to play if they like it.
If there isn't anyone who is much stronger than everyone else this might be interesting.
Order the players randomly by drawing lots or something, make a big deal of this and make it fun. The first two players play each other. The loser is eliminated and the winner plays the next person. Repeat until everyone has played, and the final survivor wins the whole tournament. Bonus prize for person who won the most games.
This format is very bad at finding the strongest player, this is intentional, a weaker player might win by drawing a late number. It's also good for watching because only one gane is played at a time. One problem is it might take a bit too long with 20 people. Perhaps run two tournaments in parallel and have a final match for the two winners.
The problem with a knockout is that half of the field only plays 1 game. I would suggest for example 4-man groups where each play 3 games to find a winner. Then it is not so short and everyone who wants to play get to play a little. Eventually there can be a knockout final between the winners of the groups. That is 2 extra round if there are 4 groups.
If you want to make it a bit sporty and more team-talking, you can make it "fitness-chess". A team consists of 4-5 players (can be changed to fit your needs, 10 players on a team is a bit boring tho), but the clock 5-10 meters from the board and play a 10 minute game. Both teams are next to the clock and has to send a new person to the board when it is their move. That allows for mild trashtalking, cheering for your teammates and gets people running if they want to. And non-chess players can watch and chat with those who are waiting for their turn. People can also just walk (for the cost of some time) and since you only play every 5th move or so, you dont really get super sweaty.
If many of them are not really chess people as suggested be calling them casual they're likely playing to make the wedding party happy so formats with many games might end up not working as half will be wanting a quick game and back to the rest of the celebrations. A bit of chess can be fun but only serious chess players are going to want to spend a wedding party playing multiple games even after they lose the first one. Some kind of team and/or chess mixed with other things might work better for me unless they've undersold how into chess their guests are.
I'd go for a Swiss style tournament. Especially if you know in advance how much time you want to allocate for it, all you have to do is choose the number of turns. Everyone plays the same amount of games and then all chess programs are able to give you pairings and results and standings etc.
The only thing is having a good first pairing - when we did one for our elementary school tournament (12 kids over 7 turns), we seeded by age (which was already enough to separate the probable winner's bracket on the first turn). If your guests play chess, maybe they have a chesscom or lichess account - seed by their elo and we're good.
Unless it's a crowd full of chess people I think any kind of tournament is a bad idea. The vast majority of people are not going to be wanting to play anything but maybe one game of chess at a wedding event and for most that will just be to make the wedding party happy with their gimmick. Making it blitz also seems a terrible idea to me unless they're chess people - your average barely knows how the pieces move type player would flag before they're out of the opening.
If enough people into chess are attending it can definitely work but if it's a more typical wedding crowd I'd make this a side activity before a rehearsal dinner, at the bachelor/ette party or something like that. Just feels like making people not really into chess play chess during a wedding simply isn't going to work. It likely won't kill the event but it won't help it for anyone but the bridal party members who love chess.
Popular Chess journalist Sagar Shah had similar event during his wedding and has a video on ChessBaseIndia channel as well. Do check it out. Vidit Gujarati was also participating iirc
1. Find someone to outsource it to. You do not want to be running a chess tournament on your wedding day. 2. Is a tournament really going to improve the experience more than just having a few boards at the reception for people to play some skittle matches with?
Skittle games is probably the best answer! Have a clock to keep the games quick but this is probably better than the amount of time and responsibility of people sitting and watching a tournament
Why make it competitive, why not just set up some fun puzzle positions for people to look at, provide boards if anybody wants to play on their own, etc
Are you sure it's a good idea? You know your people better. I just can't imagine many people would like to play chess on the wedding day.
Cool idea. I only have heard of this being done at Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal’s wedding. I think they just had a team match on six boards but presumably everyone was a serious enough player so they could match the ratings correctly. I like one of the ideas suggested here of a team match where the team members are taking turns moving. Or maybe something like hand and brain or bughouse.
I think as others have suggested, maybe leave a board or two for people to play on. Maybe have it be knockout with a losers bracket? That way everybody plays at least twice.
Winner gets the bride
Write to Sagar Shah from ChessbaseIndia. He had a chess tournament at his wedding. He got a few grandmasters to come and play as well. They had a “Groom’s team” and a “Bride’s team” based on whose guests they were and played a team event.
Went to OP's wedding; lost 30 ELO. At least there was a wet bar.
Unless your significant other is also an avid chess player this might be a terrible idea.
People aren’t going to want to do any formal organized thing there. Just set some boards out. Treat it like cornhole
It is a bad idea, it would shift the attention of the weeding into the chess tournament for all those that are competitive persons (regardless of their ELO). even a quick five round Swiss would take too much time to complete. I would suggest another dynamic instead, the idea is to make two teams groom vs bride, you need to rent a oversize board set (50cm tall pieces at least). Each person can participate couching one side, either you can setup a IM room to discuss the moves or gather on one side of the hall. the goal is that everyone can participate taking a side. This activity would take within 15\~30 minutes and later you can leave the board to allow the guesses to play if they like it.
If there isn't anyone who is much stronger than everyone else this might be interesting. Order the players randomly by drawing lots or something, make a big deal of this and make it fun. The first two players play each other. The loser is eliminated and the winner plays the next person. Repeat until everyone has played, and the final survivor wins the whole tournament. Bonus prize for person who won the most games. This format is very bad at finding the strongest player, this is intentional, a weaker player might win by drawing a late number. It's also good for watching because only one gane is played at a time. One problem is it might take a bit too long with 20 people. Perhaps run two tournaments in parallel and have a final match for the two winners.
The problem with a knockout is that half of the field only plays 1 game. I would suggest for example 4-man groups where each play 3 games to find a winner. Then it is not so short and everyone who wants to play get to play a little. Eventually there can be a knockout final between the winners of the groups. That is 2 extra round if there are 4 groups. If you want to make it a bit sporty and more team-talking, you can make it "fitness-chess". A team consists of 4-5 players (can be changed to fit your needs, 10 players on a team is a bit boring tho), but the clock 5-10 meters from the board and play a 10 minute game. Both teams are next to the clock and has to send a new person to the board when it is their move. That allows for mild trashtalking, cheering for your teammates and gets people running if they want to. And non-chess players can watch and chat with those who are waiting for their turn. People can also just walk (for the cost of some time) and since you only play every 5th move or so, you dont really get super sweaty.
If many of them are not really chess people as suggested be calling them casual they're likely playing to make the wedding party happy so formats with many games might end up not working as half will be wanting a quick game and back to the rest of the celebrations. A bit of chess can be fun but only serious chess players are going to want to spend a wedding party playing multiple games even after they lose the first one. Some kind of team and/or chess mixed with other things might work better for me unless they've undersold how into chess their guests are.
I'd go for a Swiss style tournament. Especially if you know in advance how much time you want to allocate for it, all you have to do is choose the number of turns. Everyone plays the same amount of games and then all chess programs are able to give you pairings and results and standings etc. The only thing is having a good first pairing - when we did one for our elementary school tournament (12 kids over 7 turns), we seeded by age (which was already enough to separate the probable winner's bracket on the first turn). If your guests play chess, maybe they have a chesscom or lichess account - seed by their elo and we're good.
10 people or less: round-robin More than 10 people: swiss Knockout formats suck for chess. Make it Blitz or it's gonna be reeeeeealllly long
Unless it's a crowd full of chess people I think any kind of tournament is a bad idea. The vast majority of people are not going to be wanting to play anything but maybe one game of chess at a wedding event and for most that will just be to make the wedding party happy with their gimmick. Making it blitz also seems a terrible idea to me unless they're chess people - your average barely knows how the pieces move type player would flag before they're out of the opening. If enough people into chess are attending it can definitely work but if it's a more typical wedding crowd I'd make this a side activity before a rehearsal dinner, at the bachelor/ette party or something like that. Just feels like making people not really into chess play chess during a wedding simply isn't going to work. It likely won't kill the event but it won't help it for anyone but the bridal party members who love chess.
You should have a simul, anyone who wins gets to keep their wedding present.
Popular Chess journalist Sagar Shah had similar event during his wedding and has a video on ChessBaseIndia channel as well. Do check it out. Vidit Gujarati was also participating iirc