I wouldn't personally try a normal Swiss under phase 3 rule, but I can see how it could be constructed.Joseph Conlon wrote: ↑Wed Jun 16, 2021 4:46 pm
I do find it hard to see how a Swiss section of, say, 20 people all in the same room could fail to be a gathering of 20 people, however well separated the tables were.
There may be some other exemption an event like this could slip under, but to my mind an adult Swiss would be in considerable tension with phase 3 rules.
A swiss is not really 100 players mingling, talking or whatever.
It is 50 distinct events, made of 2 players each. Each event lasts for up to 5 hours.
Then the next round is effectively another set of 50 distinct events.
The key for any organiser would be to make sure that those events stay distinct. What would it mean in practice?
That players are strictly forbidden to wander between their distanced tables, and that they leave the premises of the tournament upon finishing their game. The biggest contagion factor, and biggest risk to re-qualify all 50 events as a single event is if you have 40 players chatting, discussing, eating together indoors after their games.
Hence why, there should be no analysis room (unfortunately) and a strict policy of "finish your game and go outside or to your room or to any of the hotel's allowed facilities".
As I've said last year, chess events with proper protocols can be much safer than current rules for restaurants and pubs. There is a chance that they are indeed Phase 3 compatible for amateurs, and very likely within the law in the confines of a hospitality business (which would explain how the hotel signed off the 4NCL event)