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Description settings for tournaments

Last updated: January, 2023

When setting up a tournament you have the option of adding the following codes in your tournament description:

  • +allavail+ holds tournament start until all registered pairs are available (all available). Returns a message to the host, informing them who is not available. This setting works for Swiss Teams as well.
  • +video+ activates free video chat for your tournament, team match or casual table. Documented here.
  • +noerc+ forces the game to wait until the time per round expires, instead of automatically moving everyone to the next round as soon as the round ends (no end of round change). Can be useful when you use video chat, so that players know how long they have before being cut off.
  • +hd+ useful in games that allow robots (human declares). Rotates the human player in the robot seat, to declare the hand for the robot when the robot wins the contract.
    • For robot substitutes:
      • If the bidding has not ended yet, the human player declares for the robot.
      • If the play has already started, the robot plays out the hand.
    • For robots rented as partners: human always declares for their robot partner.
  • +pbf+ forces a pair game to accept only robot + human pairs (like the ROBO games some virtual clubs have been running) (partner bot free).
  • +howell+ turns a mitchell movement into howell. Documented here.
    • +hm18+ is used together with +howell+ Turns a mitchell movement into howell if there are less than 7 tables (howell mitchell 18). Else it runs as a mitchell. Works only for pair tournaments of exactly 18 boards. Documented here.
    • +roundsX+ is used together with +howell+ Runs a partial howell tournament, which stops after X rounds. Documented here.
  • +swiss+ avoids re-matches in your Swiss Pairs tournaments. Without the +swiss+ description string, Swiss Pairs on BBO run Danish style, with highest scoring pairs meeting each other multiple times.
  • +breakX+ adds a one hour break after round X. Only works for pay tournaments or other tournaments using an organization code. Not restricted to howells, works for other movements as well. Documented here.
    • +bduration=Y+ is used together with +breakX+ Sets break duration to Y minutes. Documented here.
  • +sectionsize=X+ Allows setting the section size to a number between 8 and 50. Sections will be created as balanced as possible. Setting section size to 20 in a 24 table game will result in two sections of 12 tables.
  • +asis+ Seats pairs into a tournament with pre-registrations exactly as they were listed in the registrants file (without shuffling) (as is). Available only to NBOs and system accounts.
  • +MPLIMIT=X+ Available only for ACBL games. Restricts tournament registrations only to players with max X ACBL masterpoints.
  • +LT=x+ Available only for Virtual ACBL Clubs. Allows a club with multiple simultaneous sessions to give credit for all their game tables. Documented here.
  • When you need to use multiple strings, write them like this, one after another:
    +allavail+ +howell+ +hm18+
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