Chessbase published an article today about the "World Prestigious University Chess Invitational Tournament" which includes this line:
The tournament will use the Berg's counter-attack system, and will be ranked after eleven rounds in five days. Each team shall comprise three players (two men and one woman), one captain, and one coach. The time control is 25 minutes plus 15 seconds per move.
What is Berg's counter-attack system? I tried searching for it, but didn't find anything.
From the article:
The participants are listed here in the order of registration:
- The united team of Japan Universities
- Moscow State University
- University of Missouri
- University of New South Wales
- University College London
- Harvard University
- Princeton University
- University of Toronto
- Saint Louis University (two teams)
- University of Oxford
- Nankai University of China (Host team)
So, 11 teams. For an all-play-all that would require 11 rounds where one team has a bye in each round.
The article goes on to say:
The tournament will use the Berg's counter-attack system, and will be ranked after eleven rounds in five days.
So, yes, 11 rounds. The standard way of pairing such a tournament would be to use the Berger tables. The FIDE Arbiters Commission publishes an Arbiter's Handbook which, amongst a lot of other information, includes a section which lists the Berger pairing tables for various numbers of players. The table for 11 or 12 players is given on page 66:
11 or 12 players:
Rd 1: 1-12, 2-11, 3-10, 4-9, 5-8, 6-7.
Rd 2: 12-7, 8-6, 9-5, 10-4, 11-3, 1-2.
Rd 3: 2-12, 3-1, 4-11, 5-10, 6-9, 7-8.
Rd 4: 12-8, 9-7, 10-6, 11-5, 1-4, 2-3.
Rd 5: 3-12, 4-2, 5-1, 6-11, 7-10, 8-9.
Rd 6: 12-9, 10-8, 11-7, 1-6, 2-5, 3-4.
Rd 7: 4-12, 5-3, 6-2, 7-1, 8-11, 9-10.
Rd 8: 12-10, 11-9, 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5.
Rd 9: 5-12, 6-4, 7-3, 8-2, 9-1, 10-11.
Rd 10: 12-11, 1-10, 2-9, 3-8, 4-7, 5-6.
Rd 11: 6-12, 7-5, 8-4, 9-3, 10-2, 11-1.
"Berg's counter-attack system" looks like a 3rd rate Google translation. I susupect this article was given to chessbase and they included it without any checking. It is not "Berg's counter-attack system" it should be "Berger pairing table".
