That is very cool, uclabb, but something is off... Your first 2 game has 8 and 26 playing, and then your first 4 game has 8 and 26 playing... If I had taken a math class in the past 20 years, I'd like to think I could figure out the solution relatively quickly, but I'm stuck with my 40 year old brain and out of touch with such math skills so it's unlikely I'll figure out after breakfast and before my city-league basketball game, so hopefully someone besides me can get it to work since I'd very much like an apology from jmo for when I first came up with the idea of the tournament having 43 people! ;-)

Shit, sorry jmo, it was goldfinger that would owe me that apology if one of you young math brainiacs would figure this out!

Well, I think it's impossible... I think it's a good idea still, I just don't think it can be solved...

All the games that start with a 1, 2 or 3 seem to work just fine, but once you get to the 4 games it all goes to hell... For the first 4 game, the pattern should start 4, 8, 16, 24, but then the only number in the 26-31 range that cannot be duplicated is 27, and once you add 27 to that list then there's no number from 38-43 that will work with the first five numbers of that group...

The pattern I notice is when you compare all the games that start with 2 to all the games that start with 3, the second column of those to groups are identical, the third column increases by one from 2 games to 3 games, the fourth column increases by two, fifth by three, sixth by four and seventh by five, which can be seen in the first 2 game compared to the first 3 game:

2, 8, 14, 20, 26, 32, 38
3, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43

Maybe I'm just looking at this the slow old man way, can any youngsters see something I cannot?!

I don't think a MAtRiX will work, which annoys me greatly...

It has to be out of 42, not 43. I'm working on something that would make it work for 42, but I can't crack it yet.

What have you got so far goldfinger?!

Well, seeing that it includes countries as well as game numbers, I can't say. If it were published, it would in effect make the game non-anon

I'm giving it a shot, too, and consulting some math folks I know. I'm not sure a tournament schedule consistent with seven players getting each country once and playing only unique opponents in every subsequent game exists, though.

No, it doesn't. Make sure they play each person at least once, and each country exactly once. They are allowed to play a person multiple times

Oh, there should definitely be multiple possible tournament schedules if we're allowed to repeat opponents, then. It's just a matter of minimizing and evenly distributing the repeat opponents. I'll post if I come up with anything that looks close to optimal.

I know its possible with 42, but I can't seem to work it out. Math says that they'd have to repeat one person, that's it. 7 games x 6 opponents per game = 42 opponents played out of 41 opponents in the tourney.

I'll make my computer brute force it in a few hours if you can't figure it out by hand.

Can I play in next years tournament?

We still need more people, Nigee

also, add mscott to the list. That puts us around 35 I think?

Where is y2kjbk? He can solve this shit.

mkay, well I worked at it for 2 hours, but I gotta do some RL work now. I made some traction on it. I had the country distribution wrong before, which was messing me up, but I'm gaining traction now. I have all round 1 games, and all game 1s done.

No idea what my GR is but I'll join if you're short ??

I would love to join if you are still looking for more people.

@goldfinger, you're right. I worked on it for a little bit, going player by player, and by the time I got to the 4th player's games, it looked like it should be possible to make an algorithm that generates a tournament schedule. Combinatorics was never my strong suit, but I'll see if I can't find an algorithmic solution or if I know someone who can.

The way I am doing it is dividing the 42 players into 7 player groups, then assigning countries to each through the 7 rounds. That much is done. Then I just need to set up the game schedule for the "leader" of each group and I'm done. I'm running into a slight problem with the 2nd group at the moment, but won't have the time to really crunch into it until tuesday.

This could, however, be solved if we magically get up to 49 players.

I'll join if there is still space available.

I think I can make it. Please move me from the maybe to the definitive list.

I'm back bitches ... and I want in :)

P.S. If it goes wrong blame it on goldfinger for pinging me after so long

Do you remember how to play?

Yeah.

According to my wife my skills of manipulation and lying have only increased the last year and a half ... so I should be fine :)

Was there anything more to it?

I am sure you will be more than fine -- just giving you a hard time to welcome you back!

Lots has changed... people like me have taken over.

Excellent, exactly like the first time I joined - tons of fresh meat - me likes it :)