Greg Shahade's Greg on Chess: The Swiss is terrible , clearly provoked thought in our readers. It garnered more comments than any other article ever did in Chess Life Online. It appeared just when the website shifted to a new look, so there are 41 comments on the old site in addition to the 33 on the current website. An International Master, Greg's ideas for the article spurned from his experiments in organizing the U.S. Chess League and the New York Masters, and his dissatisfication with the way tournaments are currently run. To quote one of the most memorable lines from Greg's article: "Is the state of chess so fantastic now that there
is no reason to even attempt anything else?"The Judges Sound Off
To learn more about the judges, read "Meet the Judges."
"I disagree with more than a few of his ideas and assumptions.(Being a tournament director for 33 years, I must be one of those mindless Swiss system advocates?!) Still, it’s clearly the best article for me because he had the courage to attack the sacred Swiss cow. This article generated more comments that any other article I can remember. It caused people to think, support or attack Greg’s ideas, offer examples from their own experience and comment on other comments.
One good thing about random pairings is that it would eliminate pre-game preparation for an opponent when the swiss pairing is obvious!"-- TD Mike Atkins
"I remember how novel and controversial this article was when it first appeared. When it first appeared I had just spent a considerable amount of time studying for and taking the Local-level TD test to get re-certified and then shelling out almost $100 to purchase the SwissSys software to use at a local tournament here, so my initial reaction while reading it was, “Is Greg crazy!?!” After re-reading Greg’s article for this contest, I found myself enjoying it, and I thought that Greg made many valid points which any tournament player/director will have experienced. In fact, I’m fairly certain that we lost two potential OTB players at a recent tournament I helped co-TD this past fall due to the walloping they experienced in the initial rounds of our little Swiss. It’s sad, and I mentioned some of Greg’s ideas to our club members at one of our recent meetings."- Mike Cornett
"I don't necessarily agree with all the theories put forth here, this article is definitely refreshingly unique as it's rare that someone is willing to challenge a chess concept that has been standard for so long. Judging by the amount of replies to the article, it seems many readers felt the same way also"- Arun Sharma
"Though one can find content such as "The Swiss is Terrible" on newsgroups and forums, having such opinion pieces occasionally on CLO motivates reader involvement." (74 comments!)--Dr. Alexey Root