PROBLEM - Set up a schedule for a bridge tournament as follows:
There are 12 couples that will participate
Each couple will play each other couple once.
4 couples will meet at three different homes each month for 5 months
The homes will be arbitrarily rotated each month, once we have the schedule the homes
will be assigned
At those homes each couple will play only 2 of the 3 other couples present
That means that after 5 months, each couple will have played 10 matches
A typical schedule could look like this:
Home 1 Home 2 Home 3
1-2 2-3 5-6 5-8 9-10 9-12
3-4 1-4 7-8 7-6 11-12 10-11
Note that:
At home 1, 3-1 and 2-4 will not play
At home 2, 6-8 and 5-7 will not play
At home 3, 10-12 and 9-11 will not play
On the 6th month, all couples will meet at one location to play their 11th and final match
How in the world can I figure this out?? And if anyone can help me, how do you do it?
