Melina,
It turns out that 28 is a very good number to choose and that it is possible to arrange 9 such rounds.
Round Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7
--------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- --------------- ---------------
1 (21 26) v ( 4 3) ( 2 19) v ( 9 20) (14 25) v ( 1 24) ( 6 18) v (12 11) ( 5 17) v (27 8) (28 13) v (22 16) (10 15) v ( 7 23)
2 (25 27) v (16 3) ( 9 5) v (14 12) ( 1 20) v (23 22) (21 2) v ( 7 17) (26 19) v (11 13) ( 8 6) v (10 28) (15 4) v (18 24)
3 ( 5 25) v (21 28) (20 27) v (14 18) (13 9) v ( 1 7) (15 11) v (17 16) ( 4 22) v ( 2 6) (12 10) v (26 24) ( 8 3) v (19 23)
4 (15 12) v ( 3 1) (18 17) v (25 19) (24 23) v (28 2) ( 7 5) v (20 26) (10 11) v (27 22) (21 16) v ( 6 9) (13 8) v ( 4 14)
5 (26 2) v (15 27) (23 16) v ( 5 18) (11 24) v ( 9 8) (28 4) v (17 1) (20 13) v (10 25) (19 22) v (12 21) (14 7) v ( 6 3)
6 ( 4 9) v (27 23) (16 24) v ( 7 19) (17 26) v (22 14) (25 12) v ( 8 2) ( 1 18) v (21 10) ( 3 28) v (20 11) ( 6 15) v (13 5)
7 (27 7) v (28 12) (17 20) v (24 6) (22 9) v (15 25) ( 5 10) v (19 4) (11 14) v (23 21) ( 3 18) v ( 2 13) ( 8 16) v (26 1)
8 (24 22) v ( 3 5) (16 14) v (10 2) ( 7 25) v (11 4) (20 21) v ( 8 15) (19 1) v ( 6 27) (12 23) v (13 17) (18 28) v (26 9)
9 ( 2 1) v ( 5 11) (12 4) v (16 20) (23 6) v (25 26) ( 9 3) v (17 10) (27 21) v (24 13) (28 19) v (14 15) (22 8) v (18 7)
You can use any 7 of the 9 rounds for your tournament. If it were possible to play the full 9 rounds then this would make an interesting social arrangement, since over the 9 rounds each player would play with 9 of the other 27 players as partners and the remaining 18 players as opponents. So if the rounds were played all in the course of one day then everyone would have sat together with everyone else.
The schedule is exactly one third of a full Whist design for 28 players. Also if you were to ignore the partner / opponent structure then each table becomes a foursome in a golf tournament.
I hope the tournament goes well,
Regards,
Ian.
Wednesday, November 16 2005, 03:50 pm