The Swiss System

Mind Sports Olympiad is a board and card game competition. A serious one. Where you pay money to compete in, for example, Abalone, Acquire, Age of Steam, Boku, Continuo, Diplomacy, Entropy, Go, Intelligence, Lines of Action, Lost Cities, Mastermind, Othello, Oware, Pacru, Puerto Rico, Rummikub, Scrabble, Settlers, Snatch, Trax, and Twixt. Did I mention Backgammon, Dominoes, Draughts, Lines of Action, Mastermind, Othello, Oware? Chess? Not to mention Bridge, Cribbage, Poker, Skat, Chinese Chess, Go, or, for that matter, Shogi. All of which is cool. But this is what really caught my eye, and heart:

"Almost all of the tournaments at the Mind Sports Olympiad are run on the Swiss system. This means that you do not get knocked out of a tournament if you lose a game - you continue to play against opponents who have approximately the same score as yourself and you continue to play every round no matter what your score may be. "

The Swiss System. What a wonderfully sane way to compete!