Teams of Four (Single Session)
This is a concise description of the Multiple Teams Movements commonly completed in a single session. A more general description will be found in “Competition for Teams of Four (Single & Multiple Sessions)”
Requirements of Movements for Multiple-Teams Competitions
In a multiple teams-of-four competition each team meets all the other teams, or as many teams as time will allow. The movement must ensure that matches between teams are complete with two pairs of one team meeting the two pairs of another team playing the same boards. Playing the same boards is essential in the matches between two teams. Using the same boards in matches that are otherwise independent is desirable but not essential. It does give all teams similar opportunities to make large swings on suitable hands. Teams Movements and Pairs Movements in a single session have the same requirement for playing about 24 boards.
American Whist Movement
This is the most frequently used movement for multiple teams-of-four competitions. The NS pairs remain at their home tables whilst the EW pairs move around the room together keeping their same relative positions. Pairs and boards move in the same direction but the EW pairs move at twice the speed of the boards characterised by the instruction from the TD:
“Pairs down two, dropping the boards off one”.
After the first encounter between two teams the boards start their journey from one home table towards the other home table. The EW pair that will play the boards at that second table will have just completed part of another match at a table the same distance behind but, moving at twice the speed of the boards, will arrive with the boards for the second half of the match. The match between the two teams can then be completed. The movement is very suitable for an odd number of tables. If there is not time to play a complete movement then it can also be adapted successfully for an even number of tables.
Complete Movement for an Odd Number of Tables.
In a complete movement the number of rounds is one less than the number of Teams/Tables. For an odd number of tables an American Whist Movement can be used in its simplest form without any adaptation. EW pairs move down two tables before each round, including the first, arriving back at their home tables after playing at all the other tables in two circuits of the room. The movement is symmetrical so that matches started in the first round are completed in the last round and those started in the second round are completed in the penultimate round.
Complete Movement for an Even Number of Tables
An American Whist Movement cannot be used as a complete movement for an even number of tables. An odd number of rounds is required for completion and all American Whist Movements are symmetric with an even number of rounds.
A Thurner Appendix Movement is recommended for most configurations when there is time for a complete movement. One Team is designated as an Appendix. The EW pairs of the remaining teams move up one table in each round whilst the boards move down one table (as in a Mitchell Movement). The EW pairs are assigned special start positions so that displacements between travelling pairs is twice that of the corresponding stationary pairs. This ensures that, after the first encounter between two teams, the other travelling pair and the boards converge on the other table ready to complete the match. When an EW pair arrives at its home table, the team plays a head-to-head match with shared boards against the Appendix Team.
If the number of moving pairs is not a multiple of three then only one moving pair arrives at its home table in any one round. Consequently the movement is suitable 6, 8, 12 tables but not for 10 tables. As there is also not time to play the required nine rounds a truncated American Whist Movement is use instead.
Incomplete Movement for an Odd Number of Tables (more than 13)
If there is not time for a complete movement then rounds at the beginning and end are omitted. For 15 tables EW pairs would move down 4 tables before the first round, play 12 rounds and finish 4 tables from home having missed two teams.
Incomplete Movement for an Even Number of Tables (10 or more than 12)
If applied directly the American Whist Movement would result in the EW pairs arriving back at their home tables after only one circuit having missed half of the tables. The movement has to be adapted for play in two stanzas. In the first stanza, each pair plays six complete matches visiting tables (+6, +4, +2, -2, -4, -6) relative to its home table. In the second stanza, each pair plays another six matches at tables (+5, +3, +1, -1, -3, -5). The EW pairs have to make unusual moves at the start of each stanza and both pairs and boards make a double move in the middle of the first so as to miss the home tables. Each team plays matches against only twelve others missing one team with 14 tables, three teams with 16 tables and so on. A similar variant is also used with four rounds in each stanza for 10 tables.
Special American Whist Movement for 12 Tables
An Appendix Movement for 12 tables requires each team in turn to share two boards with the Appendix Table. This can be slow. Instead 10 rounds of an American Whist Movement can be played without any sharing. Then the boards are redealt for a special ‘head-to-head’ round with all teams sharing with the teams that they have missed during the first 10 rounds.
In a single session of 24 boards there is only time to meet 12 other opponents even with two-board rounds. With more than 13 teams, some do not meet face to face and the competition is less fair. Teams that miss the strong opponents have an advantage. In practice this unfairness has to be tolerated if only a single session is available. With this limitation the following movements are acceptable
7 Tables American Whist play 6 x 4 boards
8 Tables Thurner Appendix play 7 x 3 boards
9 Tables American Whist play 8 x 3 boards
10 Tables American Whist (missing one team) play 8 x 3 boards
11 Tables American Whist (uneven) play 4 x 3 plus
6 x 2 boards
12 Tables * Thurner Appendix play 11 x 2 boards
13 Tables American Whist play 12 x 2 boards
14 Tables American Whist (missing one team) play 12 x 2 boards
15 Tables American Whist (missing two teams) play 12 x 2 boards
16 Tables American Whist (missing three teams) play 12 x 2 boards
The Thurner Appendix Movement requires two tables to share boards in every round. With only two-board rounds this might be thought inconvenient. For 12 tables, a truncated American Whist of 10 rounds can be played followed by a final round when the boards are dealt again and all teams play a head-to-head match with the teams that they would otherwise have missed.