Organizing tournament 24 kids (in a couple of hours) - suggestions on pairing system

Hi! I am organising chess tournament in primary school. I am WFM, but I have never organised any tournaments. I wonder, which pairing system you suggest me?

There are 24 primary school (1st - 4th gradeers and even some kindergardeners).

Most of the kids never played before in any tournament, they are home players (only about 5 who have tried a real tournament once).

Basically I understand how swiss system works, but never did it before. And my main concern is related to time - this tournament should be finished in a couple of hours otherwise it would be boring.

Any suggestions or/and comments what should be considered?

Possible ideas:

- manual swiss system pairing (with cards) or using chess software like Swiss Manager (never used before) or some other system like dividing into groups or something?

- 7 games / 5 games / maybe 4 games (and only for those who have at least some points continue tournament)?

- if some game lasts longer than expected then I can a) use chess clock or b) evaluate position by myself counting pieces

Something else? 

I would suggest swiss pairings, that way everyone plays each round. If you have them all in one group, 5 rounds will likely provide a clear winner.

That may run a little longer than your 2 hours, so dropping down to 4 rounds might wotk but you are more likely to end up with a first place tie. If you have a wider gap in skills, breaking into two groups would be an option as well.

Martin_Stahl - I need to have clear winner (three places). Because three kids are going to participate in next tournament (winners of different schools will join this tournament). Will 5 rounds be enough to have three clear winners?

You really can't guarantee any clear winners in a swiss, since upsets and draws can prevent it. However, the rule of thumb is 2^x, where x is the number of rounds, is close to the number of players.

So, 3 rounds will generate a clear winner with 8 players. 4 rounds 16. 5 rounds 32. You may have ties in  2nd and 3rd, sometimes more, but can always use tiebreaks for that.

Hi reniite ...   how did it go?   I want to set up similar, but with perhaps 15 kids.   Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I used to do non-rated over-the-board Swiss tournaments for 12 to 20 kids and we would do G/15 (with a few clocks available for games that went more than 20 minutes though most rounds were finished by then), as soon as possible computer pairings and four hours available including the thirty minute break for pizza.  The number of rounds was as many as we could get in and usually was about ten or eleven (reached fourteen once).  Because of the number of rounds there were rematches possible in the last few rounds.

If your kids play slower then plan for a slower time control and fewer rounds.