Tournament Format means the size of group and number of games is what it means, you play can in a small tournament or big one, normally larger tournaments here at Chess.com or broken down to smaller sections of 3, 4, 5, .... 12, 16 players per section, playing either one or two games at the same time against the same opponent. When you everyone in the small group you in its also called Round Robin as you played everyone in the group!
5->1 means there are 5 players in your section of the tournament and you play one game out of 2 at a time against each opponent x 4 = 4 games added to your game queue, 5->2 means your playings 2 games (one as white and one as black) at the same time with the same opponent x 4 = 8 games will added to your game queue!
The higher the first number such as 12->2 means you be playing 22 games at the same time , as you cannot play against yourself in 24 you play only 22 in this last sample!
Hope this was helpful, also look at the pairing section once a tournaments starts and you see how many groups you have as well as how many players in each section! the winners of each group then on move the next round, most times only the 1st place winner but can be set for 2 that can move up to the next round!
Until you have one 1st, 2nd, 3rd place winners depending on settings! There can be ties for placement in tournaments as well!
What does 'Tournament Format' mean? For example, what does: 5(2)->1 mean?
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