Single- And Multi-Session Events
www.bridge-club.org uses a certain classification of events. You need to understand it in order to be able to follow how results pages are organized and what the meanings of page parameters are.
Some Definitions
For the purpose of presenting results on the Web, all events are classified into single- and multi-session events. This is a very broad classification and the terminology may be a source of confusion to some, so let's explain the essence and the role of this classification.
- single session event
- an event that consists of only one indivisible competition that solely determines the final placings of all participants. For example, your typical Wednesday night club duplicate session is a single-session event.
- multi-session event
- an event that consists of several indivisible sub-competitions, where the final placings of participants are not known until all prescribed sub-competitions have been played. For example, a swiss teams event is a multi-session event, where, say, an 8 board match represents one indivisible competition, and the whole competition consists of 10 8-board matches. Another example of a multi-session event is a matchpointed pairs event, where each session consisting of the complete movement and one set of boards, represents an indivisible sub-competition, and a number of such sessions constitutes the whole competition. The confusion may come from the fact that usually a "session" means one 3-4 hours sitting, during which several rounds of a swiss event may be played. So, a round is not exactly the same as a session, but for the purpose of explaining how the results are presented, we will assume that they are the same.
OK, But What Difference Does It Make?
Presentation Of Results
Results for single-session events are always complete and standalone. They may be associated with hand records or per-board results, but still it does not change the fundamental fact that no other results are related to them. Even the case where a duplicate event is scored across several sections is treated as a single-session event.
On the other hand, results for multi-session events are structured in such a way that all sub-competition results are grouped together, with the final cumulative result as well.
Longevity
Each result has a limited life span on the Web. After some prescribed period, after everyone who would be interested had an opportunity to check the result and save it for posterity, the system automatically removes the event and all associated data with it - results, hand records, results per board, etc. Since single-session events are stand alone, they are basically removed as soon as this "obsolescence" period expires.
With multi-session events, obsolescence is calculated on the basis of the last session only and until the last session expires results of ALL sub-competitions for that event are kept, regardless of how old they can be.