What Types of Winks Tournaments Are Held in All of Winkdom?
- Team. A championship match in which each team competes against other teams. Depending on the teams tournament, each team has from 4 to 8 winkers. Sometimes teams have extra winkers that may rotate in to play in some rounds. The more formal team matches are usually played using fixed pairs in competition for a team title. In the US the championship teams tournament was called the Continentals, ordinarily played in February. In the UK, there have been a variety of collegiate matches, such as the Silver Wink, the Inter-Varsity match, as well as the more recent Teams of Four tournaments.
- Pairs. A championship match in which a fixed partnership competes to win against all other pairs, typically in an all-play-all round-robin format.
- Singles. A championship in which a solo winker plays both colors in the official game of tiddlywinks and competes against other singles players.
- Individual Pairs. An informal tournament in which each winker partners with different partners, as many as the tournament format permits, and the winning individual is generally considered to be the best partner in the match.
- Random. An informal tournament in which teams may be chosen by team leaders at the start of the tournament, and during which the competing pairs may be any arbitrary pair of winkers within a team (and sometimes, without regard to any arbitrary team arrangements!)
- Handicap. Typically employed when novice players are playing with or against veteran players. A handicap system is employed to balance the experience levels. The handicap may take the form of allowing two shots in the space of one for a novice, or to redo a failed shot, or to transfer points from the more veteran pair to the more novice pair according to a realistic formula.
- Triples. An informal tournament with six colors of winks in play during which three winkers play each side of each game against another set of three winkers. Triples tournaments have not been included in official statistics and ratings, but they are quite a bit of fun!
Tournament Rotations
Tournament rotations and scoresheets are available from Julian Wiseman.
World Championships
World Championships are sanctioned by the International Federation of Tiddlywinks Associations (IFTwA). A winner of a national title (from NATwA, ETwA, and others over time recognized by IFTwA) earns the right to challenge the current World titleholders.
North American Tiddlywinks Association (NATwA) Tournaments
NATwA has held tournaments since 1966. Following is a summary of many of NATwA’s tournament types:
- NATwA Singles
- NATwA Pairs
- Continentals (team championships)
- Individual Pairs
- Halloween Open Teams Tournament
- Harvest
- Eastern Regionals
- Western Regionals
- Boston Invitational Tournament
- Toronto Pairs
- Triples
- … and others
English Tiddlywinks Association (ETwA) Tournaments
ETwA has been holding official tournaments since 1958, and other matches since 1955 (and perhaps before). Following is a summary of some of ETwA’s tournament types:
- National Singles
- National Pairs
- National Teams of Four
- Silver Wink
- Varsity Match
- National Handicapped Individual Pairs
- London Open
- Cambridge Open
- Wessex Cup
- Jubilee Trophy
- Golden Squidger
- Marchant Trophy
- Oxfordshire Open
- Hampshire Open
- … and others
Scottish Tiddlywinks Association (ScotTwA) Tournaments
The Ratings
- The inscrutable winks ratings from the latest tiddlywinks tournament from the scrupulous Patrick Barrie,
- Ratings from 1985 to 1998 calculated by Tim Hedger, who revived them 1997. They were originally festered by Nick Inglis on his now antiqued BBC micro. What hath math wrought?