Two upcoming regional tournaments offer some variant of knockouts that guarantee all registered teams play for the entire day. Traditionally, a knockout means that once your team loses, you no longer need to play, your overall points have already been determined, and you no longer owe further card fees (you pay per round, and keep paying as long as your team keeps surviving).
The Knockout Problem
Some consider knockouts one of the more pure forms of bridge. I’m not sure why everyone uses the word “pure”, but it sounds like people refer to minimizing luck, maximizing skill, and most importantly reducing noise from an unpredictable field.
When you register for a traditional knockout, you initially pay for only one round. Directors place you in a bracket of up to 16 (these days usually 9). You play one match of 24 boards against one other team and see who has more IMPs at the end. The winning team survives and pays for the next round. If you had a three-way, probably two teams survive and pay (which is why brackets of 9 is a magic number). Win four rounds and you are the overall winners.
There are two problems. First, you commit to two days (four sessions), which not everyone wants to do. They created compact knock outs that are only 12-board matches which tries to solve the problem, but those tend to be even less popular. The bigger problem: it’s hard to plan your playing schedule. If your team loses the morning match, you either take the afternoon off or scramble into some one-session event that isn’t very satisfying (some teams catch early trains home).
Introducing A Solution: KIKO / KOIAD
Tarrytown and Cromwell have solutions. They are called Knock In / Knock Out, and Knock Out In A Day.
Instead of a bracket of 16, you are placed into a bracket of 8.
Instead of 2 sessions per day of 24 boards each, you squeeze in 3 sessions of 18 boards.
Instead of paying as you go, round by round, you pay up front for the whole day.
If you lose the morning match, you are knocked out but then automatically enter into a swiss teams event along with others knocked out teams, including those from other brackets of 8 (if there are enough teams, it could be bracketed swiss). The swiss is 36 boards and 6 rounds, and pays gold point overalls to the winners. Teams can also register separately for the Swiss, so it isn’t just a massive consolation swiss, but everyone starts fresh with a 0 score.
If you win the morning match, you have Knocked In to the semifinals! Except remember, there were only 8 teams in the bracket to start, so only top 3 spots should pay overalls.
If you won the first but lose the second round, you still play the final round against the other semi-final losing team, competing for 3rd place. The winner of that round still qualifies for overall awards (this is currently under review by ACBL).
If you win the first and second rounds, great job! You are in the finals just like in a normal KO or compact KO, and you play the final 18 boards to see who gets 1st vs 2nd.