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Pink Floyd – The Wall

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live action/adult animated surrealist musical drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof made his film debut as rock star Pink, who, driven to neurosis by the pressures of stardom and traumatic events in his life, constructs an emotional and mental wall to protect himself. However, this coping mechanism eventually backfires, and Pink demands to be set free.

Like its associated album, the film is highly metaphorical, and frequently uses both visual and auditory symbols throughout its runtime. It features little dialogue, instead being driven by the music from the album throughout. The songs used in the film have several differences from their album versions, and one of the songs included, "When the Tigers Broke Free", does not appear on the album. Despite its turbulent production, the film received generally positive reviews and has an established cult following amongst Pink Floyd fans.

Plot
Pink is a depressed rock star who appears motionless and expressionless while remembering his father. Decades prior, his father was killed defending the Anzio beachhead during World War II in Pink's infancy, leaving Pink's paranoid mother to raise him alone. A young Pink discovers relics from his father's military service and death. An animation depicts the war, showing that the death of the people was for nothing. Pink places a bullet on the track of an oncoming train within a tunnel, and the train that passes has children peering out of the windows wearing face masks.

At school, he is caught writing poems and is humiliated by the teacher, who reads a poem from Pink's book before disciplining him. However, it is revealed that the poor treatment of the students is because of the unhappiness of the teacher's strained marriage. Pink recalls an oppressive school system, imagining children falling into a meat grinder. He fantasises about the children rising in rebellion and burning down the school before throwing the teacher onto a bonfire.

As an adult, Pink remembers his overprotective mother and his strained marriage. During a phone call, Pink realises that his wife is cheating on him when a man answers the phone. His traumatic experiences are represented as "bricks" in the wall he constructs around himself that emotionally divides him from society.

Pink returns to the hotel room with a groupie, only for him to destroy the room in a fit of violence, scaring her away. Depressed, he thinks about his wife and feels trapped in his room. He then remembers every "brick" of his wall, as it is shown to be finally complete, and the film returns to the first scene.

Now trapped inside his wall, Pink does not leave his hotel room and begins to lose his mind to metaphorical "worms". He shaves all his body hair and watches television, particularly the 1955 film The Dam Busters. The young Pink searches through the trenches of the war, eventually finding himself as an adult. Young Pink runs away in terror and appears at a railway station, with the soldiers being reunited with their loved ones. After failing to find his father, the people demand that the soldiers return home. Returning to the present, Pink's manager finds him in his hotel room, completely unresponsive, and has a paramedic inject him with drugs to enable him to perform.

In this drugged-out state, Pink hallucinates himself as a fascist dictator, and his concert as a Neo-Nazi rally. His followers attack blacks, gays, and Jews. He then holds a rally in London, and imagines marching hammers goose-stepping across ruins. Pink stops hallucinating and screams, "Stop!", deciding he no longer wants to be trapped behind the wall. He cowers in a bathroom stall, quietly singing to himself as a security guard walks past him. As an animated rag doll, Pink puts himself on trial for "showing feelings of an almost human nature". His teacher and wife both accuse and berate him for his actions, while his mother tries to take him home, because she doesn't want him to get in any trouble.

The judge sentences Pink "to be exposed before his peers", and gives the order to "tear down the wall!". Following a prolonged silence, the wall is destroyed, and Pink screams in terror. While Pink's ultimate fate is left unknown, children can be seen cleaning up a pile of debris and grabbing bricks, with one of them emptying a Molotov cocktail.

Cast

 * Bob Geldof as Pink
 * Kevin McKeon as Young Pink
 * David Bingham as Little Pink
 * Christine Hargreaves as Pink's mother
 * Eleanor David as Pink's wife
 * Alex McAvoy as Teacher
 * Bob Hoskins as Rock manager
 * Michael Ensign as Hotel manager
 * James Laurenson as Pink's father
 * Jenny Wright as American groupie
 * Margery Mason as Teacher's wife
 * Ellis Dale as English doctor
 * James Hazeldine as Lover
 * Ray Mort as Playground father
 * Robert Bridges as American doctor
 * Joanne Whalley, Nell Campbell, Emma Longfellow, and Lorna Barton as Groupies
 * Philip Davis and Gary Olsen as Roadies

Concept
In the mid-1970s, as Pink Floyd gained mainstream fame, songwriter Roger Waters began feeling increasingly alienated from his audiences:"Audiences at those vast concerts are there for an excitement which, I think, has to do with the love of success. When a band or a person becomes an idol, it can have to do with the success that that person manifests, not the quality of work he produces. You don't become a fanatic because somebody's work is good, you become a fanatic to be touched vicariously by their glamour and fame. Stars—film stars, rock 'n' roll stars—represent, in myth anyway, the life as we'd all like to live it. They seem at the very centre of life. And that's why audiences still spend large sums of money at concerts where they are a long, long way from the stage, where they are often very uncomfortable, and where the sound is often very bad." Waters was also dismayed by the "executive approach", which was only about success, not even attempting to get acquainted with the actual persons of whom the band was composed (addressed in an earlier song from Wish You Were Here, "Have a Cigar"). The concept of the wall, along with the decision to name the lead character "Pink", partly grew out of that approach, combined with the issue of the growing alienation between the band and their fans. This symbolised a new era for rock bands, as Pink Floyd explored “the hard realities of 'being where we are'", echoing ideas of alienation described by existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre.

Development
Even before the original Pink Floyd album was recorded, the intention was to make a film from it. The original plan was for the film to be live footage from the album's tour, together with animations directed by Gerald Scarfe and extra scenes, and for Waters himself to star. EMI did not intend to make the film, as they did not understand the concept.

Director Alan Parker, a Pink Floyd fan, asked EMI whether The Wall could be adapted to film. EMI suggested that Parker talk to Waters, who had asked Parker to direct the film. Parker instead suggested that he produce it and give the directing task to Gerald Scarfe and Michael Seresin, a cinematographer. Waters began work on the film's screenplay after studying scriptwriting books. He and Scarfe produced a special-edition book containing the screenplay and art to pitch the project to investors. While the book depicted Waters in the role of Pink, after screen tests, he was removed from the starring role and replaced with new wave musician and frontman of the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof. In Behind the Wall, both Waters and Geldof later admitted to a story during casting where Geldof and his manager took a taxi to an airport, and Geldof's manager pitched the role to the singer, who continued to reject the offer and express his contempt for the project throughout the fare, unaware that the taxi driver was Waters' brother, who told Waters about Geldof's opinion.

Since Waters was no longer in the starring role, it no longer made sense for the feature to include Pink Floyd footage, so the live film aspect was dropped. The footage culled from the five Wall concerts at Earl's Court from 13–17 June 1981 that were held specifically for filming was deemed unusable also for technical reasons as the fast lenses needed for the low light levels turned out to have insufficient resolution for the movie screen. Complex parts such as "Hey You" still had not been properly shot by the end of the live shows. Parker convinced Waters and Scarfe that the concert footage was too theatrical and that it would jar with the animation and stage live action. After the concert footage was dropped, Seresin left the project and Parker became sole director.

Filming
Parker, Waters and Scarfe frequently clashed during production, and Parker described the filming as "one of the most miserable experiences of my creative life." Scarfe declared that he would drive to Pinewood Studios carrying a bottle of Jack Daniel's, because "I had to have a slug before I went in the morning, because I knew what was coming up, and I knew I had to fortify myself in some way." Waters said that filming was "a very unnerving and unpleasant experience".

During production, while filming the destruction of a hotel room, Geldof suffered a cut to his hand as he pulled away the Venetian blinds. The footage remains in the film. It was discovered while filming the pool scenes that Geldof did not know how to swim. Interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, and it was suggested that they suspend Geldof in Christopher Reeve's clear cast used for the Superman flying sequences, but his frame was too small by comparison; it was then decided to make a smaller rig that was a more acceptable fit, and he lay on his back. In Nicholas Schaffner's book Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey (1991) it is claimed that the body cast from the film Supergirl (1984) was actually used instead.

The war scenes were shot on Saunton Sands in North Devon, which was also featured on the cover of Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason six years later.

Release
The film was shown out of competition during the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.

The film's official premiere was at the Empire, Leicester Square in London, on 14 July 1982. It was attended by Waters and fellow Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, but not Richard Wright, who was no longer a member of the band. It was also attended by various celebrities including Geldof, Scarfe, Paula Yates, Pete Townshend, Sting, Roger Taylor, James Hunt, Lulu, and Andy Summers.

Box office and critical reception
The Wall opened with a limited release on 6 August 1982 and entered at No. 28 of the US box office charts despite only playing in one theatre on its first weekend, grossing over $68,000, a rare feat even by today's standards. The film then spent just over a month below the top 20 while still in the top 30. The film later expanded to over 600 theatres on 10 September, achieving No. 3 at the box office charts, below E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and An Officer and a Gentleman. The film eventually earned $22 million before closing in early 1983.

The film received generally positive reviews. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film the approval rating of 73% based on 30 critic reviews, with the average score of 7.30/10. The critical consensus reads "Pink Floyd's expression of generational angst is given striking visual form The Wall, although this ambitious feature's narrative struggles to marry its provocative images and psychedelic soundtrack into a compelling whole." On Metacritic, the film holds the weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 13 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Reviewing The Wall on their television programme At the Movies in 1982, film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave the film "two thumbs up". Ebert described The Wall as "a stunning vision of self-destruction" and "one of the most horrifying musicals of all time ... but the movie is effective. The music is strong and true, the images are like sledge hammers, and for once, the rock and roll hero isn't just a spoiled narcissist, but a real, suffering image of all the despair of this nuclear age. This is a real good movie." Siskel was more reserved in his judgement, stating that he felt that the film's imagery was too repetitive. However, he admitted that the "central image" of the fascist rally sequence "will stay with me for an awful long time." In February 2010, Ebert added The Wall to his Great Movies list, describing the film as "without question the best of all serious fiction films devoted to rock. Seeing it now in more timid times, it looks more daring than it did in 1982, when I saw it at Cannes ... It's disquieting and depressing and very good." It was chosen for the opening night of Ebertfest 2010.

Danny Peary wrote that the "picture is unrelentingly downbeat and at times repulsive ... but I don't find it unwatchable – which is more than I could say if Ken Russell had directed this. The cinematography by Peter Biziou is extremely impressive and a few of the individual scenes have undeniable power." It earned two British Academy Awards: Best Sound for James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham Hartstone and Nicholas Le Messurier, and Best Original Song for Waters.

Waters said of the film: "I found it was so unremitting in its onslaught upon the senses, that it didn't give me, anyway, as an audience, a chance to get involved with it," although he had nothing but praise for Geldof's performance.

Gilmour stated (on the "In the Studio with Redbeard" episodes of The Wall, A Momentary Lapse of Reason and On an Island) that the conflict between him and Waters started with the making of the film. Gilmour also stated on the documentary Behind The Wall (which was aired on the BBC in the UK and VH1 in the US) that "the movie was the less successful telling of The Wall story as opposed to the album and concert versions."

Although the symbol of the crossed hammers used in the film was not related to any real group, it was adopted by white supremacist group the Hammerskins in the late 1980s.

Themes and analysis
It has been suggested that the protagonist stands for Waters. Beyond the obvious parallel of them both being rock stars, Waters lost his father while he was an infant and had marital problems, divorcing several times. It has also been suggested that Pink represents former lead singer, writer and founding member Syd Barrett, both in his appearance, although Geldolf also bears a resemblance to Waters, as well as in several incidents and anecdotes related to Barrett's descent from pop stardom due to his struggles with mental illness and self-medicating with drugs.

One seemingly blatant reference is Pink's detachment from the world as he locks himself away in his room before a show, and shaves himself down while suffering a mental break. During a mental breakdown, Barrett shaved his head and face before showing up to a band rehearsal, after already having been removed from the band. Barrett also had shaved eyebrows when he visited the band during the Wish You Were Here recording. However, Bob Geldof, who plays Pink in the film, refused to shave his head for this part of the performance.

Another influence was the declining state of pianist Richard Wright, who was allegedly struggling with cocaine addiction at the time. This is referenced in the song Nobody Home: Got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains.

Romero and Cabo place the Nazism and imperialism related symbols in the context of Margaret Thatcher's government and British foreign policy especially concerning the Falklands issue. The Thatcher involvement in the Falkland Islands would become the primary concept for their next album, The Final Cut.

"There's a scene in the movie of The Wall where the guy smashes up a hotel room and tries to put it together," remarked Trent Reznor, explaining the theme of Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile. "As he tries, it's obviously not right, but he's trying to make semblance [sic] of things. That's a visual that I've used in my head. It's helped me."

Awards
The Wall was nominated for and won two BAFTA Awards: Best Original Song (Roger Waters, for the song "Another Brick in the Wall") and Best Sound (James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham V. Hartstone, Nicolas Le Messurier).

Documentary
A documentary was produced about the making of Pink Floyd – The Wall entitled The Other Side of the Wall that includes interviews with Parker, Scarfe, and clips of Waters; it originally aired on MTV in 1982. A second documentary about the film was produced in 1999 entitled Retrospective: Looking Back at The Wall that includes interviews with Waters, Parker, Scarfe, and other members of the film's production team. Both are featured on The Wall DVD as extras.

Soundtrack
The film soundtrack contains most songs from the album, albeit with several changes, as well as additional material (see table below).

The only songs from the album not used in the film are "Hey You" and "The Show Must Go On". "Hey You" was deleted as Waters and Parker felt the footage was too repetitive (eighty percent of the footage appears in montage sequences elsewhere) but a workprint version of the scene is included as a bonus feature on the DVD release.

A soundtrack album from Columbia Records was listed in the film's end credits, but only a single containing "When the Tigers Broke Free" and the rerecorded "Bring the Boys Back Home" were released. "When the Tigers Broke Free" later became a bonus track on the 1983 album The Final Cut. Guitarist David Gilmour dismissed the album as a collection of songs that had been rejected for The Wall project, but were being recycled. The song, in the edit used for the single, also appears on the 2001 compilation album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

With the exception of "When the Tigers Broke Free," none of the reworked Wall songs heard in the film have been officially released.

In addition to the above, Vera Lynn's rendition of "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot" was used as background music during the opening scenes.

 * Chart positions

title: Pink Floyd – The Wall


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Dan Halutz

Dan Halutz (דן חלוץ, ; born August 7, 1948) is an Israeli Air Force lieutenant general and former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and commander of the Israeli Air Force. Halutz served as chief of staff in 2005–2007.

Biography
Halutz was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, and grew up on moshav Hagor. His parents are both Mizrahi Jewish, and they were born in Iran and in Iraq. He is chairman of the Etgarim special-needs charity.

Military career
Halutz joined the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in 1966 and graduated from combat flight school in 1968. In 1969, he joined the first F-4 Phantom squadron of the IAF. During the War of Attrition, Halutz carried out 40 operational flights.

After the war, he left the IDF in order to study, but returned to active duty when the Yom Kippur War started, in 1973. During the war, Halutz flew over 43 operational flights, shooting down three enemy planes in dogfights.

In 1978, he left the IDF again and served as a reserve pilot for four years. He returned to active service in 1982, when he was also trained to pilot the new F-16 jet fighter. In 1984, he commanded a Phantom squadron. In 1986, he was appointed to head the IAI Lavi jet project. After the project was canceled due to American pressure, Halutz was appointed as commander of Hatzor airbase in 1991.

In 1993, he was promoted to brigadier general and appointed as head of air group. In 1995, he was appointed as the head of air force headquarters.

In 1998, he was promoted to major general and in 1999, he was appointed as the head of the Operations Wing in the IDF General Staff.

In 2000, Halutz was appointed commander of the Israeli Air Force. Serving in this position, Halutz implemented changes that earned him the appreciation and respect of his officers and pilots. During Halutz's term, Israel purchased F-15E and F-16 fighter jets, capable of strategic bombing in all weather conditions. Halutz also expanded the usage of UAV drones to various missions as an effective tool of scouting and reconnaissance.

He led the IAF during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, during which he was recognized by experts and subordinates as an innovative and a charismatic leader. During his term, the IAF took part in several 'targeted killing' operations of Palestinian militant leaders. Halutz's main reforms in the Air Force were the tightening of cooperation with the ground forces and the Shin Bet, the massive employment of UAV drones, the upgrading of precision strike capabilities in helicopter gunships and jets and the sharp decrease of accidents and aerial failures. During Halutz's time, only a small number of accidents occurred, none of them lethal. Moreover, he held a record of a straight 2.5 years with a clean slate of no accidents at all.

In 2004, he was appointed deputy chief of staff.

On February 23, 2005, Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz announced that Halutz would be the next IDF chief of staff.

On June 1, 2005, Halutz was officially appointed the eighteenth chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and was awarded the rank of Rav-Aluf (lieutenant general). It is the second time in the history of the Israel Defense Forces that a former IAF commander became the head of the entire military. General Chaim Laskov was the first.

On January 17, 2007, Halutz resigned from office, following a critical report from former chief of staff Dan Shomron. Halutz stated that he made the decision "based on deep-rooted values, those of strong ethics, loyalty to the organization and integrity."

"I served the army responsibly for over four decades, and this responsibility continued in the last few months. It is this responsibility that led me to announce my resignation."

Targeted killing policy
Halutz also tightened the cooperation of the IAF with the IDF ground forces and the Shabak (the Israeli internal security service and counter-terror agency), enabling the IAF to arrange "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants within minutes after being provided intelligence from the Shabak.

The targeted killings policy has become identified to a large degree with Halutz himself. Brig. Gen (res.) Iftach Spector, past commander of the Ramat David Airbase and the Tel Nof Airbase, accused Halutz of encouraging a culture within the IDF of compromising one's principles, citing among other things the targeted killings policy.

On the night of July 23, 2002, an IAF warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on a Gaza apartment building where senior Hamas commander Salah Shahade was sleeping together with his wife and family. The building was situated in a densely populated residential neighborhood. Besides Shehada and his wife and daughter, a dozen more civilians were killed, most of them children. Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon called the operation a success in the war on terror, but political critics pointed out that it was carried out hours after Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin issued a statement offering an end to suicide bombing, and just as the Palestinian Authority was working out a deal with Hamas to end terror attacks. All these developments were undone by the bombing, and the terror wave resumed. There was at least one revenge attack directly related to the Shehade bombing – on July 31 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing 7 civilians including 2 Americans.

Human-rights organizations have criticized the attack, proclaiming that the intentional dropping of a one-ton bomb in the middle of the night on a dense civilian neighborhood is tantamount to a war crime. The Gush Shalom movement also threatened to turn the pilot over to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Halutz, who was abroad during the bombing itself but was still accountable as IAF commander, gave an interview to Haaretz, published on August 21, 2002. To his pilots he said:

"[To pilots] Guys ... you can sleep well at night. I also sleep well, by the way. You aren't the ones who choose the targets, and you were not the ones who chose the target in this particular case. You are not responsible for the contents of the target. Your execution was perfect. Superb. And I repeat again: There is no problem here that concerns you. You did exactly what you were instructed to do. You did not deviate from that by so much as a millimeter to the right or to the left. And anyone who has a problem with that is invited to see me."

When asked whether the operation is morally wrong because of the toll on some civilians, Halutz answered that the planning included moral consideration and that a mistake or an accident does not make it such.

When the reporter asked him about the feelings of a pilot and what he feels when he drops a bomb, Halutz answered:

"No. That is not a legitimate question and it is not asked. But if you nevertheless want to know what I feel when I release a bomb, I will tell you: I feel a light bump to the plane as a result of the bomb's release. A second later it's gone, and that's all. That is what I feel."

In the same interview Halutz denounced the left-wing groups who attacked the pilots and called to have them tried for "treason":

"Is this the public for which the Israel Defense Forces is fighting day in and day out? All those bleeding hearts who have the gall to use Mafioso methods of blackmail against fighters – I don't recall that they ever threatened to turn over one of the arch-terrorists, the terrorists who have killed many Israeli civilians, to The Hague. What I have to say about those people is that this is a democracy, where everyone can always express his opinion. But not to be a traitor."

Interviewer: Are you suggesting that members of the Gush Shalom ("Peace Bloc") group who made those comments should be placed on trial for treason?

"We have to find the right clause in the law and place them on trial in Israel. Yes. You wanted to talk to me about morality, and I say that a state that does not protect itself is acting immorally. A state that does not back up its fighters will not survive. Happily, the State of Israel does back up its fighters. This vocal but negligible minority brings to mind dark times in the history of the Jewish people, when a minority among us went and informed on another part of the nation. That must not happen again. Who would have believed that pilots of the air force would find their cars spray-painted with savage graffiti because of a mission they carried out?"

Halutz's harsh expression caused a public controversy, with anti-Occupation groups demanding his resignation but right-wingers and centrists backing him.

Following Halutz's appointment to deputy chief of staff, a group of prominent left-wing activists, together with the Yesh Gvul refusal group, filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court of Justice (BAGATZ) in order to prevent the appointment. The petitioners attached a cut and somewhat edited version of the interview.

The judges ordered Halutz to write an essay, clarifying his stand in the issue. Halutz complied and submitted an essay saying:

"The fact that uninvolved civilians and innocent children were killed, saddens me. I regret that.... [The Air Force policy] is to employ the minimal force required to accomplish the mission.... If someone of those who took part in that operation would know this would be the tragic result – it would be canceled [or postponed]. A proof for this, is that the operation was already postponed number of times, because information we had about probable innocents around the terrorist Salah Shehade.... I (give great value) to the issue of responsibility distribution between the commander and his subordinates, between the pilots and those who sent to the mission, and therefore I told (them) to sleep well at nights."

In 2005, the Supreme Court accepted Halutz's reply and rejected the petition.

Following Shaul Mofaz's announcement that Halutz would be the next IDF chief of staff, the Arab and Yachad MKs condemned the decision, while right-wing and centrist MKs blessed Halutz and condemned the left for its objection to Halutz. MK Gideon Sa'ar (Likud) said the Halutz appointment to chief of staff is a winning answer to the far left.

Orders to bomb buildings in Beirut
Talking about Hezbollah rocket fire on Israeli civilians, Halutz said on July 23, 2006:"'There will always be some terrorist to fire a missile. But I believe we'll be able to push them north and reduce the accuracy of their fire. The other side must reach the conclusion that the price it pays for continuing the [rocket] fire is intolerable.'"

On July 24, 2006, it was reported that IDF Radio had broadcast details of orders issued by Halutz: "'Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Haret Hreik ('Dahiya') district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa,' a senior air force officer told army radio on Monday [July 24]."

The report was condemned on July 24 by the Israeli group Association for Civil Rights in Israel who wrote to Israeli Defense Minister Peretz and Israeli Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to criticise the orders: "Striking civilians and civilian infrastructure and using intentional means of intimidation and terrorizing civilian populations is forbidden by international humanitarian law, and could be war crimes." The group also condemned the "grave and illegal" attacks carried out on the Israeli civilian population by Hezbollah.

Investment portfolio scandal
On August 15, 2006, it was revealed that Halutz sold off his investment portfolio three hours after two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah during the Zar'it-Shtula incident, leading to the war. While this action on the part of the chief of staff is technically legal and is only restricted (through blind trusteeship) from cabinet members, the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has called to expand it to the chief of staff and to other senior officials. Several Knesset members called for Halutz to offer his resignation and some members of the General Staff Forum commented that his resignation appeared inevitable.

On August 17, Halutz rejected resigning over the affair, adding that the motives behind its publication are "wicked and tendentious. I do not know who is behind this. I do not intend to be dragged to such levels, questioning my integrity." Halutz admitted selling about $28,000 worth of his stocks within three hours of Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers—the action that sparked the conflict. In a news conference in Tel Aviv, Halutz said the stock sale was unrelated to the outbreak of war and criticized the disclosure of his personal financial information. On August 30, a Bank Leumi probe announced that the source of the leak did not come from its bank.

2023 Israel-Hamas war
On 27 December 2023, during the third month of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, retired General Halutz made the following comments:

"We lost the war, because it will not have the image of victory! Because the image will be the loss of 1,300 dead, 240 abducted, only a portion of whom have returned, and the destruction and displacement of 200,000 [Israeli] refugees in their country. The image of victory for me would be the removal of the prime minister [Netanyahu]. Only that will be an image of victory, unadulterated."

title: Dan Halutz


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Talk:William Z. Foster

Much ado about "Z"
My sources say that he never called himself "Zebulon."
 * Well, could you name your sources? I didn't add the name, but there are some internet sources that say that. Everyking 08:30, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I sound like a Magic Eight Ball. Barrett's book says that Foster never used it and denied the stories that others circulated that he had adopted Zebulon to sound as if he were descended from old New England stock, rather than the son of Irish immigrants. Thanks, by the way, for correcting all my typos; I plead fatigue, even though it is no defense. --Italo Svevo 04:03, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The Z. just stands for Z.
Johanningsmeier bio, pp. 11-12: "During this period, according to various records, Elizabeth gave birth to nine children, including William E. Foster (the "Z" was added much later)."

I recall having read somewhere that the initial was used to lend "pizazz" to a bland name -- tons of Williams, tons of Fosters, the Z. made the boring name pop. Not sure where I read that, but I believe that's the origin -- an arbitrary initial that would look good on a pamphlet. Not sure where the myth of "Zebulon" came from, but I'm knocking it out of the bio, because it's wrong.

Tim Davenport

Early American Marxism website

Carrite (talk) 07:25, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Free Speech Fight
The Free Speech Fight to which you refer actual took place in Spokane, Washington. November of 1909 to be exact. While the IWW carried out many such fights this would be the one that Foster was involved in. As a matter of fact he was covering the the event for the Workingmen's Paper. It was after being arrested alongside of the IWW members that he baecame a member. This is the same event which is so infamous for the arrest of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn(actually one of many arrests). Zealot420

Zebulon
He is listed as William Zebulon Foster in the following publications:
 * American Authors and Books. 1640 to the present day. Third revised edition. By W.J. Burke and Will D. Howe. Revised by Irving Weiss and Anne Weiss. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972. (AmAu&B)
 * American Reformers. Edited by Alden Whitman. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1985. (AmRef) Biography contains portrait.
 * American Social Leaders. By William McGuire and Leslie Wheeler. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1993. (AmSocL)
 * Biographical Dictionary of American Labor. Edited by Gary M. Fink. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. Biographies begin on page 83. (BiDAmL)
 * Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders. Edited by Gary M. Fink. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974. (BiDAmLL)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January, 1946-July, 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949. (BioIn 1)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 3: September, 1952-August, 1955. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1956. (BioIn 3)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 4: September, 1955-August, 1958. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1960. (BioIn 4)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 6: September, 1961-August, 1964. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1965. (BioIn 6)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 12: September, 1979-August, 1982. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1983. (BioIn 12)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 13: September, 1982-August, 1984. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1984. (BioIn 13)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 15: September, 1986-August, 1988. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1988. (BioIn 15)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September, 1988-August, 1990. New * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 19: September, 1993-August, 1994. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1994. (BioIn 19)
 * Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 20: September, 1994-August, 1995. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1995. (BioIn 20)
 * The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography. Edited by John S. Bowman. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995. (CamDcAB)
 * The Citizen Action Encyclopedia. Groups and movements that have changed America. By Richard S. Halsey. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2002. (CitAE)
 * Dictionary of Twentieth-Century History, 1914-1990. By Peter Teed. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1992. (DcTwHis)
 * Encyclopedia of World Biography. Second edition. Seventeen volumes. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. First edition published as The McGraw- Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography with six supplement volumes published as Encyclopedia of World Biography: 20th Century * The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1973. Supplemental volumes published as Encyclopedia of World Biography: 20th Century Supplement. (McGEWB)
 * The Penguin International Dictionary of Contemporary Biography from 1900 to the Present. Second edition. By Edward Vernoff and Rima Shore. New York: Viking Penguin, 2001. First edition published by New American Library as The International Dictionary of 20th Century Biography. (PenIntDc)
 * Webster's American Biographies. 1974 edition. Edited by Charles Van Doren. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1974. (WebAB 1974)
 * Webster's American Biographies. 1979 edition. Edited by Charles Van Doren. Springfield, MA: G. & C. Merriam Co., 1979. (WebAB 1979)
 * Who Was Who in America. A component volume of Who's Who in American History. Volume 4, 1961-1968. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1968. (WhAm 4)
 * The World Almanac Biographical Dictionary. By the editors of The World Almanac. New York: World Almanac Publications, 1990. (WorAlBi)
 * The World Almanac Book of Who. Edited by Hana Umlauf Lane. New York: World Almanac Publications, 1980. Use the 'Name Index,' which begins on page 326, to locate biographies. (WorAl)

First Amazon Labor Union in USA
In 2022, the lead organizers of the first successful Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organization-drive actively read and discussed William Z Foster's publications. See here: "ALU member Justine Medina credited Communist organizer William Z. Foster’s Organizing Methods in the Steel Industry for the group’s organizational acumen and bottom-up organizing approach. She and others on the organizing committee read and discussed it, giving it out to workers to read." From: Amazon Workers in Staten Island Clinch a Historic Victory April 01, 2022 by Luis Feliz Leon. Link: https://www.labornotes.org/2022/04/amazon-workers-staten-island-clinch-historic-victory — Preceding unsigned comment added by Acalbrecht (talk • contribs) 00:34, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:William Z. Foster


text:
Operating ratio

In finance, the operating ratio is a company's operating expenses as a percentage of revenue. This financial ratio is most commonly used for industries which require a large percentage of revenues to maintain operations, such as railroads. In railroading, an operating ratio of 80 or lower is considered desirable.

The operating ratio can be used to determine the efficiency of a company's management by comparing operating expenses to net sales. It is calculated by dividing the operating expenses by the net sales. The smaller the ratio, the greater the organization's ability to generate profit. The ratio does not factor in expansion or debt repayment.

Alternatively, it may be expressed as a ratio of sales to cost. In such case, a higher ratio indicates a better ability to generate revenue.

title: Operating ratio


text:
Counter-battery fire

Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements (multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command and control components. Counter-battery arrangements and responsibilities vary between nations but involve target acquisition, planning and control, and counter-fire. Counter-battery fire rose to prominence in World War I.

Counter-battery radar detects incoming indirect fire and calculates its point of origin. That location data can be sent by a communications link to friendly forces, who can then fire on the enemy positions, hopefully before they can reposition (the "scoot" part of shoot-and-scoot tactics). Counter-RAM systems track incoming rocket, artillery, and mortar fire and attempt to intercept and destroy the projectiles or provide early warning to the target area.

Background
Indirect fire was introduced so that artillery could fire from behind cover to reduce its exposure to enemy artillery by making itself more difficult to find. While armies were doing this, little thought was given to the need for counter-counter measures. Perhaps the only means of finding concealed guns was observation from kites or balloons. However, effective counter-battery fire needs far more than a single method of observation. Counter-battery (CB) fire emerged and developed extremely quickly during World War I. Since that war, CB has continued to evolve, mainly due to improvements in technology.

The targets of CB fire are usually the enemy's guns, launchers and mortars, both the materiel and the men serving them. The formal NATO definition of the term counter-battery is "fire delivered for the purpose of destroying or neutralising the enemy's fire support system", with the note that it may be proactive or reactive. This may be achieved by attacks on any part of the field artillery system. In some armies at some periods CB has been called counter-bombardment, and occasionally counter-mortar has been handled separately.

Functions
There are four functions in the system for CB fire:
 * Target acquisition
 * CB intelligence
 * CB fire control
 * CB fire units

Target acquisition
Target acquisition is the source of information for CB intelligence. It may produce accurate locations for enemy fire units or merely inputs to a more complex process for locating and assessing hostile artillery. At the end of World War I, the following were recognised as the principal sources of artillery intelligence, this seems to be in descending order of usefulness:

 * Aeroplanes (i.e., visual observation)
 * Aeroplane photography
 * Survey sections (i.e., flash spotting)
 * Sound ranging sections
 * Balloon observation
 * Ground observers (artillery and intelligence posts of other arms)
 * Liaison officers (artillery at infantry brigade HQs, these obtained reports of enemy artillery activity)
 * Officers' patrols
 * Secret agents and epatries
 * Captured documents and prisoners' statements
 * Listening sets (i.e., monitoring enemy communications)
 * Intercepted wireless (by wireless compass stations)

Apart from balloons and officers' patrols, these sources continued to play their part in World War II, and their technology improved, although flash spotting became less useful as ranges increased and flashless (or low flash) propellants became widespread. A successor to officers' patrols had an isolated emergence in Italy when Canadian artillery observers were put ashore behind German lines and established themselves to observe gun positions.

Sound ranging and flash spotting both required enemy guns to fire. Furthermore, other methods such as radio direction finding and information from prisoners are insufficiently precise to "fix" a target for artillery attack. Information from others may not be received quickly and hence be out of date, the hostile battery having moved.

These methods were joined by radar in World War II; while this could detect a shell in flight the gun that fired it could not usually be seen and the shell's elliptical trajectory made it impossible to extrapolate backwards with the technology of that time. However, mortar bombs have a parabolic trajectory (as do guns firing at high angles) defined by a simple mathematical equation with two points on the parabolic curve. It was therefore possible to deduce a mortar's position by tracking its bomb and recording two points on its trajectory. Another method that emerged was crater examination, this could reveal the azimuth back to the hostile gun or mortar and study of fragments could reveal its type. However, while it was a useful source of information it was not sufficiently accurate to give a location for the firer.

Most armies abandoned flash spotting in the 1950s. However, several new target acquisition technologies emerged. These included:
 * UAVs, about 1960 an Unmanned Air Vehicle, the SD-1, entered artillery service. This early UAV used wet film photography by day or night, had short range and short endurance. However, being under artillery control they were responsive to CB needs, which was just as well because other forms of air reconnaissance were becoming less available and were not notably timely. Other UAVs, including drones (flying a programmed course) duly emerged, including the ability to transmit imagery in real-time.
 * Next, in the 1970s Hughes Aircraft developed the US Firefinder RADAR system and created the algorithms that could extrapolate a gun's position from a segment of an elliptic trajectory. It's likely the Soviet Union created similar algorithms.
 * Non-communications ELINT, which can detect and locate radars, including those used by artillery is an often overlooked source.
 * A few armies established artillery observation patrol units to operate in likely artillery deployment areas behind the enemy's forward units.
 * On the modern battlefield various radars are able to detect vehicles or stationary guns on the ground, although this is far from a perfect information source. Look-down radar from high altitude aircraft are able to detect vehicles over a very wide range, but are unable to determine what type of vehicles they are and are susceptible to radar reflectors and similar countermeasures. The information is useful but requires further sources of information to accurately determine which contacts are the target. Millimeter wave radar (such as the AH-64 Apache's Longbow Radar) are able to very accurately detect the types of vehicles observed but are much shorter ranged.
 * The arrival of highly networked combat systems allows for data from multiple sources to be cross referenced very quickly. As a result, modern counter battery fire is generally as a result of a wide array of different possible information sources working together to provide targets in close to real time.
 * Sound ranging systems have also evolved with newer technology, such as Hostile Artillery Locating (HALO) and similar systems developed in other countries.

CB intelligence
CB intelligence applies the intelligence cycle and principles to CB. It uses information about hostile artillery from all sources to maintain detailed records and apply specialist techniques that exploit the nature of artillery fire to produce:
 * Intelligence about hostile artillery positions
 * The enemy artillery order of battle
 * Intelligence about hostile artillery activity and deployment and assessments of its wider implications

CB intelligence is usually combined with CB fire control (see below), although intelligence purists recognise this is not good practice and the two were separate in the British forces in France in World War I. In both World Wars CB intelligence and CB control were found to be most effective when they were at corps level. However, the final year of World War 2 showed that the counter mortar battle was really one for brigade level. Since that war CB has tended to move to lower levels and in some armies has grown into a wider deep supporting fire organisation.

CB fire control
It does not always make tactical sense to attack hostile batteries the moment they are located. This is magnified by the challenges of targeting hostile batteries. There are many factors, and their significance depends on the circumstances. The first issue for targeting is that it is difficult to knock out a battery, although smart munitions against SP guns may change this. As the quoted definition states, "destroy" is one possibility; another is "neutralization": to render the battery temporarily ineffective or unusable, including by suppressing it or forcing it to move. However, "suppression" only lasts while CB fire is falling, and if a hostile battery moves then it has to be found again. Sometimes it is best just to record the location of the hostile battery and leave it for later.

An additional issue for the use of counter battery fire is the finite artillery resources available for use in a given situation.

CB fire units
The final aspect of the CB equation is having available CB fire units and appropriate munitions. Typically these are general supporting fire units, but direct supporting fire units are also used if they are available and not fully occupied by their primary role. With conventional HE shells it may require the concentrated fire of 5–10 batteries to deal effectively with one hostile battery. Hence a value of multiple rocket launchers is their ability to deliver a heavy and concentrated attack from relatively few launchers.

Counter-measures
Counter-measures to CB fire have emerged throughout history. These include:
 * Digging in. In World War I, even heavy artillery was dug-in with several feet of overhead protection. Even today North Korean artillery is widely thought to be resistant to CB fire because of its deeply entrenched positions. More generally precision munitions have decreased the value of digging.
 * Encasing guns in armour. Fully armoured self-propelled guns were introduced to provide protection against conventional HE (High Explosive) fire.
 * Shoot-and-scoot tactics, in which a self-propelled artillery vehicle or towed gun fires a single round or salvo and immediately begins moving. Shoot-and-scoot tactics were first used in World War II by Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers.
 * Spreading out. Increasing the dispersion of guns in a position has been aided by computers for technical fire control. Introduction of guns with self-survey and orientation has led to the concept of gun maneuver areas where the troops, platoons or sections of a battery keep moving around, although it is questionable how sustainable this is.
 * Concealment. While firing guns cannot escape sound-ranging and radar detection, concealment and deception can reduce the likelihood of discovery from other methods.
 * Counter-battery fire, being prepared to reply to enemy counter-battery fire with counter-battery fire of your own.
 * Human shields. The practice of embedding artillery assets within a civilian population to discourage enemy counter-battery fire, based on the assumption that a counter-battery strike would damage and destroy civilian infrastructures as well as killing innocent non-combatants. The legal protections afforded to non-combatants mean such tactics would generally constitute a war crime.

Of course there are many potential target nodes in the field artillery system, including those dedicated to finding hostile artillery. Attacking these may significantly blind the enemy's CB capability—counter-countermeasures.

title: Counter-battery fire


text:
Jason Collett

Jason Robert Collett is a Canadian singer-songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. He has released six solo studio albums, and is a former member of Broken Social Scene.

Early life
Collett was born in Bramalea, a Greater Toronto Area suburb. He began writing songs at a young age to escape the boredom of his suburban life, and cites Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and Nick Lowe as influences. Eventually, Collett moved to downtown Toronto where he worked as a woodworker and carpenter, doing renovations and custom home building, while he pursued his music.

In the late 1980s, Collett co-founded the band Lazy Grace with Kathryn Rose and Kersti McLeod, performing every Monday at Toronto’s Spadina Hotel at the popular indie music gathering, Radio Mondays, alongside The Weakerthans and artists on the record label Arts & Crafts, who would perform and write songs together. Collett has mentioned how Radio Mondays were great community-building events, with five or six artists on stage at a time.

Around 2000, he was a part of the short-lived alternative country group Bird, of which Andrew Cash and Hawksley Workman were also members. Bird released one album, 2000’s Chrome Reflection.

Broken Social Scene
It was his work with Broken Social Scene that allowed Collett to give up woodworking and become a full-time musician. Collett became a member of Broken Social Scene, serving as one of their guitarists, after the band’s album You Forgot It In People. Collett was eventually convinced by Kevin Drew to join the band once they moved from a strictly instrumental band into one that wrote their own songs.

Though Collett took a break from touring with Broken Social Scene in the fall of 2005 to pursue his solo career and spend time with his family, Collett has made many musical connections through the band. His 2005 album, Idols of Exile, produced by Howie Beck, featured many prominent Canadian artists. Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, Leslie Feist and Brendan Canning all contributed, as did members of bands Stars and Metric.

Solo work
In 2001 he released his debut solo album Bitter Beauty, and in 2002 he followed up with Motor Motel Love Songs.

In 2005, he released Idols of Exile, his first for Arts & Crafts. Here's to Being Here was released in February 2008.

In 2007 Collett and poet Damian Rogers began coordinating The Basement Revue, a recurring concert series at Toronto's Dakota Tavern which saw writers and musicians collaborating on performances, with lineups not announced in advance of the show. The event later graduated to larger venues, most notably the annual Luminato Festival.

Formerly touring with backing band Paso Mino, made up of members Robbie Drake, Afie Jurvanen, Mike O'Brien and Michael P. Clive, in 2008 he debuted a new band consisting of Robbie Drake, Mike O'Brien, Carlin Nicholson and Neil Quin, who also released music separately as the band Zeus.

In 2009, Collett took part in an interactive documentary series called City Sonic. The series, which featured 20 Toronto artists, had him reflecting on his longtime relationship with Kensington Market.

Collett's fifth solo studio album, Rat a Tat Tat, produced by O'Brien and Nicholson, was released in March 2010. He followed up later the same year with Pony Tricks, an album which featured re-recorded alternate versions of songs from his prior albums.

His seventh solo studio album, Reckon was released in September 2012.

In 2013, he had an acting role in a stage production of Sam Shepard's play Cowboy Mouth, staged at Toronto's Cameron House.

He released his eighth album, Song and Dance Man on February 5, 2016. The following year he coordinated New Constellations, a collaborative concert tour which paired established Canadian pop and rock artists with emerging Indigenous Canadian artists.

In 2018, he contributed the song "Sensitive Man" to the compilation album The Al Purdy Songbook.

His ninth album, Head Full of Wonder, was released in 2022.

Discography

 * 2000: Chrome Reflection [Bird]
 * 2001: Bitter Beauty
 * 2002: Motor Motel Love Songs
 * 2005: Idols of Exile
 * 2008: Here's to Being Here
 * 2010: Rat a Tat Tat
 * 2010: Pony Tricks
 * 2012: Reckon/Essential Cuts
 * 2016: Song and Dance Man
 * 2022: Head Full of Wonder

title: Jason Collett


text:
Talk:Swiss-system tournament

Odd number of rounds
Can somebody explain why in chess tournaments usually have odd number of rounds, not even ? There is some good reason for this, it even compensates the fact that u cannot play the same number of games with white and black. But I forgot the reason :(

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.188.85.61 (talk) 22:48, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

 * The reason is that with an even number of rounds, it is hard to maintain color equity between black and white. With 5 rounds, usually everyone will be 3-2 or 2-3.  With 6 rounds it would be very diffuclt or impossible to make everyone 3-3, under normal Swiss pairing rules.  Players probably would object to being 2-4.  Bubba73 (talk), 21:09, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Konrad and Monrad
Under "Variations of the Swiss system" 194.48.84.1 changed the name of the flexible system described from Konrad to Monrad. What is described is definately the Konrad. Monrad is very similar to the Swiss System proper, although it does not take the ELO rating into account as much as the Konrad system. Monrad is a common tournament system in Norway, and far more popular than Konrad, but I did not feel it merited separate mention due to its similarity with Swiss. 129.177.61.123 08:10, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

accelerated pairings
Another modification of the Swiss system is "accelerated pairings", which is to reduce perfect scores faster. Players are ranked according to their rating and in the first round the top 1/4 plays the second 1/4, the third 1/4 plays the botton 1/4. In the second round, winners in the top half play each other, losers in the top half play winners in the bottom half, and losers in the bottom half play each other. It almost has the effect of another round. Someone can write this up, or maybe I'll get around to it after checking the details. Bubba73 (talk), 03:03, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, I went ahead and did it. Bubba73 (talk), 03:47, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Rounds and matches/games
Although single-elimination games have the same number of rounds as a swiss tournament, they do not have the same number of matches or games. With 8 players, there are 7 games in a single-elimination tournament, while in swiss style, there are 12.70.111.251.203 02:25, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes. assuming that there are three rounds in an 8 player Swiss. But large Swiss tournaments usually don't have the optimal number of rounds per number of players.  Bubba73 (talk), 14:03, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Double-Elimination
Someone care to compare Swiss with double elimination? 70.111.251.203 13:25, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, they are completly different. In a double elimination, two losses and you are out of the tournament. In a Swiss, everyone plays all rounds, total number of points wins.  Bubba73 (talk), 13:48, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Explanation
I think there should be a better explanation, perhaps a picture from a chess tournament that used it? A visual would help compare it to the other systems out there. (They have pictures).70.111.251.203 13:27, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Karpov on Swiss
Karpov recently said he didn't like the Swiss and commented on why. Might be a nice add in the disadvantages section, full info in a video (currently bottom of list) found here

Text removed from "analysis, advantages and disadvantages"
I have removed the following text from the analysis section

 * "However, this system does NOT work well if players are not properly seeded. For example, say a major squash tournament, like the British Junior Open (BJO) has 64 players in a specific age group. Players in the BJO will be seeded as per the latest European Squash Federation (ESF) rankings. Say there is one top player from Canada who does not have an ESF ranking and is therefore NOT seeded in the tournament. Say this player is randomly drawn to play the 1st seed in the tournament. If this top international player looses in the first round, the best he or she can come is 32nd. Other weaker players may advance and the outcome is not a true reflection of the positions obtained."

The text seems based upon a misunderstanding of the Swiss System. The Swiss is not a knock-out tournament, even when it comes to the competition for first place. It is perfectly possible for a player who loses the first round to win the tournament simply by scoring the most points. It is not so that in a 64-player field, players losing round 1 compete for positions 33-64. If there are many players and few rounds, a first-round loss might knock you out of contention for first place, but if you proceed to win the rest of your games you are virtually assured at least a high spot.

If you look at this crosstable from a Norwegian Swiss-system tournament, you will see that the winner of group A lost the first round, but 4.5/6 points was still enough to win the tournament in the end. Sjakkalle (Check!)  07:28, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Chess
Is there enough material to split off a Swiss-system tournaments in chess subarticle? I think the main article would be a little less "chess-heavy", and a chess-specific one could get more in-depth. —  SMcCandlish  [talk] [cont] ‹(-¿-)› 05:20, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

 * I don't think so. There doesn't seem to be that much that is chess-specific.  I think there would be a lot of redundancy if the article was split.  Bubba73 (the argument clinic), 05:46, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Please add info of....
FIDE handbook - not in a compendial status --222.64.219.102 (talk) 06:50, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook

Go game is not covered, but co-operated, by the system....
--222.64.219.102 (talk) 06:52, 3 March 2010 (UTC)
 * http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&newwindow=1&q=Go+game+site%3Awww.fide.com&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

Swiss in Starcraft 2
I just removed Starcraft 2 from the list of examples. Most tournaments use single elimination, the rest double elimination. I don't know one tournament that uses swiss.

What is kind of similar is the ladder system: What exact algorithm the ladder uses is unknown. What is known about it makes it something similar, but still different from swiss. For example, it is entirely possible to be pitted against the same opponent multiple times in a row on ladder. --UncleOwen (talk) 12:01, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Does this make sense...?
Does this sentence make sense?

Under Analysis, advantages, and disadvantages, near the bottom:

This will then leave the right number of people to play a round robin even so to find the final number of entrants. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lriley47 (talk • contribs) 15:48, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

Reason for pairings within a bracket
In a Swiss-system tournament, if there are eight players with the same score then external rankings can be used to pair #1 with #5, #2 with #6, #3 with #7, and #4 with #8. However in a single-elimination system, typically the goal for pairings for a round with eight players is #1 with #8, #2 with #7, #3 with #6, and #4 with #5. If there is an explanation for why these are different, can it be added to the article? 192.35.44.24 (talk) 14:02, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

 * That is a good question and I don't know the answer. However, I suspect that in a elimination tournament, they want to make it less likely that the #1 seed (and #2 to a lesser extent) doesn't get eliminated before the final. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 22:46, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Yes, that makes sense for the single-elimination tournament. However, by my thinking it makes sense for the Swiss-system tournament as well -- why not arrange things similarly, so that #1's path to the top rank is as easy as possible? I am guessing that there is a counterveiling argument for the Swiss-system tournament case that is somehow not as applicable in the single-elimination tournament … but what is it? 192.35.44.24 (talk) 17:35, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

 * I've been thinking about this question, so this is just my feeling. In an elimination tournament, the spectators want to see the top seed, so they want to make it unlikely that he is eliminated.  Swiss-system tournaments are not so popular with spectators.  Also, with a Swiss, the top player isn't eliminated if he loses in an early round.

 * The Swiss system could pair #1 with #2, #3 with #4, etc, but I think they don't do that so that will be more likely that the top players will meet in the last round. On the other hand, if a round of Swiss was paired like the elimination tournament, #1 vs. #8, etc, some of the matches would be blow outs, and not very interesting.  The Swiss pairings (#1 vs. #5, etc) seem to be a compromise between those two.  It keeps the pairings more even/balanced than the elimination pairings.

 * Also, most Swiss tournaments are for the benefit of the players, instead of spectators. So #1 vs. #8 would probably be an uninteresting blow out, but #5 may have some chance against #1.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:29, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps it is that, in the later rounds, a Swiss-system tournament has a tendancy to pair players with those of nearly equal rank. In particular, #4 and #5 could easily end up playing each other in a late round. Given that match-up duplications are to be minimized, there is incentive to avoid pairing #4 and #5 in the first round. Do you think that is part of the reasoning? 192.35.44.24 (talk) 18:48, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

 * The Swiss system pairs players with equal scores by design and those tend to have similar starting ranks. The system is more concerned with the top seeds than 4 and 5.  It wouldn't really matter if 4 and 5 played each other in a late round of a Swiss because they would probably not be the leaders at that point.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 18:55, 6 June 2013 (UTC)

There is another issue if the tournament is using tie-breaks based on the opponents' scores (this is very common, e.g. Solkoff, Median, and Sonneborn-Berger). In this case #1 will usually dispatch #8 easily, but since #8 will usually have scored very few points, #1 will not enjoy a good tie-break score for it. #1 may well have preferred to struggle a little more in defeating #5, in order to obtain more tie-break points. Sjakkalle (Check!)  05:51, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

 * Good thinking. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 06:23, 17 June 2013 (UTC)

Proposed merge with Schenkel system
This is a variation on the overall theme, does not justify a separate article. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 20:26, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Agreed. This is a no brainer. Though a redirect should be left on the page. --Shabidoo | Talk 17:21, 25 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Agree to all. C 1776 M Talk 19:19, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Done. There was no referenced content in that article. Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 23:42, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

Variations, or different systems?
I came to this page looking for the difference between Monrad and Swiss tournaments. I find that the article is unclear about whether it talks about one system, or a family of similar systems. The very first sentence mixes "tournaments" and "tournament formats" - thus keeping the question unclear.

Later, the article talks about "the Swiss system" - whereas several sources, including FIDE, mentions different Swiss systems. According to the FIDE definition, "Monrad" is a Swiss system.

I have made a quite bold change, making the article clearly about all different Swiss systems, including Monrad. I hope I have succeeded in doing so clearly and consistently

NisJørgensen (talk) 03:10, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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Unsuitability for football tournaments – and what about other team sports?
Regarding the quote

Due to the unpredictability of the pairings, the Swiss system is not suitable for events where fixtures need to be booked in advance, such as football tournaments.

luokehao, Friday 1 June, 2018, 02:57:45 (UTC)
 * 1) Which code of football is being referred to in the original text?
 * 2) Are team rivalries as a much a factor as scheduling problems in preventing the Swiss system being used for team sports where the number of games that can be played is physically severely limited (like Australian rules football or gridiron football)?
 * 3) How far would fixtures need to “be booked in advance” to completely rule out the use of a Swiss System or similar (e.g. McMahon)?
 * 4) How different would booking fixtures for a Swiss-system team sport tournament be from actual booking for, say, the NFL playoffs or soccer cup competitions like the FA Cup?
 * 5) The final five rounds of the 1943 VFL season were organised in a manner rather analogous to a Swiss system or a McMahon system
 * 6) What possibilities exist for more general use of similar systems in sports like Australian Rules, gridiron and lacrosse?
 * It looks like original research to me. If someone can find a source which discusses such things they are free to re-add the material with citation, but for now I will remove it. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 03:09, 1 June 2018 (UTC)
 * Information as to why Swiss-system tournaments are never considered for high-wear team sports like gridiron (e.g. for college gridiron championships) and Australian rules is certainly desirable, but I could never find a source using Google Scholar or Google Books. luokehao, Friday 1 June, 2018, 03:33:17 (UTC)
 * I haven't seen much discussion anywhere of what tournament formats are suitable for what sports/games. The objection that it's unpredictable when a team will be in town and venues/hotels etc must be booked in advance also applies to knockout events like the F.A. Cup. Coming to think of it, a 4 or 5 round Swiss tournament where the top 8 advance to the quarter finals wouldn't be a bad format for the FIFA World Cup. So maybe it's just tradition; in any case it needs a source or else it's OR. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 03:58, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Unsuitability for games with substantial elements of luck?
I have noticed that those games where Swiss-system tournaments are used are, without exception, games of pure skill with no or negligible elements of luck (see 2012’s Untangling Skill and Luck by Michael J. Mauboussin and his ‘Skill and Luck’ for details). That the character of a Swiss-system tournament is unsuitable for games like soccer and gridiron where luck plays a substantial and often decisive role in outcomes is intuitive to me – pairing teams on results over a short period may not be pairing them on actual skill but on results determined substantially by luck. Nonetheless, the element of tradition certainly applies, especially to sports like two-innings forms of cricket or to Australian Rules, where divisional leagues or knockouts have been invariably used. luokehao, Friday 1 June 2018, 11:32:02 (UTC)
 * I have to read Mauboussin's article - at first glance, it seems to be incompatible with my understanding of skill vs luck. That aside, my reasoning is just the opposite: it's odd that e.g. soccer tournaments are elimination-style - isn't it rather unfair to have your fate decided by a single result arguably based on luck - you lose once and you're out - instead of being given a fighting chance, which would be the case in Swiss-system tournaments? GregorB (talk) 14:36, 20 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Bridge, Scrabble and backgammon have substantial luck elements, but they sometimes use Swiss-system tournaments. --seberle (talk) 04:31, 21 November 2018 (UTC)
 * I've read the article. It makes a number of valid points, but I'd say it fails to point out that the degree of "luck" we tend to attach to a certain sport is not only dependent on the nature of the sport itself, but also on the way the competition is structured, i.e. on what constitutes a "win". E.g. basketball is given as an example of a sport with a low level degree of luck, yet if basketball games had just one 12-minute quarter instead of four, we'd obviously observe a much higher degree of luck, even if the rules remained exactly the same.
 * Back to the subject. Quoting the article: "Swiss-system tournament does not always end with the exciting climax of a knockout final". Ergo, Swiss system is largely incompatible with financial interests, and that's probably the main reason why we never see it in a major sport. GregorB (talk) 12:25, 21 November 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Swiss-system tournament


text:
File:Sports Barnstar.png

Candidate for Sports Barnstar, a slightly modified version of Image:Original Barnstar.png

Source and licensing
"Image may be used elsewhere without restriction," says SunirShah, creator, on BarnStar. Original image from Barnstar Subterfuge (currently not available online).

title: File:Sports Barnstar.png


text:
International Student Festival in Trondheim

ISFiT - The International Student Festival in Trondheim, Norway is allegedly the world's largest student festival with a thematic emphasis. Approximately 450 students from all over the world attend the festival. The themes change with each festival, but have always been related to social and political topics with international relevance.

The stated purpose of ISFiT is to be a meeting place for discussion and debate, an arena where ideas are born, friendships are made and valuable lessons are learned. The festival aims at fostering inspiration and being a starting point for international cooperation amongst students. ISFiT is a non-profit festival.

The ISFiT participants take part in different workshops, which highlight the festival theme in various ways. Several lectures and thematic meetings are arranged, where well-known international speakers share their views with the participants and others.

ISFiT has been arranged in Trondheim, Norway every second year since 1990. More than 450 students work voluntarily in order to organize the festival. The president for the festival in 2025 is Aurora Kolstad.

History
The idea of an international student festival in Trondheim came to life in 1988. The thought was to gather students from different parts of the world in a combination of a conference and a festival.

The theme of ISFiT 1990 was "A Changing Europe -- What are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Students and their Universities?," a timely theme, considering that the Berlin Wall fell shortly before the festival was held. Gro Harlem Brundtland opened the festival. ISFiT arranged for two trains, one from Budapest and one from Paris, to transport 375 students from all over Europe to Trondheim. For many of the participants, this was their first visit outside the Iron Curtain. This train ride has later been called "The ISFiT Rail".

In 1992, ISFiT had already established its name in the world. More than 4,300 applications were addressed to Trondheim from students all over the world. Norwegian Minister of Education and Research Gudmund Hernes opened the festival.

In 1994, the Dalai Lama visited ISFiT after he had received a visit from dedicated ISFiT representatives, who went to India and spent days outside his office until they got a 10-minute meeting with him. He was reported to have replied, "Cancel my other appointments. This is more important." 1994 was also the year that ISFiT started to offer financial support, so that participants from even more countries could come to the festival. The Dalai Lama visited the Festival for the second time in 2015.

The Dialogue Groups were first introduced in 1997. Since then, the Dialogue Groups have been a seminar where participants from different sides of a conflict get to meet at neutral ground to share their experiences and discuss possible solutions to the conflict.

In 1999 The Student Peace Prize was awarded for the first time. Since then, the prize has been given every second year on behalf of all Norwegian students. Antero Benedito da Silva from East Timor was the first laureate. He received the award for his non-violent battle against the Indonesian occupation.

Many world figures have attended ISFiT, and past speakers include former Director-General of WHO Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates José Ramos-Horta, Wangari Maathai, Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams and Shirin Ebadi. Former US president Bill Clinton has participated via video conference.

Since 2003, the festival has had participants from more than a hundred countries.

Themes

 * 2023, Power
 * 2023, Polarization
 * 2021, Creating Knowledge
 * 2019, Migration
 * 2017, Discrimination
 * 2015, Corruption
 * 2013, Trade Your Ideas
 * 2011, Globalize this: Health
 * 2009, Peacebuilding
 * 2007, Global Boundaries
 * 2005, Education. Why?
 * 2003, Challenging Attitudes
 * 2001, Global Responsibility
 * 1999, Solving Conflicts
 * 1997, Quality of Life
 * 1994, Human Rights
 * 1992, Breaking Communication Barriers
 * 1990, A Changing Europe - What are the Roles and Responsibilities of the Students and their Universities?

2009
ISFiT 2009 was held from 20 February to 1 March in Trondheim, Norway. This was the 10th ISFiT-festival, the first was held in 1990. ISFiT is one of the world's largest student festival with a thematic focus. Approximately 450 students from all over the world attend the festival. More than 350 students in Trondheim work voluntarily for the student festival. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Desmond Tutu, Dr. Shirin Ebadi and Betty Williams are some of the introductory speakers at the festival.

The theme for ISFiT 2009 was peacebuilding. The thematic focus was illuminated through both the workshops and the meetings during the festival in addition to the cultural programme. According to the theme document "ISFIT 2009 sees peacebuilding as a long-term process, with the object to create a stable and lasting peace, a peace that is something more than just an absence of war. Peacebuilding shall create a solid foundation for a peaceful development, as well as increase the society’s ability to cope with conflicts in a peaceful way. ISFIT 2009 recognizes peace building both as a preventative process as well as a process of rebuilding. Peacebuilding appears between different actors on global, regional, national, local and interpersonal level."

The Dialogue Groups 2009 kicked off 10 days before ISFiT 2009 with a seminar at Røros, and continued into the festival in Trondheim. In 2009 students from Israel/Palestine, Cyprus and Georgia/Abkhazia were invited to take part in the Dialogue Groups.

In addition to the workshops and the dialogue groups there were several lectures and thematic meetings, as well as concerts, exhibitions and performing arts.

Through the workshops all the participants of the festival will attend the different workshops. The workshops will highlight the festival themes in different ways. The workshops of ISFiT 2009 were:
 * 01.	Peace as concept
 * 02.	Arms Inc. & Tech.
 * 03.	Governing systems
 * 04.	International Trade
 * 05.	Health - The cure for conflicts
 * 06.	Children - the silent voices in society
 * 07.	Film & Photo - Shooting for Peace
 * 08.	Peace enforcement
 * 09.	Religion - Belief in Peace?
 * 10.	Sports - building a common ground?
 * 11.	Human rights
 * 12.	Demobilization, disarmament & reintegration
 * 13.	Wo:men
 * 14.	Development through migration
 * 15.	Energy & technology
 * 16.	Music - Jamming for peace
 * 17.	Student Peace Action Movement

2011
ISFiT 2011 is a student festival that was held from February 11 to February 20, 2011, in Trondheim, Norway. This was the 11th ISFiT-festival. 525 students from 104 countries gathered in Trondheim to discuss the festival's main theme, global health. The festival's name was Globalize this: Health.

ISFiT 2011 board defined global health as the health of the world population in an international context, looking beyond purely national perspectives and challenges. The concept covered all aspects of the human health – physical, mental, and social. Furthermore, the board defined health as an individual resource possessed by all people. By this, health is also a resource for local communities, nations and the world community. The global health affects and is affected by several international conditions – politics, security, economy and culture.

Kine Karlsen was voted President at a plenary session held at the Student Society in Trondheim in Trondheim on April 15, 2009. As president, she elected the following as members of the board:

 * Jørgen W. Thorsen: Vice-president
 * Eivind Berstad: Head of information
 * Stina Låstad: Head of administration
 * Elisa Osmundsen: Head of economy
 * Eirik Vikum: Head of Student Peace Prize
 * Elin Kathrine Saunes: Head of culture
 * Karoline Fossland: Head of Theme

Kine Karlsen resigned as president in late October 2010, after a leave of absence since August 2010. Jørgen W. Thorsen was prototed to president in November 2010, after serving as Acting President since Karlsen's leave. Karlsen continued as a regular member of the board.

As in previous years, workshops formed the core of ISFiT. The workshops highlighted the festival themes in different ways. The workshops of ISFiT 2011 were:
 * WS01 - Politics
 * WS02 - Theatre
 * WS03 - Education
 * WS04 - Water
 * WS05 - Mental health
 * WS06 - Literature
 * WS07 - Climate and environment
 * WS08 - Economy
 * WS09 - Food
 * WS10 - Sex
 * WS11 - Art
 * WS12 - The future
 * WS13 - Genes
 * WS14 - Women and children
 * WS15 - Information technology
 * WS16 - Sports
 * WS17 - Development and Aid

On 25 November 2010 it was announced that human rights activist Duško Kostić was awarded the Student Peace Prize. Kostić received the award at a ceremony at Olavshallen, 18 February 2011. He was also honored with a memory plate in Jomfrugata in Trondheim as a part of the Walk of Peace-project, that was unveiled during ISFiT 2011.

2013
ISfIT 2013 was a student festival held from February 7 to February 17, 2013, in Trondheim, Norway.

On April 6, 2011, a plenary session was held at the Student Society in Trondheim to elect the President for the upcoming festival in 2013. Several pre-announced candidates ran for president and presented what they believed should be the main of ISFiT 2013; among them were Guro Grytli Seim (Energy), Marianne Ytterbø (Technology) and Kaja Juul Skarbø (Trade).

Juul Skarbø and Grytli Seim were the remaining candidates after the preliminary rounds, and Juul Skarbø won in the end with 110 votes to 101, making Trade the main theme for ISFiT 2013. During the debate Juul Skarbø emphasized trade as a mean for social and economic development, but also as an obstacle for development. She pointed to power structures, sustainability, ethics and human trafficking as interesting approaches to the theme.

The theme for ISFiT 2013, Global Trade, covered many different areas of human activity. Juul Skarbø proposed topics as diverse as finance, economies of war, subsidies, human trafficking and local and global markets, for some of the workshops during the festival.

ISFiT 2013 defined trade as legal and illegal exchange of goods, services, labour, capital and financial instruments. By this definition, international trade encompasses issues that are both the reason for, and the consequences of, such exchanges. They discussed solutions to global trade issues in a long-term perspective. ISFiT 2013 also want to create a constructive debate and dialogue across ideological and national boundaries.

The theme was discussed in the workshops, at plenary sessions and under the event ISFiT open. They want to put a spotlight on issues like: Do students have the power to change a political regime? Who dominate the global market, and why? Is there a limit for what we can buy or sell? What is the reason for starvation when tons of food are thrown away in the western countries? Can consumption be a way to communicate and express our cultural identity and values? Is mixing business and social development the future?

As president, Juul Skarbø elected the following as members of the board:
 * Yvonne Fadnes: Head of Administration
 * Martin Gulseth: Head of Culture
 * Victoria Nash: Head of Economy
 * Elise Djupedal: Head of Theme
 * Therese Høstad: Head of Student Peace Prize
 * Christine Berntzen: Board Member
 * Marte Helland: Organization Secretary

Cultural Programme
ISFiT is a combination of a festival and a conference, and has been offering a wide cultural program since the festival started in 1990. ISFiT is an international festival and a meeting place, and the cultural program is characterized by this. The cultural program creates an arena where the participants get the opportunity to break down cultural barriers. ISFiT offers both concerts, art and performing arts. There are also ceremonies held at the start and the end of the festival, as well as a ceremony for the Student Peace Prize.

A diversity of concerts is arranged during ISFiT, both at the Student Society and external scenes, like the Nidaros Cathedral.

ISFiT aims to be a place where "the leaders of today meet the leaders of tomorrow." During ISFiT, several plenary sessions are held. The plenary sessions aims to be a place to be inspired, a place to learn, a place to discuss global issues, and a place to be heard.

Workshops
The workshops consist of smaller groups of 20-30 students from different countries. During the workshops, the participants collectively acquire knowledge of the workshop theme, as well as cultural differences and similarities, through a variety of methods. The workshops also have the opportunity to invite famous and knowledgeable people from all over the world to start and lead discussion and debate.

Student Peace Prize
The Student Peace Prize is awarded biennially to a student or a student organization that has made a significant contribution to creating peace and promoting human rights. The prize is awarded on behalf of all Norwegian students, and is administered by the Student Peace Prize Secretariat in Trondheim, which is a part of the ISFiT-organization, and which appoints a national nominations committee with representatives from universities and colleges in Norway, as well as an independent Peace Prize Committee that awards the prize. The award ceremony takes place during ISFiT and is one of the main events of the festival.

Dialogue Groups
The Dialogue Groups is an initiative to peace building in practice. The Dialogue Groups invite students from different sides of conflicts to meet on equal grounds for sharing of experiences and dialogue.

South Africa, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Colombia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Kashmir, Israel, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Balkan and Russia/Chechnya, Ukraine, Iran/USA, Ethiopia/Eritrea, Sudan, the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Congo), Azerbaijan/Armenia, Georgia/Abkhazia and Cyprus have been represented since 1997.

The Dialogue leaders and facilitators are students at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, who have theoretical and practical training in using dialogue as a tool for constructive communication and conflict resolution. External experts and professional mediators will also be used in parts of the seminar.


text:
Seve Trophy

The Seve Trophy was a biennial golf tournament between teams of professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representing Continental Europe. The tournament was played in years when there is no Ryder Cup. The competition was held eight times from 2000 to 2013.

The Trophy was named after five times major winner Seve Ballesteros, the most successful golfer ever from Continental Europe who was one of the key instigators of the tournament. He made an exceptional contribution to the European Ryder Cup successes of the 1980s and 1990s, and came to be regarded as an exceptionally keen team man in a usually individualistic sport.

A sponsorship deal with the French media conglomerate Vivendi meant that the 2009 was known as The Vivendi Trophy with Seve Ballesteros, the 2011 event was the Vivendi Seve Trophy and the 2013 event was known as the Seve Trophy by Golf+.

Schedule
The event was played in years when there is no Ryder Cup. Initially this meant even numbered years, but because the 2001 Ryder Cup was postponed by a year due to the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the Seve Trophy was then played in odd numbered years. In 2002 both events were played.

In 2000 and 2002 the event was played in April but from 2003 it was played in the autumn. In 2005, 2007 and 2013 it was held in the same week as Europe's Ryder Cup opponents, Team USA, took on the "International Team" in the Presidents Cup, while in 2009 and 2011 it was scheduled during the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup playoffs.

The Seve Trophy was an "approved special event" on the European Tour. A week in the tour schedule was set aside for it, but the prize money did not count towards the Race to Dubai (previously the Order of Merit).

The 2013 event was the last.

Format
The Seve Trophy was a team event for professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representing Continental Europe.

In 2000 and 2002 the trophy was contested over three days (Friday to Sunday) with 8 foursomes/fourball/greensomes matches on each of the first two days (4 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon) and 10 singles matches on the last day. The format was therefore similar to that of the Ryder Cup except that there were less singles matches, since each team consisted of ten players, whereas in the Ryder Cup there are twelve players on each team. An unusual feature was the inclusion of one set of greensome matches.

In 2003 the trophy was extended to four days (Thursday to Sunday). On the first two days there were 5 fourball matches each day. The third day had 4 greensomes in the morning and 4 foursomes in the afternoon, with 10 singles matches on the fourth day. This format remained the same until 2013 when the greensome matches on the third morning were replaced with foursomes matches.

The winner of each match scores a point for his team, with ½ a point each for any match that is tied after the 18 holes. In 2000 and 2002 there were 26 points available and so 13½ points were required for victory. Since 2003 there have been 28 points available and so 14½ are now required for victory.

A foursomes match is a competition between two teams of two golfers. The golfers on the same team take alternate shots throughout the match, with the same ball. Each hole is won by the team that completes the hole in the fewest shots. A greensomes match is similar to a foursomes match except that both players tee off on every hole. Each pair then chooses one of their balls and alternate strokes are then played with that ball to complete the hole. A fourball match is also a competition between two teams of two golfers, but all four golfers play their own ball throughout the round rather than alternating shots, and each hole is won by the team whose individual golfer has the lowest score. A singles match is a standard match play competition between two golfers.

Team qualification and selection
Two captains were chosen by the European Tour. From 2000 to 2005 the captain was automatically one of the members of his team. From 2007 they were non-playing captains.

Eligibility for the Seve Trophy was similar that of the Europe team in the Ryder Cup. Players had to be Europeans and be a member of the European Tour.

From 2000 to 2005 the captain had one "captain's pick", a player chosen at the discretion of the team captains, while in 2007 this was increased to two. However from 2009 team qualification was based solely on qualification criteria:

 * The leading five eligible players in the Official World Golf Rankings
 * The leading five eligible players on the European Tour Race to Dubai, not already selected on the first criterion

Results
Of the 8 matches, the Great Britain and Ireland team won 6 while the Continental Europe team won 2.

Appearances
The following are those who played in at least one of the matches.

Great Britain and Ireland
Paul Casey and Colin Montgomerie made the most appearances on the Great Britain and Ireland side, playing in five events each.

 * 🏴 Phillip Archer 2007
 * 🏴 John Bickerton 2000
 * 🏴 Paul Casey 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013
 * Darren Clarke 2000, 2002, 2011
 * 🏴 Brian Davis 2003
 * 🏴 Stephen Dodd 2005
 * 🏴 Jamie Donaldson 2011, 2013
 * 🏴 Nick Dougherty 2005, 2007, 2009
 * 🏴 Bradley Dredge 2005, 2007
 * 🏴 Simon Dyson 2007, 2009, 2011
 * 🏴 Ross Fisher 2009, 2011
 * 🏴 Tommy Fleetwood 2013
 * 🏴 Mark Foster 2011
 * Stephen Gallacher 2013
 * 🇮🇪 Pádraig Harrington 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005
 * 🏴 David Horsey 2011
 * 🏴 David Howell 2000, 2003, 2005
 * Scott Jamieson 2011, 2013
 * 🏴 Simon Khan 2013
 * Paul Lawrie 2000, 2002, 2003, 2013
 * 🏴 David Lynn 2013
 * Graeme McDowell 2005, 2009
 * 🇮🇪 Paul McGinley 2002, 2005
 * Rory McIlroy 2009
 * Colin Montgomerie 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007
 * Andrew Oldcorn 2002
 * Gary Orr 2000
 * 🏴 Ian Poulter 2003, 2005, 2011
 * 🏴 Phillip Price 2000, 2003
 * 🏴 Robert Rock 2009, 2011
 * 🏴 Justin Rose 2003, 2007
 * 🏴 Graeme Storm 2007
 * 🏴 Anthony Wall 2009
 * Marc Warren 2007, 2013
 * 🏴 Steve Webster 2002, 2009
 * 🏴 Lee Westwood 2000, 2002, 2003, 2011
 * 🏴 Oliver Wilson 2007, 2009
 * 🏴 Chris Wood 2009, 2013
 * 🏴 Ian Woosnam 2000, 2002

Continental Europe
Miguel Ángel Jiménez was the only golfer to play in all eight Seve Trophy events on the Continental side.

 * 🇪🇸 Seve Ballesteros 2000, 2002, 2003
 * 🇩🇰 Thomas Bjørn 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013
 * 🇫🇷 Grégory Bourdy 2013
 * 🇦🇹 Markus Brier 2007
 * 🇮🇹 Emanuele Canonica 2005
 * 🇩🇪 Alex Čejka 2000, 2002, 2003
 * 🇧🇪 Nicolas Colsaerts 2011, 2013
 * 🇸🇪 Niclas Fasth 2002, 2003, 2005
 * 🇪🇸 Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño 2007, 2009, 2013
 * 🇪🇸 Sergio García 2000, 2003
 * 🇪🇸 Ignacio Garrido 2003
 * 🇸🇪 Mathias Grönberg 2002
 * 🇩🇰 Anders Hansen 2009, 2011
 * 🇩🇰 Søren Hansen 2007, 2009
 * 🇸🇪 Peter Hanson 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011
 * 🇫🇷 Grégory Havret 2007
 * 🇫🇮 Mikko Ilonen 2007, 2013
 * 🇸🇪 Freddie Jacobson 2003
 * 🇫🇷 Raphaël Jacquelin 2002, 2003, 2007, 2011
 * 🇪🇸 Miguel Ángel Jiménez 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013
 * 🇸🇪 Robert Karlsson 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009
 * 🇩🇰 Søren Kjeldsen 2009
 * Maarten Lafeber 2005
 * 🇩🇪 Bernhard Langer 2000
 * 🇪🇸 Pablo Larrazábal 2011
 * 🇫🇷 Thomas Levet 2002, 2005
 * Joost Luiten 2013
 * 🇮🇹 Matteo Manassero 2011, 2013
 * 🇮🇹 Francesco Molinari 2009, 2011, 2013
 * 🇸🇪 Alex Norén 2011
 * 🇪🇸 José María Olazábal 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005
 * 🇩🇰 Thorbjørn Olesen 2013
 * 🇪🇸 Álvaro Quirós 2009
 * 🇫🇷 Jean-François Remésy 2005
 * 🇸🇪 Jarmo Sandelin 2000
 * 🇸🇪 Henrik Stenson 2005, 2009
 * 🇫🇷 Jean van de Velde 2000

title: Seve Trophy


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Franz Trautinger

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. dbenbenn | talk 23:21, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Franz Trautinger
Article does not establish notability. Delete.-gadfium 08:12, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Seems like a friend's eulogy about a nice guy, but not a famous or particularly influential one. delete Kappa 08:52, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree. delete. Aleph4 09:00, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment. There is a professor Franz Trautinger, at the University of Vienna, who has published on dermatology. The Trautinger in the current article is definitely a different individual. No vote as yet. Megan1967 23:27, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Definitely. The professor gave a talk in November 2004, our Trautinger died in 2003. Aleph4 09:51, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. A eulogy. Carrp | Talk 23:30, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Leaning Delete unless someone that can read the non-English hits comes up with something to say about the professor. Of the ~100 hits, going thru the first half I didn't see anything he published solo, and a number of the hits are for jointly signed 'Letters to the Editor' of various publications. Niteowlneils 04:18, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete the article it was just a silly joke of mine!(just check the ip's)
 * The above from User:193.170.68.246. —Korath (Talk) 18:00, Mar 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nonsense article from the start --Henrygb 23:34, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.