The 0 point bye in the last round can be for a number of reasons. Most common is the inability due to schedules to play the round. Do remember that a player that withdraws from a tournament can be ruled as ineligible for prize money. Thus, by taking a 0 point bye in the final round they are still eligible for prizes. I have done this myself as I slowly try to play in all 50 states. Travel from some locations make it possible to only play in an event with a bye in the final round.
Please remember that not all tournaments have byes in all the rounds. I actually had to explain once that all I want was a 0 point bye in the final round, when the organizer/TD did want to give out a bye in the final round. They did not want any 1/2 point bye in the final round, but had no problem with the idea of a 0 point bye. I do recall a tournament where a player showed up for the second round and was surprised to find out that the event did not offer a 1/2 point bye for the first round.
The point is different from the TD (and/or organizer) point of view and the player point of view. I have seen tournaments where other players were unhappy with someone getting a final 1/2 point bye. The other players were less upset when it was explained that the bye had been arrange before the start of the tournament. Also, you as a TD should not assume that all of the players know all of the rules. So, while someone may know and take advantage of revoking a last round bye there may be other players in the event that will less than happy with such an event.
If a person revokes an irrevocable bye and wins the game, I understand he only gets 1/2 point for prize purposes. Does his opponent still get the 0 he earned?
Both for prize eligibility and rating purposes the opponent of the player who is allowed to rescind an irrevocable bye gets whatever score s/he earns in the game.
That is what I would do as the TD - UNLESS - they had agreed before that it was only an extra rated game and that it did NOT count in the tournament. Now those are extremely narrow circumstances and probably not what you are thinking about. So in almost every case I totally agree that the opponent gets whatever they earn on the board. So the game for the event could end up generating .5, 1 or 1.5 points. Now here is the exception that I do sometimes - and it is not directly on point to the situation that is the subject of this thread.
I have done that most often in scholastic tournaments when a kid had requested a bye and then at the last minute decided he wanted to play. Now that was usually after the pairings have been made and so I am pairing the “unbye” with another bye player - or with a cross-sectional pairing - or even with a kid who happens to finish early.
I had a kid one time play 9 games in conjunction with a 5 round tournament. He tended to finish quickly and wanted to play so he had a bunch of extra rated games and most of my please wait byes got some sort of game to play if they were willing to hang out 5-10 minutes. (These were 4th/5th graders who were all rated less than 1000. )
Spectator interference or TD error that persuades a chief TD to go with a double-win or win-draw for prize purposes. The double-win would be modified to a scoring win-draw because of the rescinded bye.
I did allow that once in a scholastic bughouse event where a floor TD erroneously ignored the illegal-move loses clause when ruling on the illegal move and the opponent’s of the illegally moving team went on to lose.
PS I the two players started colluding to maximize their prize money I’d have no problem going with a double-loss and having the game generate zero points. If they were buddies that left immediately after seeing the pairing (no move played) then a double-forfeit would also generate zero points.
Perhaps the misnomer “irrevocable” should be changed; if the last round (or any round) elective bye may be revoked with restrictions, call it a “restrictive bye”. If the elective bye may be revoked without restriction, call it a “bye”. If the elective bye is truly irrevocable, then and only then call it “irrevocable”. Otherwise, we’re miscommunicating and confusing players.
Missing the point. The fact that its called irrevocable implies an absolute. That absolute does not (necessarily) exist. Thus, its easy for both the players and the TD to be misinformed.
We should call things what they actually are. An irrevocable bye isn’t necessarily irrevocable as far as a player is concerned; a player may assume a bye is irrevocable because it is named as such, and therefore not even ask, whereas if the player DID ask, the TD might allow revocation.
The name of the bye implies something which isn’t true. It is therefore, a misnomer.