Well in a different part of this forum, Thunderchicken was in the mood to have 20 or 30 players. For some strange reason, he had 150 players. Glad the firer marshall did not show up, that would have hurt the tournament. That can always be a problem, having a tournament with so many players you do not know were to set up the 75 boards.
Thats the nice point of having pre-registration, you have time to study the tournament room for the flow of the players and the boards. Nobody likes to be in a tournament and pack in like a can of spam. At a few tournament I have been to, I had to craw under the table to get in and out.
I know what happens when an organizer asks that late registrants be admitted and allowed to play the first round.
You get upset parents who can’t stay to see their student’s first tournament game because of other commitments, players who have to leave early because of soccer games, and coaches and players alike wishing the first round would get started because they came to play.
The last tournament I went to as a coach had a sign posted saying anyone registering past the deadline wouldn not be playing first round. The organizer, however, wanted to be a good guy and let them all in. Firts round was delayed 1 hour and 15 minutes because of it, and all rounds played with the time control announced. I left with some of my students before the awards ceremony because I had told parents they would be home at a certain time.
I don’t know how late the others came in, but it wasn’t worth it to let them play. This was the fault of the organizer who couldn’t turn people down, and the TD who couldn’t say no.
Radishes
If your event includes on-site registration hours and someone shows up during those hours, is that person registering LATE? I would say no.
The hypothetical I posed in an earlier post/thread was a bus load of players who show up 5 minutes BEFORE the end of onsite registration. I’d try very hard to get those players into the first round. On the other hand, suppose onsite registration is from 9AM to 9:30 AM with the first round at 10 AM, and someone shows up at 9:50. That person may have to sit out round 1.
If they show up even five minutes before the close of registration, you really ought to have enough time to get them in. If you don’t, it means you’ve cut too many corners with your schedule. (The fact that I can make and print pairings in five minutes does not mean I should allow only five minutes to make the pairings.)
If they show up after the close of registration (or, as has happened, after the pairings have been posted), my usual policy is to pair them against each other for the first round. Delaying the start of the round for a late entrant is never acceptable (in my opinion). – jh]]
In any kind of sizeable tournament, you should close registration a full hour, not just 30 minutes, before the start of the first round. Maybe even 90 minutes, or 2 hours.
After you have registered all players who arrived by the announced deadline, go ahead and make (and post) the pairings. Tell the late-arrivers that they will be paired later, separately, and will be required to play the first round at an accelerated time control (e.g. game/45 instead of the announced game/60). Any that don’t agree to this can be forced to take half-point byes instead.
I agree in principle, though two hours seems a little extreme. What bothers me are TDs who figure that because it is possible to make and print the pairings in ten minutes, you can schedule ten minutes for doing the job. The result is going to be that the round doesn’t start on time.
Depends on the event, I suppose. 1/2 hour may be enough at for an event designed to draw under, say, 75 players. An hour seems about right for an event with 100-200 players.
2 hours may not be enough lead time at a major national event, especially one with more than 500 players and with many sections.