Can a TD ignore the pairing rules so that players of similar ratings play, or other criteria?
In this tournament the players are here to to play good games of chess. Avoiding ties for first is far less important than playing opponents who are equal enough so the games are not completely one sided.
This is in reference to a very small friendly USCF rated tournament, not announced in Chess Life, around 12 players, three rounds, and no money prizes.
I know this can be done only if announced in advance, and in this case I do not plan to do this if even one player strongly objects.
If this is possible can someone quote a reference in the rulebook allowing this?
We recently ran an event where we announced pairings would be 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, etc., and subsequent rounds would be paired without regard to score group (the USCF rule for this format says to keep score groups together). However we would not pair the same opponents twice.
In our case, the event spanned several weeks, and this allowed for players who might only come one or two nights to still be paired to the closest-rated opponent available no matter what their score. Our main objective was simply to give everyone the best possible game each week (the only prize was a small token trophy), same thing you’re after.
We did announce the format on our website in advance, but everyone seemed to understand and like it.
I would say not if it is announced as a swiss. Otherwise, you can pretty much do what you want, as long as you announce it in advance so that people know what to expect. In general, surprises for your players aren’t a good idea.
Years ago (Plus 15 at least) the TD that use to run our events would make a point to, if possible, to pair class leaders together in the last round. For example if two class B players were both in the running for the class B prize he would avoid pairing the one with say an A player and the other with a C player etc. I’m sure there were times that this was impossible but he did make the effort to make the last round games more meaningful.
There was at least one U.S. Open (1993) where class pairings were used in the final round. Needless to say, it was announced in all of the pre-tournament advertising and TLA.
Absolutely. 8-12 moves was about as far as they could trust each other not to make a blunder that the other side would break the deal and try to escape.
