Do you drop players who fail to appear for the remainder of the tournament pairing?

This may sound like a dumb question, and I tried searching through the forum before asking. I am a new club TD, and just want to make sure I do this properly.

If someone fails to show for the start of a tournament, e.g., registration, that is pretty simple, they don’t get registered, and then they are not in the tournament.

But if we started a Swiss tournament, and say all 20 players were present to register, and they have played through round 1. On the start of round 2, player “B” does not show up for the game…

The clocks are started since player “A” is present, per rules like 13D, and 22A, after an hour, or when the clock runs out, player “B” forfeits, gets an F, and “A” gets a win (1).

That part seems to make sense to me. My question is for round 3: Do we pair player B? Or do we suppose that since they did not show up for round 2, that they are done with the tournament? What happens if they show up for round 3? or 4? Do we just pair them late once they show up?

If we pair them, will they just get 3 more rounds of F scores and their opponents all 1?

And if we didn’t pair them, but they show up and we pair them late, because we already did the round 3 pairing, we shouldn’t pair them with the bye recipient, because that would be the lowest rated player? So would we need to redo all the pairing, at least in a ladder pairing, per the rules?

My thought is that I would not pair them until they show up. If they show up after the pairing is done for the next round, but games had not started, I would repair it, but if the games had started, I would ask them to wait for the next round entirely. Is that correct?

Thanks for taking the time to walk me through this. I am going to be doing some smaller scholastic events ( about 20 students each) in two months, and I want to make sure I get it right.

The way I have always done it (and seen others do it) is to withdraw players who have forfeit losses due to nonappearance, even if they appeared in prior rounds, unless they provide notice before the next round is paired that they are coming.

On a side note, as you mentioned registrations, I would suggest that you accept registrations in advance of the tournament. Doing so saves time on the day of the event (as many issues that may come up with registrations may be resolved in advance) and increases registrations. There are many platforms that allow you to do this efficiently (some specializing for chess and others not).

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Thanks! Good to know.

As for preregistration, I will have the list of students ahead of time, so I plan to enter them all in before the tournament, but I figure that I will keep registration open until ready to pair the first round, then will drop any no-shows from the registration list, and do the pairings then.

On the plus side, the school will start the affiliate and add them all as part of the JTP for USCF ID’s about a month before the event, so hopefully we can get their ID numbers long before the event. At least, that is the current plan. :smiley:

It probably doesn’t apply here but if there is a no-show also check to see if a requested bye was overlooked. If so then apply the bye and keep the player in.

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Good point!

Though, I am still a little fuzzy on a bye. Mainly on who authorizes them and how many are available.

As the TD for this scholastic event, does the school authorize how many byes are available, and is that per player? Or as the TD, do I authorize the half point byes?

So, based on that, if I check, and they do have a bye for round 2, then I go ahead and pair them for round 3. That makes good sense.

Thanks!

So, let’s see.

First, it’s generally not necessary to have paid entries check in before the first round. Scholastic tournaments with low or no entry fees and high numbers of expected no shows can be different, but frequently it is reasonable to allow anyone who has paid an entry fee the chance to show up a little late. In practice you’ll have people not want to show up before the close of registration to hold a place that they’ve paid for.

Second, Mr. Brown is more generous than I’d be. Simply put, I don’t trust someone who doesn’t bother to show up once to show up again, and I’m not going to give my players who have done nothing wrong an expectation of not having a game. A player who forfeits, and please be sure that the player really forfeits as per Mr. Wiewel, is expelled from the tournament (see 13G). He is only allowed back in the tournament if he has a reasonable explanation (car trouble is probably reasonable, forgot to request a bye is probably not) and shows up IN PERSON before it is time to pair the round in which he wants to return. I just will not take the chance of two players paired against the same opponent will have to sit out a game. I assume players come to play the number of games mentioned in the Announcement, and come as close to that as possible.

In the event that an expelled player returns after a round that he wishes to play has been paired, it may be reasonable to let him play an extra rated game against any player with a full point bye but wishes a game anyway. After that he can be readmitted to the tournament in later rounds. You may wish to allow even a player without a good reason to serve as a house player for any round he shows up for, if you’d otherwise have an odd number, Bottom line is to be fair to those who have done nothing wrong.

Third, half point byes are determined, like much else, by the organizer and whatever it says in the advanced publicity goes. In the absence of any announcement, please refer to 22C and its subchapters. My rule of thumb is to limit byes to one per four rounds or fraction thereof. This is a case where it is best to be explicit so there aren’t misunderstandings because there are enough ways to do this that incorrect assumptions can be easily made.

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Missed this the first time, but “A” gets an X, not a win. Thus he gets a point for tournament purposes, but no color, no opponent, no rated game. In some cases, see my post above, “A” may even be paired with “B” again later in the tournament, properly, and with whatever colors are appropriate at the time. It is best to consider it as a full point bye and a zero point bye. Note that X and B are functionally the same.

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In most cases, a player who does not show up for a round is removed from the tournament. It sort of depends on the tournament conditions and the players you have, though. Stuff happens that causes players to miss a round without providing notice, and if someone’s got a good enough story, I have been known to let the player back in the tournament for subsequent rounds. And if the rounds aren’t back to back, such as a 1 game a week event, you may be able to reschedule any rounds for missing players.

Many players would much rather play a game than get a win by forfeit. Some events will pair players whose opponents didn’t show up to get both players a game, whether that’s part of the results for prize purposes is a somewhat separate matter, those games could always be put into an extra games section.

With students, you probably have to be more tolerant of this sort of thing, but I’d recommend warning the player against future unexcused absences. Let’s get the new players conditioned to know that if they can’t make a round, they should make an effort to let the TD know as soon as possible.

Byes are also a fact of life. Some tournaments allow players to request up to a certain number of byes, such limitations should ideally be in any pre-tournament publicity. Beyond that, any additional requested byes might be zero points rather than half-points.

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Thanks all! I have only played in one tournament, and there are no other TD’s in Alaska that I can learn from. I have more questions, but I’ll try to keep them to their own threads.

The school that I am working with has never done chess tournaments before, so this is all new territory for us. :smiley:

It is unfortunate that is there so little rated play in Alaska. It seems like there used to be more rated activity in the past but had existed has all but collapsed. The most recent rated chess tournament was in November of last year, which was directed by a tournament director imported from Illinois. Before then, the last tournament was held in September of 2021. According to the online records, the largest chess tournament in Alaska was held in 1999 and had 50 players.

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Former US Chess Scholastic Director was spot on when he said that all local clubs are one or two players away from collapse. (Those players are the ones who handle the administrative, organizing and TD duties.)

I admire your desire to rebuild chess in Alaska, we need more people like you.

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Drop them. If they show up for round 3 or 4, use your judgment based on their explanation and/or their willingness to pay the entry fee again. This is consistent with Rules 13G and 28P:

13G. Players must give notice if withdrawing or skipping a round.
A player who does not notify the tournament director well in advance of the inability to play in any round and then defaults the game under 13D, Late arrival for the game, may be ejected from the tournament, and may be fined a sum up to the amount of the entry fee, payable to the organizer. The player may be barred from any of the organizer’s tournaments until the fine is paid. On request, the player may be retained in or readmitted to the tournament at the director’s discretion.

28P. Unplayed games.
If a player fails to appear within one hour of the start of the round or by the end of the first time control, whichever comes first, the game is scored as a forfeit loss for the player and a forfeit win for the opponent. That player is then dropped from the tournament unless he or she presents an acceptable excuse to the director. The player’s subsequent games are also scored as zero.

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A note regarding JTP. I’ve used that in my scholastic events for the K-3 new players. The expiration for these accounts is the end of the month in which they are created. You had mentioned that the school would create them long before the tournament so I just want to save you the hassle of creating them in February for a March tournament only to find they’ve expired.

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Jlynn, when you submitted those tournaments did you flag the K-e sections as JTP? (the section must have only K-3 players in it).

JTP should allow even memberships that expired years ago (i.e. a kindergartener played in a rated event and then opted to try again as a third grader as a JTP participant). Note that JTP does not mean creating a new ID for each event. It is using the ID already created for the player.

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Jwiewel, yes, this is how I submit this section in the scholastic tournaments and only permit K-3 players.

JTP should allow even memberships that expired years ago (i.e. a kindergartener played in a rated event and then opted to try again as a third grader as a JTP participant). Note that JTP does not mean creating a new ID for each event. It is using the ID already created for the player.

Agreed…I didn’t mean to give impression to original poster that we create a new uscf id with expired JTP players- just making sure he knows to create the JTP accounts in the same month as his tournament or he will have to renew the uscf id for those players (and this requires payment?).

I was under the impression that once those memberships expire, we are required to purchase the membership and the free use of the JTP is limited to the month in which the account is created? Am I correct? I would love to learn that I’m wrong about this. It just didn’t occur to me that when I was renewing it, I could still use the JTP option for kids in that age range and K-3 section of our tournaments.

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No, JTP events are exempt from membership requirements. But every player does have to have a member ID.

Any affiliate can run a K-3 JTP event, only Scholastic affiliates can run K-12 JTP events and the participants must be limited to the students in the school that holds that Scholastic affiliate. (Home school groups can also have a Scholastic affiliate, but similar restrictions apply.)

JTP eligibility is verified by birthdate, so those IDs must have birthdates associated with them.

Adult house players (TDs, parents, coaches, etc) are not permitted in JTP events.

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Thank you for further info. I was doing everything correctly and understood eligibility, but completely misunderstood that the expiration date did not mean that I would have to purchase the membership renewal.

This has been my first year using this program. I just looked at the renewal page and sure enough, I see that the JTP option is still applicable for those players.

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You don’t need to do anything in the renewal program for players in JTP events as long as they have an ID with their birthdate.

As a general rule, you should be careful to look for duplicate IDs in your players, because there have been a lot of them created over the years by mistakes or misunderstandings in the renewal interface. If you spot one that you think is a duplicate ID, send both IDs to the office.

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Yes, we have a system in place to check for duplicates…have learned the hard way on that one…and we always require birthdates, so have that info handy as well.

I sent you a dm chat with a more complicated question, please let me know if you do not get dm’s - Thank you.

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The point of the instant-expiration on the JTP’s (isn’t it the end of last month??) is that they will (always) be flagged as non-members. There is no essential difference between someone who has never been anything but a JTP and someone who had a paid membership and let it lapse—if are running a proper JTP event, then will both be flagged as non-members and both can be overridden.

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