I know I have seen this, but I can’t find it. I may need a house player no avoid byes (4-round tournament with several unrateds). If I find a non-member willing to play, is there a special fee I can pay USCF to give this person a temporary membership. It would be clear this is for one-tournament only, and the same player (or director) cannot use this option repeatedly.
Please refer me to the section of the rulebook that addresses this issue.
Thanks.
It isn’t exactly a part of the rules, here’s the history and (I hope) current status of the house player program, see secure2.uschess.org/TD_Affil/houseplayer.php
If the house player does not have a US Chess ID, you will need to generate one, which means you will need to get a mailing address and birthdate from that person.
Thanks. That is what I needed.
Other options include cross-round pairings, cross-section pairings, and the TD pairing herself into and out of the tournament, round by round, as necessary to keep an even number of players.
Bill Smythe
I got lucky. Exactly ONE late, at the door entry showed up, giving us an even number of players.
I have learned that I play even worse chess if I try to play while directing.
I didn’t know this would be the easiest tournament I ever directed. Perfect player behavior, perfect spectators, great venue. Maybe I could have played this time.
When I first started directing I played in quite a few of my small tournaments. I found it a reliable and efficient way to quickly knock 100 points off my rating.
That means both of you are good TDs – you concentrate on what’s important.
Bill Smythe
That’s been my experience as well, and it’s one reason why I very rarely do it anymore. However, as with most rules, there are exceptions. A few years ago, we had an odd number of players in the first round of a tournament I was directing, and the first four players who would be eligible for a forced bye had all requested half-point byes in later rounds. I didn’t want to give a full-point bye to any of them, and I didn’t think the 5th person up would be particularly happy about having to sit out the first round (I certainly wouldn’t have been), so I reluctantly put myself in. I ended up playing one of the best games of my life and scoring a major upset. And as far as I know, my directing didn’t suffer (that’s the other thing I worry about). Sometimes these things work out.
My concern about playing in an event I was directing was the perception that my objectivity as a TD might be seen to be compromised.
While I share that concern, the very few times I have done it, my performance was bad enough that the question was irrelevant. I would never consider it for a tournament that awarded prizes beyond bragging rights.
That was also a concern of mine. I made sure the players knew that if I had to leave a game I was playing to make a ruling my opponent could study the position while I was absent from the board and our clock was paused. I also announced at the start each tournament that I would not be eligible for any prizes. I probably didn’t need to make that last announcement, though, since I never played well enough to be in contention for anything when playing in my own events. I found that leaving the game I was playing to make a ruling broke my train of thought, and I had a hard time reorienting myself when I returned to my game.
Arguably one of the best tournaments I ever had, at least for the first 2 rounds, was in a large tournament (over 200 players) where I was the newly elected head of the organizing body and spent much of the first two rounds dealing with the much larger than expected turnout (nearly 100 players registered on-site) and arranging with the site for more space. I had over $3000 in cash entry fees in my pockets.
I’d make a move, get up, go talk to the hotel or the TD staff, run back to my board, make another move, rinse and repeat. The event used accelerated pairings and I was still below the midpoint in both rounds, so I got paired up. Somehow I won both games. So with a 2-0 record after the accelerated rounds, I wound up on one of the top boards in round 3, against the currrent state champion, a master rated over 800 points higher than me. I was busted by move 10. I don’t remember a lot about how I did after that, but I didn’t win any prizes.