I’m glad to see my suggestion has inspired such a lengthy debate. The suggestion was designed for a smaller local type event as that seemed to be what the original poster was referring to, and I was responding to. I would think in the neighborhood of 60 entrants would be a good range. Usually (though it’s debateable) I think forfeits usually have a less negative effect on the tournament as a whole if it is a very large event.
All forfeits are disruptive to the event and generally very annoying to the individuals who have to sit around waiting for their point by forfeit. (I’ve picked up 3 points in US Opens in forfeits over the years, two of them at the same event! About the only consolation was that I wound up in about a 20 way 5th place tie in my section and won a whopping $13.)
I think early forfeits can have a big impact even in large events.
Consider a player a bit below the break in a large strong event whose first round opponent is a no-show. In a large tournament that’s probably a game that would be a loss, but instead the lower-rated player is thrown into the 1 point pool and probably picks up an even stronger player in round 2 instead of being above the break in the zero point group for round 2.
We had a situation a few years ago where a last-round opponent didn’t show up and as a result his opponent was in about a four-way tie for first place, but because of the tiebreak procedures was denied one of the top prizes in the event, an invitation to the Nebraska Closed championship. Had he won that game over the board, he would have had higher tiebreaks and qualified for the Closed.
Thank you all for your input. I am not a TD, and I don’t think the TD whose tournaments I attend most would be thrilled about the $5 refund idea. (I also think it would be disruptive to be handing out refunds while people are playing their last round.) On the other hand, I will give him a copy of rule 13G as a suggestion.
I have seen a lot of forfeits at the tournaments I have attended. (Far more than 1:1000.) They are usually from players who have not been performing well and are too inconsiderate to withdraw officially. In local tournaments, there are a few frequent forfeiters. Rule 13G should help with that.
We are a weekly club; i.e. we play one round every Tuesday night; each month makes up a four or five round Swiss event. Clearly, this is different than a single day, or weekend event, but it might be relevant…
What we do is automatically withdraw anyone who doesn’t show up and doesn’t notify us (we only allow notification in advance, or by phone answering machine before 7:00 PM on the night of play; rounds start at 7:30). We fine them $10 and won’t let them back into the current tournament, or any subsequent one until they pay. We also compensate the person who got the forfeit win the same amount. If the same person forfeits again within a year, the fine doubles, triples, etc.
It’s important that we make this policy very clear to new members, and periodically announce it before round 1 to remind our current members. We also hand out plenty of business cards with the club phone number so no one has an excuse not to call!
We still get a few forfeits a month, but very few repeat offenders. The system works well.
-Matt
That is a great suggestion for club events.
In events that last over several club meetings our club just did not pair anyone that failed to check in by 15 minutes before the first game of the night began; i.e., if you are not there then you don’t get paired.
Tim