Since I am new to this, I thought I would see what you more experienced TDs think of a situation I saw a few months ago (I was not the TD).
26-player tournament 5-round tournament, this is the “Open Section” mostly over 1800. There are several U1800 players, including 4 women competing for the state women’s title (top scoring female state resident in the open section).
Round 1 - 2 of the women have a 1/2 point bye.
Round 2 - One of the women who had a bye in the first round is nowhere to be found when pairings are about to go up. No one had heard from her, and she had not paid for the tournament. With the missing woman in, one of the other women would get a full-point bye. It was past time for the round to start. TD made a decision to not pair the absent player, instead of having the opponent start the clock. I guess thinking was better to have 1 player without an opponent than 3. The missing woman shows up 30 minutes late into a G/90 game and is upset that she was taken out of the pairings. TD gives her a full-point bye. So, now she is 1.5 out of 2 without playing a game.
After round 4, 3 of the women are tied at 2 points. The one mentioned above has 1.5 (all byes). The other woman loses both games 3 and 4.
Round 5 (final round) - The woman with 1.5 points byes has opponent not show up, so she gets another full point after waiting an hour. (Meanwhile, a house player is brought in to play against an unrated that has lost all of his games). Two of the other women are playing each other (looking drawish), and the other woman is playing a game that looks drawish.
Now, it turns out that the other 2 games were decisive, and 2 of the women ended up with 3 points, but for a while it was looking like someone could be awarded a share of the state title without even winning a point over the board.
So, as a TD - how should have the issue in round 2 been handled? Then seperately would you award a share of a title to a player that didn’t win a single point over the board?
I agree with this decision. The missing player is basically out of the tournament at this point.
I don’t agree with this. She has to negotiate her way back into the tournament if that’s allowed. She doesn’t deserve a full point bye and it’s not fair to the others. She should actually receive zero points (forfeit) and start round 3 with 1/2 point or zero points (because the round 1 result could also be adjusted to zero.)
From this point on it can be too late to fix the problem!
Ouch!! Nothing to do about it now; the worst thing has happened. At this point I’m sure the director regretted the decision to award a full point bye in round 2.
If possible I would award the title on tiebreaks, using a system where all those byes give lousy tiebreaks. But the situation should have been stopped in round 2.
Personally, I would have not paired her for the 2nd round without having paid. (I have allowed people in the past to call me, say that they are driving in, and ask for a 1/2 point bye in the first round. But I would never put them in the 2nd round without paying.)
When she came in late for the 2nd round, she is out of luck. I would have allowed her to enter with a half point bye in round 1 and an unplayed game in round 2 and start round 3 with 0.5, but that is as far as I would go.
As far as a championship being won with forfeit losses and byes, I wouldn’t touch that as the TD. That would be a decision for the state association. However, try a different scenario. How about 2 people with 3.5 going into round 5. One has their opponent not show up, and the other one gets a tough draw. Would you penalize the forfeit win player since “they got a free point”? Who is to say that they wouldn’t have won anyway?
Thanks guys. It sounds like the consensus is pretty close to what I was thinking. I probably would have let her back in with a 2nd 1/2 point bye, since you were allowed 2 for the tournament. I don’t think there is any way I would have given her a full point.
I guess just to make it more difficult – what if she had paid in advance. At that point are you obligated to just pair her and let her clock run and give the low player a forced bye? I am thinking of adding a statement to my pre-tournament fliers that state that those with first round byes that are late to the next round may be withdrawn to avoid a forced bye of another player.
In Michigan, we had been plagued with this for quite awhile…entry fee paid in advance and a no-show for the player’s first scheduled round. We now have a tournament rule in place that advance entrants need to check in with the TD, on site, in order to be paired.
There should be no need for check-in for players who have paid in advance. Simply pair them, and withdraw them if they haven’t shown up for the second round.
You wouldn’t think so, but, you end up with an unhappy player sitting all alone, board set up, clock running, wandering around looking at other games. A couple of years ago we had four cases like this in round one…and for one of those four, it was the second year in a row that it happened to him.
I agree with this, though I do like Tim Just’s idea about having 1st round bye players check in before round 2. It’s also good to have players who were assigned a 1st round bye to check in. I’ve seen it happen several times where the lowest rated player is assigned a bye, and then doesn’t show up. If they had been paired in the first round it would have been a forfeit win for the opponent.
In the some of scholastic tournaments I direct we actually assign a board to the bye player. Pair Plus (I’m dating myself!) actually assigned a board number. Swiss Sys doesn’t so we just write in ourselves. We also use the See TD option on the pair chart. That way by having the player seated at a board we can see if he’s actually at the tournament. Also if we have late comers that we hand pair, the bye player is already in the room available to play.
With SwissSys or WinTD you could create a player named “Bye” for this purpose. A TD would have to code wins against “Bye” as forfeit wins so that they wouldn’t have an effect on tie-breaks.
Here’s my crutch. I require pre-registered players to check in, regardless of when they play their first round. If they haven’t been accounted for by the time of 1st round pairings, they’re given a half point bye for round one and any more allowed, with zero point byes for the rest of the event. When they check in, the remaining byes are removed.
Those who have requested a first round bye also have byes assigned for the rest of the event, according to the number of half point byes allowed. When they check in, the remaining byes are removed.
At scholastic events without scheduled round times (each starting soon after prior round ends), when a player requests a bye to leave the premises, byes are recorded for the rest of the event too. They are advised that the byes for the remainder of the event will be removed when they check back in.
Those who check in late or forgot to check in are not entitled to a full point bye. They may be paired with an available player who has a full point bye, if the pairing is reasonably appropriate and the round hasn’t been going for too long.
Assigning byes for the rest of the event works very well to avoid pairing players that haven’t shown up (checked in), especially with larger tournaments. Later in the event, all receiving multiple zero point byes that haven’t checked in are withdrawn. It’s easy to spot them on the standings sheet with the string of zero point byes
One of the benefits of advance registration is that I don’t have to worry if Atlanta traffic keeps me from getting there before the start of the round. I wouldn’t be too keen on losing the chance to play a game simply because traffic was lousy.
No one who has paid in advance should be left out of first round pairings, Scholastic or Adult. The player has one hour or the duration of the first time control (whichever is sooner) to arrive. The fact that a person has to sit for that period without an opponent is a necessary setback. Of course, pre-publicity ads to the contrary are permissible.
That “necessary setback” is discourteous to that person. 50% of the time, there is an odd number of players, forcing a bye. If there is a no/late show, it’s better to have the no/late show miss playing a game, than for two other players to miss playing a game.
It’s the player’s responsibility to be there on time for the start of the tournament, or at least call the TD and let them know they will be a couple of minutes late, even if they are pre-registered. Otherwise, they shouldn’t expect to play in the first round. This results in fewer forfeit points from no shows than late pre-registered players not feeling too keen about a half point bye. I can live with that.
I know you can assign someone to a specific board which is helpful when you have a player who needs his own table or an end board. But I’m talking about when someone gets a bye as the odd low score. It does not put a board # next to the pairing. I tried using the assign board option with the player due to get the bye. It still put no number there.
And what do you do when the no-show shows up and wants the game he paid for and is entitled to according to the rules? Solution: Don’t offer advance registrations.
