At the Illinois State scholastic this weekend a parent asked an interesting question. There had been a misreported result in the final round of the K-1 section. As players were getting awards the losing player realized that he should not be winning an award and told his coach. The coach told a TD but by the time it got to the people who could evaluate it the trophys were all presented. In looking at the score sheet where the result was recorded the result was switched so it was not just a computer entry error. However both parties agreed that the result was wrong. I ruled that we should change the result on the tournament (certainy for rating). The result was that the first place and second place teams switched places. The trophies are not the real issue it is easy enough to send new plates etc but the parent felt that we should not have changed the result because the tournament was “over”. That once the trophy was presented it was like a bad call and everyone just had to live with it. My feeling was that the student reported the error as quickly as possible and that there was no reason not to correct the error. The parent futher argued that the result on the report sheet collected as the students left the playing hall was agreed by the players and that it was their responsibility to make sure it was right then and they can not agree to a different result later. Is there any real precident for how long after an event such an error can or should be corrected. The rules at the national scholatic usually describe 2 rounds but obviously after the tournament there are no more rounds. While I certainly feel my decision was correct at the time what wold have happened if the student was not at the awards ceremony and had reported the error the next day or even the next week.
The relevant rule is 15I. That rule and the accompanying TD Tip seem to give only general guidance for the case you cite. While it is made clear that the correct result is the one that should be submitted for rating, on the subject of prizes there is less clarity, as no explicit distinction is made between open and scholastic events. Here are the rule and the TD Tip.
15I. Results reported incorrectly.
If the director learns of the correct result for any just-completed round either before or just after pairings have been made for the next round, the director should correct the pairings if this can be done without disturbing too many games already in progress. The correction may either be based on the correct result or on treating the incorrectly reported result as an unreported result (29H), at the director’s discretion. Whichever of these is chosen, the result must be corrected before pairing subsequent rounds, if any, and the corrected result shall be used for prize purposes.
If the error occurred in an earlier round, other than the round described above, the director shall still proceed as above, but has discretion as to whether to use the correct result or the incorrect result for prize purposes. This decision should be based on how much earlier in the tournament the error occurred and how many pairings were affected.
TD TIP: Sometimes errors occur in the reporting of game results. Those errors need to be corrected immediately. Fortunately the same methods used to correct unreported game results also work very well for incorrectly reported game results. The difficulty arises when incorrectly reported results do not come to the director’s attention until after several rounds, or even the end of the tournament. As long as there is no chance of a prize being involved, correcting the results is easy. When prizes or a chance to win a prize are involved the director should take care. Correcting incorrectly reported results that cause a player, paired in easier score groups for many rounds, to suddenly qualify for a prize seems unfair. It is the player’s responsibility to check the wall charts for errors. While there is no question that such an incorrect result should be rated, the director needs to decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not to allow the new correct results to affect the awarding of prizes.
It seems clear that this rule was written primarily with open tournaments in mind, involving cash prizes. There is a strong bias in favor of correcting the result and the prizes, unless the new prize winners got a lot of easier pairings because the error occurred early in the event. If your situation (error in the last round) had occurred in an open event with cash on the line, I would say that the prizes should be corrected no matter when the error is discovered. The sponsoring Affiliate would be responsible for sending the balance of any prizes due and would just have to swallow the extra expense.
For a scholastic tournament involving only trophies and/or titles I would proceed differently, even though that situation is not explicitly addressed in the rule and TD Tip. I would rule that this is a “TD discretion” situation. My personal inclination would be to correct the prizes if the error is discovered at the tournament (which is what you did) but not if the discovery is made several days later. For those “chess lawyers” wanting to complain and argue about the precise meaning of each word in the rule, I would do what I have done since the 1970s, refer them to Rule 1A:
1A. Scope.
Most problems concerning rules that may arise during a chess game are covered in this book. However, the rules of chess cannot and should not regulate all possible situations. In situations not explicitly covered, the tournament director can usually reach a fair decision by considering similar cases and applying their principles analogously. The United States Chess Federation (USCF) presumes that its tournament directors have the competence, sound judgment, and absolute objectivity needed to arrive at fair and logical solutions to problems not specifically treated by these rules.
Anyone who still complains should be advised of their right to appeal to the Rules Committee.
– Hal Terrie
If we were talking about cash prizes, my answer would be that you can’t take back something you’ve awarded, so you’d have to pay the other guy and eat the difference. With trophies/titles it’s not so easy. In the case you describe, the choices are a) give them both plates saying “Second Place” and ignore the squealing, or b) say that the team that lost out got screwed by their own player misreporting the result, so they’re out of luck. I agree with Hal that this falls under “TD discretion.” There’s no black-letter law covering it, so you simply have to make a ruling and make it stick.
The situation at the tournament was just a little more complex than originally described. To set the stage a little more
Team A - finishes round 7 with 19 points.
Team B - finishes round 7 as reported with 18.5 points
Player C - not on either team A or team B - loses round 7 game to player on Team B.
Game 7 result is reported as win for player from Team B and a loss for Player C.
Game is recorded as loss for player from Team B and win for Player C.
Trophies are awarded ASAP after 7th round for the K-1 section in order to get folks with K-1 players home to Chicago area from Bloomington (120 mile drive) in early afternoon.
Trophy is awarded to Player C - who immediatly tells his coach “I didn’t win 5 games, I only won 4” Coach does honorable thing and reports error to a tournametn official who begins investigation of result. Both coaches have consistent stories for both K-1 players (honest)
The additional point for Team B gives them 19.5 points, and bumps Team A to second place.
Essentially, Chris’ explanation was correct - only detail I believe that I added was that the mistake was not between players on Team A and Team B, it was with a team not involved in the team championship hunt.
That knocks out my second suggestion, since it wasn’t the fault of either team. So you’re left with either giving them equal prizes, or taking back something you have already awarded, which I consider very bad practice. There’s no really good solution, so we’re left with debating how to prevent it from happening again.
True, we discussed adopting the practice of USCF at Nationals, which has a small piece of paper which is filled out by players and checked at the board by TDs. Pretty sure State Scholastic organization will discuss and make a rule by next year.
This was for a K-1 event? First thing you do is ban that parent from the playing room for life.
Issue the appropriate plates for the trophies; whether the team which received the incorrect higher placing would replace them is up to them and their coaches/parents, but let the record reflect the true results.
Then give a special sportsmanship award to the kid who stood up and corrected the error.
There is a discrepancy here, though. Above the parent complains the “report sheet . . . was agreed by the players …” but the update said:
Sounds to me as if the result was reported correctly by the kids and recorded incorrectly by an adult. If that’s the case, penalizing the kid and the team who deserved to win seems particularly unjust, and the complaining parent even more of a jerk.
Yes, Boris has it right. The best anyone could determine in follow up with two K-1 players, both of them agree completely with the result. Both agree completely that it was reported correctly and recorded incorrectly. Chris (the TD) has advised exactly as you said, inform and deliver corrected plates for the trophy and report to the state association the corrected results as official.