If someone at a tournament is obviously sick, hacking, blowing his nose, etc.
To the point of being both an interruption and a health concern for other players, what is proper handling by the TD team? If no standard rule applies, what are some takes on this? Does it take a complaint to get action, or are TD’s expected to be proactive on a situation like this?
This is a fairly delicate situation. My suggestion would be as follows. YMMV, as always.
(1) You might gently suggest to the player that he not continue in the event, due to his poor health. You might even offer a (partial?) refund of his EF as an incentive.
(2) Failing that, you could simply assign that player a board in the least populated part of the playing hall, so that he is away from as many other players as possible.
I have had a situation where an opponent has refused to be paired against an obviously sick and disruptive player. In that case, I simply switched pairings and hoped the new opponent wouldn’t object (he didn’t). If the new opponent had objected, I would have advised the sick player that I was withdrawing him from the event due to his condition, and refunded his full entry fee.
Wrote this and then had to work on actual work…so alot of agrees with eastside.
Let’s say Round 1 was already played in a 4 or 5 round tournament and a player is clearly sick. It doesn’t matter what the game’s result was. I approach them, explain what I’ve observed, any comments from other players, and the continuing impact to their own health from the stress of a tournament (which is real).
Some people easily acknowledge the situation and simply withdraw. If the illness is bad and they still aren’t convinced, I offer them a refund of the rounds they haven’t played ($30 for a 5rd tourney…offer them $24).
If Rd 3 of 5 ended and the request-a-bye cut off was the end of Rd 2…as a TD I might grant a half point bye for next day’s Rd 4 if the player will sleep it off and wants to come back for Rd 5. This is much easier to justify if that person won’t be in any real contention for prizes and you want to throw a bone to someone to keep them playing tournament chess.
If it’s Rd 5 of 5 and the sick player is in prize contention…I know of very few players that would withdraw unless they could feel the reaper knocking. Best you can do at that point is help them find ways they won’t get a claim made against them for distracting behavior.
Sometimes players even out of contention won’t withdraw even if they feel the reaper knocking.
At one tournament a player was a no-show for round three but came in the following morning for round four trying to get back in. Considering that he had the hospital report that he had a heart attack the previous evening (apparently “relatively” minor but still a heart attack), I felt he had a good excuse for his absence and let him back in.
Of course, you have to weigh what to do if the player who had a heart attack dies on you after you let him back in. First, I would call a lawyer. 
Likely his family will sue you for contributory negligence for letting him play, even though he is partly responsible for his own demise. Then I would call an ambulance for him to try and do CPR. This shows you at least tried to save him. Finally, I would withdraw him from the next round. If he is eligible for a prize, I would send the check. Flowers might be nice, too, to send to the funeral home.
I have had sick players enter a tournament. I gave them their entry back and sent them home. On occasion, I have played a chess league match or tournament game when I did not feel well. Nothing good comes from playing. The stress is awful and you feel worse after the game.
His wife was with him doing some interpreting (language issue) to get him back in.
At chess camps (where there is less control over sick players) we have “jell pumps” in the tournament hall and tell players they have to use them before each round. Based on my anecdotal experience, it does help. A 2 liter bottle can run $10 - $25.
Put the sick player and his opp[onent in the skittles room for their game. That way they will be less disruptive of the tournament. That happened to me once when I played with a hacking cough, although the skittles room was a thin curtain/door from the main room.
Larry S. Cohen