Say your event started an hour late [cringing allowed]. Ok, if a player asked for a 1/2-point bye during the first half of the tournament (but after the tournament began) for the last round in which a 1/2-point bye would not normally be available, specifically because the player stated he/she had an already prior engagement that combined with the very late start would cause the player to miss the last round, would you as the organizer/TD feel morally obligated to either a)grant the unusual 1/2-point bye request or b)offer a refund? If no to both, would there be slightly similar circumstances under which you would have done so? Do you as the organizer/TD get off scot free in the short term for the late start (obviously people will be more wary of your events in the future)?
I’m a little torn on this, but would understand either way. What does the gallery’s advice say?
I assume we’re talking about a one day tournament. I think it depends on when the player asked, but, say, if he asked in the first half of the tournament I’d give him a refund. The reason is that I don’t see the organizer having rights in this situation. The player effectively has no chance to win prizes because of organizer error. It’s unfair to give him points that others can’t get, but unfair to no one if you give him a refund.
No. It would be unfair to the other players to give someone a free half-point in the last round if this policy had not been announced in advance.
Exception: If the player is clearly out of contention for a prize (or is willing to disqualify himself from winning a prize), sure.
Compromise (the way I’d most likely present it to the player): He can have a zero-point bye in the last round if he doesn’t want to play. This is not the same as withdrawing since he remains eligible for prizes, but he can’t have a free half-point. No play, no point.
The organizer is never obliged to give a refund unless the request is made before the first round. He might wish to do so later as a matter of good will, but frankly I’d advise against it. Once you start down that road, anybody who loses in the first round will start asking for 4/5 of his entry fee back.
I would be extremely uncomfortable TDing an event where the organizer did not allow last-round byes. So uncomfortable that I might even refuse to TD the event.
If half-point byes are allowed at all, they should be allowed in the final round, albeit with a lot of advance notice, such as the beginning of round 2 (or maybe round 3).
The case you mention is one where I might even allow a conditional bye request, provided the condition is something like “give me a bye unless the final round pairings are posted no later than 7:00 p.m.”
Thanks for the advice, one and all. The conditional one was probably my favorite. John, would this satisfy your legitimate and well-explained concerns: the TD/organizer of such late-running event announces that due to his own incompetence / act-of-God /other that he will allow final round 1/2-point byes to any player who requests it by the end of the first round. If your event were an hour late (a remote contingency, say you were held hostage for an hour one fine Saturday morning), would you think making such an offer/announcement at the start of your event would be a judicious act or not?
That seems reasonable to me. My worry was giving a player a last round bye when other players couldn’t get one. As long as you are fair to all players, then I think this is fine.
Probably. I doubt you’d get many complaints, though there might be some. The problem is that I’m very dubious of offering accommodations on the basis of time, since time is not of the essence. (Total nonperformance – being unable to hold the last round because of, e.g., a blizzard or an earthquake – would be a different matter.) If you offer a special deal because if a 1-hour delay, what about 45 minutes? 30? Ten?
“All Hypothetical” - Unfortunately, sometimes first rounds do start late, though a full hour would be very rare. However, If the player had started to play or completed the first round game, no refund or bye is warranted. Since he/she should have been aware, when the first round was about to begin that late, of the difficulty of meeting a previous appointment. The TD should have been notified prior to the start of round #1. If the TD was notified - common sense would be to allow the player a choice of either a refund (and not play any games) or to take a last round bye.
It seems like there is a consensus that each organizer should have as a policy that if an event he or she is running is X minutes late in starting time (where X is at the discretion of the organizer), then it makes some good political sense (keep the customers happy) to announce that there will be conditional* 1/2-point byes available for the last round that day (because of the delay) if people need them. The consensus seems to break down slightly when the cutoff to that offer should occur. I, for one, think that by one round after the announcement should be sufficient for people to notify the TD without granting too much unfair bias.
*conditionally upon the last-round pairings indeed happening later than the scheduled or reasonably anticapated start time for the last round
I disagree that the cutoff should be before the start of the first round because the inconvenienced player has very little time to decide when pairings actually do go up to both get his game started on time and to calculate whether the delay has offset his schedule sufficiently. The risk is minor: often times a player going into the last round doesn’t know then if a 1/2-point bye will be beneficial or not, much less after the first round.
Sometimes? You are kidding, right? I’ve been to around 40-50 chess tournaments in my life, and I can’t remember any of them starting on time. I don’t recall any of them being a full hour late, but starting 5-15 minutes late is just expected. In the “one game per week” club where I frequently play, we actually start a couple of minutes late every single week.
I don’t have anything relevant to add to the conversation. That statement about tournaments “sometimes” being late just struck me as ridiculous enough that I just had to comment. 100% of the time isn’t “sometimes”.
Richard…how can you say that??? You have attended some of my events and most of my rounds start on time. If not, usually no more than a minute or two late.
Since I’m rarely able to go to your club, I don’t really remember, but I’d guess you probably run into the same problems as any other TD - players showing up and registering at the last minute. As I said, it’s usually only 5-10 minutes at most tourneys I’ve been to. But nobody thinks anything of it, since it’s so normal that it’s just expected, which is why it struck me as so odd that someone said that tournaments will “sometimes” start late.
