It is. That’s what the second sentence of 27A1 means. The phrase “when the number of rounds is greater than or equal to the number of players” is not a definition, it is an example of when you have to do this.
I agree. And I think that in most cases reasonable solutions can be reached via the rules. But I also think the rules may be just a tad too flexible.
Steve
Well, the original problem started with a tournament consisting of 4 rounds and 7 players. So by the first sentence of the rule, players cannot be paired against each other twice. Now in round 4, three players drop out leaving only 4 players and Player A has already played the other 3. So now we shift gears and say that because in this round of this tournament the number of players equal the number of rounds, I can pair players against each other again. I think that is subject to interpretation of the rule and Player A has a right to insist on not being paired.
I don’t know if this has ever actually happened in a tournament but the example is brought up because of the ambiguity of the rule and the possibility of interpreting the rule in different ways. My feeling is that you should not be able to interpret a given rule in multiple ways but applying rules, when there are choices of the order to apply rules (again, I don’t think there should be a choice) may lead to different conclusions.
Steve
Let me try again. The phrase “when the number of rounds is greater than or equal to the number of players” is an illustration of when you would have to violate the don’t-pair-twice rule, not a statement of the only time it can be done. If the author had put an “e.g.” before it, there wouldn’t be any ambiguity.
If a player has faced every remaining opponent in the tournament, you have to pair him against someone he has already played, following the other pairing rules as far as possible. There are (and should be) plenty of options for local variations in interpreting the rules, but this is not one of them.
Yes, the situation has occurred several times in my experience. For example, take a look at Matikozyan’s opponents at the 2004 Western Class Championships (chesstour.com/wcc04r.htm).
I don’t think a player EVER has the right to insist on not being paired – unless he drops out of the tournament and receives 0 points for the missed round(s), or unless he requests a half-point bye in accordance with the announced bye policy of the tournament.
Granted, rule 27A1 would be clearer if more-rounds-than-players had been labeled as an EXAMPLE, but nobody is perfect – not even Tim Just (or Bill Goichberg – that rule came verbatim from the 4th edition).
Bill Smythe
Here’s a sample case where the don’t-pair-twice rule must be violated, even though the number of players exceeds the number of rounds and nobody has dropped out:
Player 1 - W4 L2 W6
Player 2 - W5 W1 W3
Player 3 - W6 W4 L2
Player 4 - L1 L3 W5
Player 5 - L2 L6 L4
Player 6 - L3 W5 L1
How do you pair round 4?
Bill Smythe
4th Round:
Make this a bit easier:
Break this down into score groups, then pair:
3:0 = Player 2 (has met players 1,3,5)
2:1 = Players 1,3 (both players have met players 2,4,6)
1:2 = Players 4,6 (both have met 1,3,5)
0:3 = Player 5 (has met 1,3,5)
disregard colors, as this quiz is for the purpose of understanding 27A1. Pair the 4th round.
If a situation with impossible pairings comes up without withdrawals. it seems to me the TD made a tactical error. In our club, if we have 6 players and 4 rounds, we pair it as a round robin without one round. You might have to reverse colors from the table, if one player was going to get 3 whites and 1 black and another has the reverse.
Absolutely – but it’s an error many TDs have fallen into. I call the 6-player, 4- or 5-round situation the Dennis Keen trap, after the first TD I saw fall into it.
That’ll work, but it might not provide the best or most interesting pairings. I think it’s better to simply check, when pairing round 3, that there exist pairings for round 4. (By “exist” I mean without regard to score, rating, or color, observing only the don’t-pair-players-twice rule.) It should be noted that, with six players, if you can pair round 4, you can automatically pair round 5 (each player plays the one opponent he has not yet faced). It should also be noted that, with six players, you can pair rounds 1 and 2 any way you wish. It is only in round 3 that you must watch out for the Dennis Keen trap.
Bill Smythe
In the 5th edition of the USCF’s Official Rules of Chess there are several methods a TD can consider when the number of players is pretty close to the number of scheduled rounds (small swiss).
You might want to turn to page 167-170 and check out 29K. Converting small Swiss to round robin, 29L. Using round robin table in small swiss, and variation 29L1. 1 vs. 2 pairngs. The TD TIPS that go along with 29L and variation 29L1 contain a lot of info regarding the topic at hand.
Tim Just
5th edition rulebook editor