No Show Forfeits

[Paul Leblanc]

Twice this year I have faced an empty chair across from me in the last round of an event because my opponent abandoned the tournament without informing anyone. The first time was at the 2018 BC Open and last weekend it happened again at the 2018 Toronto Open, having traveled 3000 km to play chess. The BC Open game against Shayan Rahimabadi was rated, the Toronto Open game against Merlin Nazareno was not.
Here is the relevant article from the CFC Handbook:

418. Late Arrival Forfeits and Undeclared Dropouts. If a player either forfeits a game by arriving late or does not advise the TD that he/she has withdrawn from a tournament and subsequently loses a game by default, that game is treated like a game actually played and is rated. If the TD deems that circumstances beyond the individual’s control prevented the defaulting player from attending, that player may be awarded a zero point bye or half point bye at the TDs discretion. A game is not rated when both opponents fail to appear for the game. A defaulting player will not normally be paired for subsequent rounds unless prior arrangements are made with the TD.

[Hugh Brodie]

I have seen options tried such as the following:

1) Give the players a refund ($5 or whatever) when they have completed all their games. I saw this done once in Ottawa - the TD had a big stack of $5 bills to hand out.
2) Charge the offending player extra when he enters his next event. This can work for a player who forfeits in an event held in his home town, and if he's a regular tournament player.

[Alex Ferreira]

Twice this year I have faced an empty chair across from me in the last round of an event because my opponent abandoned the tournament without informing anyone. The first time was at the 2018 BC Open and last weekend it happened again at the 2018 Toronto Open, having traveled 3000 km to play chess. The BC Open game against Shayan Rahimabadi was rated, the Toronto Open game against Merlin Nazareno was not.
Here is the relevant article from the CFC Handbook:

418. Late Arrival Forfeits and Undeclared Dropouts. If a player either forfeits a game by arriving late or does not advise the TD that he/she has withdrawn from a tournament and subsequently loses a game by default, that game is treated like a game actually played and is rated. If the TD deems that circumstances beyond the individual’s control prevented the defaulting player from attending, that player may be awarded a zero point bye or half point bye at the TDs discretion. A game is not rated when both opponents fail to appear for the game. A defaulting player will not normally be paired for subsequent rounds unless prior arrangements are made with the TD.

Hello,

Yes it's always a total bummer when a player abandons the tournament without notification.
Why should the game be rated? To "reward" the player who showed up? True the player who showed up was 'cheated' out of a game. However, no moves were made and "awarding" the result to the player will artificially meddle with the rating system. Ratings are supposed to measure chess strength between players, based on moves made on the board.
This "418" article is from the CFC Handbook.
Under FIDE rules (the tournament section - Toronto Open U2200 - was FIDE-rated), unplayed games do not count for rating.
The only way these days to get these games rated is for arbiters to not mark them as forfeits in the pairing software. That means we'd mark them as if the game was played. Irrespective of what round this no-show takes place in, the arbiter is playing God. If there are more rounds to come, and the no-show was marked as a loss instead of a forfeit, it will have significant influence on the players' pairings. For example, forfeits don't get a colour allocation in Swiss Pairings.

(from FIDE Handbook - http://fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=197&view=article - Article 5)

5.	Unplayed Games
	5.1	Whether these occur because of forfeiture or any other reason, they are not counted. Any game where both players have made at least one move will be rated.

I am not suggesting the current system is perfect, but I certainly prefer not rating unplayed games. It removes nonsense such as: incorrect colour allocations in future rounds, artificial inflation of someone's rating, artificial deflation of someone else's rating (perfect for sandbagging).
When a player abandons the tournament without notifying the arbiter or organizer, it is shameful behaviour. Although keep in mind real life also sometimes does happen, resulting in a player forfeiting. At the Toronto Open, we had 4 forfeits of players who abandoned the tournament without telling us. 3 of them in the last round, 1 of which notified us way too late, well into the round.
I can only speak for myself but I do keep tabs in my head of players who do / have done this in the past, and look for a possible repeat. Though apart from banning a repeat-offender from future tournaments, I am not sure what consequences abandoning a tournament may have. Again, I am with FIDE's viewpoint on this. Unplayed games should not be rated. The rating system exists to measure chess-playing-strength between players, not to be awarded like candy because of a no-show.

I have seen options tried such as the following:

1) Give the players a refund ($5 or whatever) when they have completed all their games. I saw this done once in Ottawa - the TD had a big stack of $5 bills to hand out.
2) Charge the offending player extra when he enters his next event. This can work for a player who forfeits in an event held in his home town, and if he's a regular tournament player.

Having the 1st idea on its own doesn't seem fair to the organizers. We cannot control or predict or expect who will abandon the tournament without notifying us.
I like the 2nd idea, and maybe the organizer can also incorporate the 1st idea in good faith. Partly reimburse the player who had to sit across an empty chair, and hope they will get that money back when the culprit joins the next tournament.


Alex Ferreira

[Vlad Drkulec]

Given the fact that any unearned rating points quickly get taxed away by underrated juniors, I don't see why no shows should not be penalized with loss of rating points.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: the $5 option - the $5 is given only to those who complete all their games. If you forfeit - you don't get the $5. That's how the no-shows would be penalized. Of course - the entry fees would be $5 higher to compensate for this.

For my second option to work properly - all organizers (not just local ones) would have to have to agree to collect a "fine" from such players. I guess a "black list" could be produced listing those who were no-shows in their last event.

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: the $5 option - the $5 is given only to those who complete all their games. If you forfeit - you don't get the $5. That's how the no-shows would be penalized. Of course - the entry fees would be $5 higher to compensate for this.

I see. I've always thought of that idea as a good one for elite Round Robins, where the consequences of someone dropping out are far more annoying. But I suppose it can work for any tournament. That would be a lot of $5 for large tournaments....

[Hugh Brodie]

I see. I've always thought of that idea as a good one for elite Round Robins, where the consequences of someone dropping out are far more annoying. But I suppose it can work for any tournament. That would be a lot of $5 for large tournaments....

Another way of doing it would be to give the players a $5 credit for their next tournament. But maybe not so easy - you would need to raise entry fees for maybe more than one event to compensate for a flood of credits. Maybe restrict the credits to one specific event.

[John Brown]

You could also give the no shows a 0pt bye in Round 1 for their next tournament or just not allow them to play in a rated tournament for two events.
I think they might get the hint that leaving without notifying the TD is not a good practice. Some type of icon could be incorporated on the rating list so TD's know that person is an offender of being a no show in Rounds.

[Erik Malmsten]

Twice this year I have faced an empty chair across from me in the last round of an event because my opponent abandoned the tournament without informing anyone. The first time was at the 2018 BC Open and last weekend it happened again at the 2018 Toronto Open, having traveled 3000 km to play chess.

I'm sorry that this happened to you Paul. I hated it when it happened to me in Hamilton (wasn't rated), and I forfeited a game when the Organizer didn't pass on my email to the TD. I, as a floater, could have played you if we knew early enough that your opponent wasn't coming. I hate seeing empty chairs and like it when TDs pair the players who are there together. But this has to be soon after the round has started, not after the one hour forfeit.

I like the idea of having a list of forfeiters published on the ACC or GTCL websites.

[Christopher Mallon]

I like the $5 idea... you just charge the $5 deposit as an added-on part of the entry fee. Rating unplayed forfeits seems like a negative effect on the rating system, but you could always give the forfeited $5 to the player who didn't get to play their game. Also scale the $5 based on entry fee - if the fee was $200 for the event for example you'd probably want a $25-$50 deposit.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

During Aurora Opens we had only several players with no-show and not telling in one way or other. I just looked at them - they did not play since then in any CFC tournaments.

I too waited for an opponent an hour who did not show up. Not the best hour in my life. FIDE introduced a zero time rule, though not very practical for Opens, we set a 30-min default time. Still it does not allow repairing but might allow a friendly game.

One of our announcements before rounds - in case you wanna leave for whatever reasons, tell us. Though the life might get in own way changing everything, and then a chess tournament is the least important thing at that moment.

If someone think there are players who no-shows often let me know.

Not-rating a such game is right from a chess point. Though making it a rated game also gives a waiting person at least a moral rating gain.

[Paul Leblanc]

The CFC rule regarding rating forfeits was voted and passed by the CFC governors 3 or 4 years ago. It is in the CFC Handbook. The TD has leeway to waive this if the no-show is beyond the control of the player. For example, a medical issue. If we disagree with the rule, the procedure is not to ignore it but to change the rule.
It seems pretty impractical to refund $5 to 195 players at the end of a tournament.
I am not seeking to have this corrected as it would be bad form for the rating auditor to get involved in one of his own games, but I wanted to bring this issue to everyone's attention.

[Victor Plotkin]

In my opinion, rating is a measure of strength and should not be subject for penalty or bonus.

I fully understand the frustration of a player who has to wait 30 minutes or even 1 hour. However, he would not be a better player as a result of no-show of his opponent.

[Vlad Drkulec]

In my opinion, rating is a measure of strength and should not be subject for penalty or bonus.

I fully understand the frustration of a player who has to wait 30 minutes or even 1 hour. However, he would not be a better player as a result of no-show of his opponent.

Perhaps, but the opponent would be less likely to do this next time if he consistently lost rating points every time he did it.

[Kerry Liles]

Perhaps, but the opponent would be less likely to do this next time if he consistently lost rating points every time he did it.

On the other hand, someone who has so little respect for his opponent or the tournament likely has little interest in his rating going forward.