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Looking at the crosstables of the Keres and Ontario Open, I noticed the number of 1/2 point byes given out in the later rounds of both events (yes Roger - even in round 6 of the Keres!).
Nikita Gusev recevied half-point byes in the last two rounds of the Ontario Open. There were numerous other byes in the second half of the tournament in the various sections.
Although none of the above examples affected the prize money - allowing half-point byes beyond round 2 should not be permitted. (perhaps we should do as in Europe - unforced byes are worth zero points).
(there was much discussion about this subject recently on the Quebec City board. In this case, a player took a second-to-last round bye (his wife was giving birth - but some speculated that it was to avoid facing the highest-rated player). This was a one-game-a-week event - surely the game could have been played on another day).
I was the one who "gave" the half point in the last round - in retrospect it should be a zero, but I was thinking of other matters at the time. (Roger was feeling the effects of both organizing and playing, and had agreed to sit the last round out if there was an odd number to avoid another player receiving a forced bye). As for the round four byes, they were all requested before the tournament began as per the advertised policy.
It was/is immaterial to me wether I was awarded 1/2 point or not. I was acting as a floater so that someone else would not receive a bye.
As to the general question, I think only allowing 1/2 point byes to round 2 is excessively harsh. Think of all the 5 round weekend Swisses where many people take a bye for the 3rd round on a Saturday.
A rule that 1/2 point byes must be requested in advance and is common practice. It is also common practice to stipulate that this is only allowed for the first n rounds. I see no reason to interfere with that. Personally I would think that n should equal the number of rounds minus one but many events use 3 rounds and some event use the entire event (e.g. I believe the World Open does this).
I also feel that despite being called a "tournament", for most of the players these are recreational events and accommodation should be made if their schedules do not allow attendence for the full event. Sure, precautions need to be made against those who game the system but demanding bye requests to be made in advance and not for the last round does this.
When I ran the Ontario High School Championship, they were all zero point byes unless I was giving one to the odd man out. We should go the way the European's go. It is ok to make a choice of something over chess, but you shouldn't get more credit than a player who actually played a game, even if he lost it.
well "Ontario High School Championship" is a championship and as such, the major point is to pick the winner. A championship is probably a different class of event with respect to awarding 1/2 point byes. (although I seem to recall at least one Canadian Championship allowing a requested 1/2 point bye).
"Don't always be reinventing the wheel" - Proverb.
It is clearly not about reinventing the wheel, it is about putting an end to a practice that is virtually absent in chess developped countries. For a long time adjourning games was also "common" if not the only practice. Now it has completely disappeared and virtually nobody wants it back.
Half point byes are simply a nonsense from a competitive point of view. But in North America, attendance is such a vital factor in financing the tournaments (guess why...) that organizers have been increasingly willing to bend normal competitive rules hoping to draw a few more entries. The argument that for most players we are talking about "recreational" events work both ways. Recreational players have no reason to object to a zero point bye. The others should not be allowed to get a competitive advantage (rest and the half point) from half point byes.
It was/is immaterial to me wether I was awarded 1/2 point or not.
Roger, the math is clear, albeit a little complex. It took me quite some time to figure it out, but I calculated that by finishing T8 instead of T15, you doubled your prize earnings. $0 (what you should have won) x2 = $0 (what you actually won). I think you should reimburse the difference to all the other players... it's only fair.
I was acting as a floater so that someone else would not receive a bye.
So now you've resorted to floating around and stealing byes from the other players? I thought I knew you... seems you've changed a lot since your Pointe Claire Chess Club days.
Jordan
PS: Yes, I do need to get more sleep :)
No matter how big and bad you are, when a two-year-old hands you a toy phone, you answer it.
The one I especially like is this quote from Lord Falkland:
"When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."
Think about it! If you've ever worked in a large corporation you will have experienced any number of radical changes to the business, dreamed up by senior management, who think they have it all figured out, but are really just trying to justify their paychecks. Such changes are occasionally cost effective; more often a great waste of time and resources. And that's why I love Lork Falkland.
On the infrequent occasions when I have played in a weekend tournament in my hometown, I am inclined to take a bye for the Sunday morning round in order to attend church. Whether the bye is 1/2 point or 0 is immaterial to me.
The one I especially like is this quote from Lord Falkland:
"When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."
Think about it! If you've ever worked in a large corporation you will have experienced any number of radical changes to the business, dreamed up by senior management, who think they have it all figured out, but are really just trying to justify their paychecks. Such changes are occasionally cost effective; more often a great waste of time and resources. And that's why I love Lork Falkland.
I too like this quote (worth adding to my collection :)), but not that much because generally speaking change is unavoidable. It simply has to be managed. In this case the current practice of awarding half point byes needs to be fixed because it does create problems (see Hugh Brodie's post) and is complicated to apply. Until what round is it acceptable ? Is this or that player in the running for some prize and so should we give him that extra half point ?... etc. On the other hand, the zero point bye rule is simple, easy to apply and consistent with common sense competitive rules (no play=no result). What else could we ask for ?
This is the kind of small but significant change that is easy to do, easy to explain, free (requires no sponsor :)), and that makes lives easier for our beloved organizers and arbiters.
Instead, to make it easier for the guy (this includes women) who cannot play all rounds, why not offer him (her) a discount on his (her) entry fee proportionnal to the number of games that (s)he misses? It might even attract some players who otherwise might have skipped the event completely, without tampering with the normal results of the competition by giving free half-points.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
- Winston Churchill
I never thought much about it until I started doing the double: Keres and Washington Open, which happen to fall on consecutive weekends and take place in different cities, neither of which I live in. So instead of playing 13 games in 11 days, by taking a half-point bye in the middle of each event, I could play a "mere" 11 games in 11 days (actually 7 days with a 4-day break in between).
Back in the late 1970s, smoking was generally still allowed in chess playing rooms. I went to all the local (Ottawa) organizers and quietly told them that I would not play in their tournaments if they allowed smoking. The response, to a man, was that they didn't like smoking either, but they thought that smokers would stop showing up for their tournaments if they banned it and that nobody would do the opposite. We know the rest of the story. Yes, it's my fault.
Yes, the above paragraph is relevant. If any of the naysayers think the issue is important enough.
Last I looked, the bastions of chess civilization were also less likely to have 2 or 3 games in a day.
One thing I do feel strongly about is that, if you allow half-point byes, a bye for the first round must be indicated in registration, and a bye for any subsequent round before round 1 starts. I have (as a TD) broken that rule, and didn't like the results. A player came to me and said that he had a terrible headache and couldn't possibly play the game. He was soooo... ill. Could he have a half-point bye for the final round? I saw that he wasn't going to win a prize anyway, so I granted the half-point bye, marked up in my head as "on medical grounds". So the round starts, and guess who I find playing Blitz chess in a skittles room? He didn't try to convince me that he was suddenly feeling better, but rather that he was unable to play a tournament game; Blitz was OK.
As a TD/organizer, I usually allow half-point byes, but did not allow them in the two CYCC's I directed, because of the nature of the events.
In this thread, nobody's mentioned the GM Benjamin incident, where he took a half-point bye in the final round of a Chicago (?) event so he could be back in New York for an important early appointment. As Fortune would have it, the combo of lots of points + a half-point bye was enough for him to win the tournament. That occasioned a lot of discussion at the time.
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