If the pairings go up and you are given a full point bye for a round,
can you elect to take a half point bye (or perhaps 0) instead? Is it
fair?

Here's the scenario - it has happened twice this year to my daughter
in scholastic tournaments (the second time was today). Both times she
lost the first two rounds and got the full point bye the third round.
That means that she plays opponents with better records in the 4th
round (and maybe fifth round) than she would have if she had gotten a
half point or a zero on the 3rd round. With her two losses in the
first 2 rounds of a 5-round Swiss, she is already out of the running
for any prizes, so the full-point bye does her no good, and it makes
her play a stronger opponent the next round than she would have if she
had gotten less than the full point bye.

Now, it happens that both times she won her 4th round, but can you
elect to take a half point (or 0 point) bye after the pairings are up?
And what is fair?

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"Jud McCranie" wrote:
If the pairings go up and you are given a full point bye for a round,
can you elect to take a half point bye (or perhaps 0) instead? Is it
fair?

If I were the TD, I would certainly honor such a request. At the same time,
I'd point out to the player that the half or zero couldn't later be changed
back to a 1, once the half or zero had been used to pair subsequent rounds.
Nor could a half or zero be used for pairing purposes while a 1 is used for
scoring purposes.

One pitfall: With zero, the TD (or the computer) might be tempted to assign
another full-point bye later, as the player would still be the lowest-rated
with the lowest score. The TD should be on the lookout for that
possibility.

Bill Smythe

On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 20:42:53 -0500, "Bill Smythe"
wrote:

If I were the TD, I would certainly honor such a request. At the same time,
I'd point out to the player that the half or zero couldn't later be changed
back to a 1, once the half or zero had been used to pair subsequent rounds.
Nor could a half or zero be used for pairing purposes while a 1 is used for
scoring purposes.

Right, if you accept less than a point then it must apply to scoring
and pairings. In this tournament (and many more), you can request a
half point bye in advance. If I had known that she was going to lose
the first two rounds and get a bye the 3rd, I probably would have
requested a half point bye instead to get better pairings afterwards.


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On Sat, 25 Sep 2004 20:18:13 -0400, Jud McCranie
wrote:

If the pairings go up and you are given a full point bye for a round,
can you elect to take a half point bye (or perhaps 0) instead? Is it
fair? ...

After I thought about this some more, I see some possible problems
with my idea. First, it seems that the point/half point/no point
should probably apply to all involuntary byes, in order to be fair all
around. With that in mind, I don't think an involuntary bye could be
less than a full point because in the first round or two, a
less-than-full-point bye would unfairly put someone out of contention
(or almost out of contention).

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"Jud McCranie" wrote:
After I thought about this some more, I see some possible problems
with my idea. First, it seems that the point/half point/no point
should probably apply to all involuntary byes, in order to be fair all
around. With that in mind, I don't think an involuntary bye could be
less than a full point ....

Certainly, an involuntary bye should be a full point UNLESS the person
receiving it requests otherwise.

And if the TD would grant less than a full point on request to one player,
he should be consistent and do so for all players receiving a full-point bye
in the same tournament.

And, I guess, players who receive a win by forfeit (opponent no-show) should
be given the same choice, as well.

Bill Smythe

On Mon, 27 Sep 2004 16:22:29 -0500, "Bill Smythe"
wrote:

Certainly, an involuntary bye should be a full point UNLESS the person
receiving it requests otherwise.

Yes, however the less-than-full-point bye may give a pairing edge to
the one taking the 0-point bye. Again take the case of losing the
first two games and taking a 0 point bye. In the 4th round, that 0-2
record (played games) would be in with the 0-3 group, and 0-2 is a
better record than 0-3. Of course, that mitigates the fact that they
weren't able to play one round.

BTW, this was in an event with no class prizes, just overall. If
there were class prizes, I'd take the full point bye.

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