The only reason to tag a player as a house player is if that player is not a current member, because house players are exempt from the membership requirement. But if your house player is a current member, there’s no reason to note that on the tournament record.
By definition, a TD working at an event must be a current member, so there’s no reason to tag the TD as a house player.
That would make a good quiz question. (Once the new MUIR system is stable, my role as a ratings consultant for US Chess will be winding down, I might volunteer to generate quiz questions for TDCC.)
You have an odd number of players in a section and you announce “Is there anyone not playing today that would like to be a house player? - You do not need your membership to be current.” You get a hand up and start to add the player, but you can’t find them in the supplement. What do you do?
A) You will figure it out later, let’s get the tournament started.
B) Player was likely never a member and can’t be a house player.
C) Player was likely never a member but, you can get them an expired ID so they can play.
D) Let him play with the understanding that if you find out he can’t be house a player then the games with him won’t be rated.
…
I did leave the … for other thoughts - is there something you had in mind that the 4 options did not cover? I though about it based on I did not know off hand if you can get an expired ID (ala JTP) for a house player.
All players have to have an ID, but a house player does not need to have been a current or previous member. I’m not sure of the process under CIVI-CRM to create an ID for a player without purchasing a membership for that player. (Part of the challenge with writing quiz questions is making sure the ‘best’ answer matches up with reality.)
Then why is it a general desire that the house player be rated toward the bottom of the group he or she is playing against? Is a house player required to be a non-member of the USCF?
It’s not. 28M1 says that it’s a good idea to have the house player be approximately in the range of the lowest score group, since that’s who they’re going to be paired against to avoid a bye.
They can absolutely be a USCF member, the point is that they are not part of the tournament.
So for JTP there is a category for the membership that is only for affiliate to use to get the ID.
sounds like there should be one similar for a house player that needs an ID?
Yes? “Extra rated games” are just any games that don’t apply for tournament standings and prizes, so they are typically reported in a different section. They often but not always have players that are not part of the rest of the tournament, and from time to time might have games where both players are also part of the rest of the tournament (two players in different sections might both have a bye and play an extra rated game rather than a bye, for example).
Well, I thought of having a tournament with byes and adding extra rated games if the byed players still wanted games while they were waiting for the next round to start or for the tournament to end. However, I thought I would be a house player playing 3 rounds against the players in the extra games and that I would possibly take the Black side in each game since I was rated higher than they were.
The main point to having a house player is not having one of your paid entrants miss out on having a game. The cost to play in many tournaments is $5 or more per game. Sometimes you might treat that game as a full point bye for prize and pairing purposes but rate the game in an extra games section. (Moving it to an extra games section can affect bonus points.)
So the house player is an alternative to having a player sit around for an hour or more with nothing to do, which makes the tournament a more pleasant experience for the paid entrants. That’s why we don’t require that the house player be a current member, the house player is there for the convenience of the tournament.
But you also want that game to be a positive experience for the otherwise unpaired player, so the house player should be someone who is of similar strength. It might not be much fun for a 1200 player to play a house player who is an A player.
It’s also important for TDs to understand that they usually have several options for how to deal with an odd number of players, for whatever reason (no-show, late withdrawal, etc.)
There is often no ‘best’ answer, so the thing to do is often to do that which seems the most fair or makes players happy.
