I had a very strange situation come up at my tournament this weekend, and was wondering if anyone had ever had this happen before, and how to prevent it. One of the players had to have a decisive result in the last round to win the U2000 prize. Either a win or a loss would have done it, but a draw would have left him out of the money. He was a half point below his opponent, also below 2000, and if he had won, he would have overtaken his opponent. If he lost, his opponent would likely have won the U2250 prize (the other player in contention was playing a GM who had to win to tie for first) so he would have gotten the U2000 prize anyway. Only if he drew would his opponent have won the U2000 prize. Any ideas?
We have had the worst situation in a team tournament, where only a loss would win money! With a loss, their opponent would have taken a place prize and they would have had the class prize. With a win or a draw, they would not have caught up to their opponent, who would then only take the class prize. Demonstrating the integrity of the vast majority of tournament players they upset their opponents and didn’t get a prize.
Alex, if I’m looking at the correct cross-table in MSA I’m not sure there’s really anything that could’ve been done to prevent it short of designing the prize structure differently. A small but wide-spread field can do some crazy things (2611 down to 1379 out of 11 players). A small swiss (13players) this past summer offered an A prize…and only one A player participated. Pretty good deal for him.
For Tom’s situation…if the guy’s team needed the win to do well, I would hope that they threatened him with a stick if he had a thought of taking the money .
Bob, yes, you have the right tournament, however note that the two lowest rated players are both house players.
Bill, I don’t think so. Let me phrase what happened in the terminology of that thread, and we’ll see what you think.
2600 4.5
2600 4.5
2100 2.5
1950 1.5*
1925 2.0*
1st $500
2nd $250
U2250 $150
U2000 $150
Please note that these are not the final scores, as 1925 is playing White against 1950. It’s the last game going, for whatever that’s worth.
In any sane distribution, the two 2600s split 1st and 2nd. Now there are three cases. First, if 1925 wins, he’ll take U2250, and 1950 will take U2000. Second, if 1950 wins, it’s really all semantics whether you say that 2100 wins the U2250 and 1950 wins the U2000, or that they split the two prizes. If you go by the V8 thread, I guess you’d give $75 to 2100, $150 to 1950, and $75 to 1925. Am I interpreting that correctly? Third, if they draw, then 2100 gets the U2250 and 1925 gets the U2000. With the V8 thread is it the same as above, except that 1925 gets $150 and 1950 gets $75? In any event, any way you slice it, 1950 gets more of a reward for losing than he does for drawing.
After re-reading the V8 principles, it appears that if 1950 wins (tieing with 2100), then both receive $150 in both Standard and V8 distributions.
The situation looks like a complete fluke because the prize structure looks appropriate. It encourages higher-rated players to show up and rewards lower-rated players for playing well – and doesn’t pay anyone off just for showing up.
Due to the one-off nature I hesitate to make a rule or system to prevent this, and would lean on Director’s Discretion in regards to 20L Manipulating Results and Code of Ethics 5c (deliberately losing a game). Unfortunately, that attitude isn’t a system or even solid prophylaxis. If I had a strong reason to suspect that 1950 threw the game then I’d very likely split the money between him and his opponent and silently dare him to appeal to the TDCC.
Wrong answer. If I had a strong reason to suspect that 1950 threw the game, then 1950 would be disqualified and receive ZIP. (and LOUDLY dare him to appeal to the TDCC.)
That said, since the TD Tip on 14B6 (prearraged draws) states that, “it is wise to have clear and irrefutable evidence before impsosing any penalties,” I would want to have much stronger evidence than, “strong suspicion,” before I would disqualify the opponent for throwing a game. At least the same level as a prearranged draw.
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