A 1/2 point bye for a round missed is pretty common practice. In a longer tournament there may be even more 1/2 point byes allowed. Often players can’t make it on the first day of a 3 day tournament, but don’t want to play the 2 day schedule if one is offered.
In the scholastic events I direct, the organizer’s policy is that if you’re not there by the end of the registration period you might get paired with another late arrival, or receive a 1/2 point bye. This policy has worked pretty well. When we do hand pairings of late arrivals we endeavor to make a reasonable pairing. In the lower sections it tends not to matter how we pair late arrivals. Since the sections are fairly large we’re not overly concerned about whether late arrivals cause an odd number in later rounds. Often we’ll do cross section rated games between players receiving byes.
In my Monday night tournaments I try to keep the number of players even to avoid giving byes. This means sometimes I play, and sometimes I don’t. I don’t like turning players away, but I also don’t like having people sit around for an hour to wait for a round to finish if they got a bye. Last night I had a player who could not make the 1st round. He asked me to put him for the 2nd round. He received 1/2 point bye for the missed round. I played him, and then when a player who had requested a last round bye left, I took myself out and kept the numbers even.
I do find it strange that a TD would turn a late arriving player away, especially considering how long he traveled. Sometimes odd numbers are not avoidable. If he had an odd number to start with would he have told the last player who entered he can’t play because somebody would have to get a bye? If the prize fund was based on entries I would think the other players would want to the extra entry fee. My Monday night event prize fund is the total entry fees minus rating fee. Number of prizes depends on number of players. So adding the extra player put another $10 into the prize pool.
As a player I have seen different TDs handle this situation differently. I remember 1 tournament where 2 players showed up late. They wanted to play each other, but the TD refused to pair them, and gave them both 1/2 point byes for the tournament. At another tournament a player that regularly requested a 1/2 point bye with their preentry showed up for the second round to find out that there was not a bye available for round 1! He had written their bye request in the memo section of the check. He played the other 3 rounds of the 1 day tournament. I also recall a tournament where the Entry Fee was higher if you entered late. This was done to discourage late entries, which may have been the concern of the TD involved. If that person does not read this forum, then you may want to suggest this to them.
This is why contact information for at the site can be very useful. The thing is that the players and the TD or organizer may not be able to arrange for on site telephones. Even at a hotel site messages left with the hotel do not always get to the tournament in time.
As a TD I will usually allow a player to take a 1/2 point bye if entering late. I also always try to list the bye options in the TLA for the tournament. In the above case of the player expecting a bye, but not getting one there was no mention of byes in the TLA. The player can not assume that a bye will be given, without having some information from the TD (& organizer) that a bye is or will be available. I think the player in this instance is being very understanding.
An option I have used a couple of times, especially when the player is very late for round 1, is to allow him to play two games simultaneously in round 2. I explain that, to be fair to the other players, each of his round 2 games will be paired as though he had won round 1, i.e. he will be paired against two 1-pointers. I also try to make sure his two opponents are both agreeable to this arrangement – occasionally one of them will balk, apparently in fear of egg on their face if they lose to somebody who is playing another game simultaneously.
My policy is to give them a half-point Bye, or, if there’s already a Bye, and the Byed player is willing to play (I respect a Byed players right to keep it; others, correctly, imo, don’t), I’ll pair them IF their ratings would have placed them at opposite cuts.
I do recall early in my TD experience that I turned away a late master player, who drove a long distance. He had been inadvertently delayed due to a wrong turn. At first I was going to give the 1/2-pt Bye, but then a player objected, citing some rule that I don’t recall right now (think it said something to the effect that a player shouldn’t be given a half-pt bye simply because he was late). So, I upheld the complaint and offered a 0-pt Bye, which the master refused, rightlfully so, imo.
Needless to say, I’ve regretted that decision ever since, but I chalk it up to a lack of experience.
In my opinion, the TD in this case was a jerk. Never turn away a NEW player.
Why not give the odd person his normal 1-point bye, the late-comer a 0-point bye, and offer the 1-point-bye player the option of playing the latecomer, except that it would not be counted in the standings of the regular tournament, but instead rated as an extra game?
If the objecting player was right, what else could you have done? Or is it an objection that he would not have standing to appeal to the higher TD authorities, so it’s more a suggestion than a rule?
An earlier edition of the Rulebook (3rd, I think) did indeed say that a player should not be given a half-point bye if he entered late. That’s long obsolete, and was deleted from the rules around 1992.
The problem arises when the format is quads, and the late players falls in the middle somewhere. Unless the TD is willing to redo all of the quads effected by the presence of late arriving player. If a player has an 1800 rating and would be assigned to quad 4, the every quad below that has to be redone to adjust one player downward. I assisted at one quad where some how a player who had entered early got left out. Unfortunately he was in the top quad so the corrections cascaded through 13 sections. Fortunately we had a late arriving player who we could now accommodate because it evened every thing out into 13 4 player quads instead of 11 guads an 7 players Swiss.
Another option is to find a “house” player and pair the late player, provided he does not arrive
to late in the round. Int he tournament such as that described, this may be a good option.