U.S. Senior Open Crosstable

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I was looking at the crosstable of the recently completed U.S. Senior Open:

uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php … 2-10488192

I noticed something odd. In round four it seems that five players were issued full-point byes, including the tournament leader (GM Browne) who had 3-0 at the time. I see that there are a number of unplayed games in that round and I’m guessing that there was some non-chess event taking place during the round that many players wanted to attend.

I can understand issuing some half-point byes in such a situation but full-point byes? The argument, “These were strong players who were probably going to win in round 4 anyway” absolutely does not seem legitimate to me. It seems to me that if players want to sit out a round, they should receive no more than half a point. That’s the price they pay for failing to participate in a round that was held as scheduled.

Does anyone know what actually happened?

– Hal Terrie

2

I saw some players have whole point byes in Round 3 as well.

Respectfully Submitted,

David A. Cole, USCF Life Member, Franklin, NJ

3

There was a mention in an article on the event that to facilitate taking part in shore activities during days in a dock, players had the option of one full-point or two half-point byes.

Edit - it was one the tournament’s website
vegaschessfestival.com/senio … nament.php

Rounds Monday to Saturday one round daily at 1:30 pm.
In order to accommodate port visits up to two 1/2 point byes or one full point bye may be requested in any of the first 4 rounds.

4

OK, I guess that makes sense. I’m not thrilled about it but I guess I can live with it. I don’t see any of these byes in the last two rounds so maybe the policy was limited to rounds 1-4, which would be good.

– Hal Terrie