Just The Rules: Combined Sections, New Prizes?

The State of Confusion Class Tournament advertised that some classes may need to be combined, for instance if one section has too few warriors to even pair. This tournament is a five-rounder. Playing up one class is allowed for an extra fee.

The last section — Class D & Below — is for those rated below 1400. There are only four entries and three prizes: $75-$50-$25. Imagine how happy those four players are about the odds of taking home some gold.

The next higher section — Class C — has fifteen entries including five Class D & Below players that chose to play up. The prizes there — with a top rating cap of 1599 — are: $100-$75-$50. Often, lower-rated players choose to play up so they can face tougher opposition.

The TD may decide to combine those two classes to create a new hybrid Class C/D & Below section. The only question now is what prizes can those five Class D players who chose to play up can qualify for. Can they now claim any of the newly added Class D & Below prizes that have suddenly become available via the section blending? After all, when they paid to play up, they relinquished the opportunity to compete for the prizes in the Class D & Below section.

Option One: The Class C players (1400-1599) can win only the $100-$75-$50 prizes. The original four Class D & Below wood pushers, from the lower section, qualify only for their original prizes of $75-$50-$25. The five Class D players — who shelled out extra greenbacks to play up into the higher section — can win prize money from either class.

The four D & Below wood pushers who did not elect to play up are going to be really disappointed. They are barred from taking home any of those Class C prizes. And now, they also now need to battle for “their” prizes with those other Class D & Below contestants that chose to play up. That makes it nine players seeking the $75-$50-$25 prize fund instead of just four.

Option Two: The opportunity to win gold remains the same as in option one for the C Class contestants. The lower newly added Class D & Below entrants, that moved into this upper section, still can only compete for their original prize fund. Those five Class D players that paid the extra fee to play up into the higher section get a refund for their play-up fee. But now they can only compete for the prizes set aside for Class D & Below players in this combined section.

This might make those four players from the lower D & Below class a bit grumpy. After all, there were three prizes to claim for those four weekend gamers. In the newly configured section, there are now nine players (the four initial D & Below entries plus the five playing up entries) competing for those same three original prize amounts of $75-$50-$25.

Option Three: This one should look familiar to most of us: it is essentially a prize fund like those we are used to in Under sections of other tournaments. Every player in the newly merged section can chase after the original top Class C prizes. Only the best three scoring Class D & Below players (now, all nine of them) additionally also qualify for the D & Below prizes of $75-$50-$25. The five original playing up wood pushers get refunded their extra fee.

Realistically it is not likely, now, that any of the nine Class D & Below rated players will essay many games with those Class C players. In theory the C-rated weekend gamesters will likely take home those top prizes, but one never knows for sure. Additionally, those rated below 1400 will probably now face off against each other more often — especially in the later rounds — than against the Class C players.

Option Four: Leave both sections alone. The shortfall of game players in the D & Below class section — with only four players — can be paired against each other more than once.

If the TD can get every player to agree, they might even consider a Double Round Robin where each player faces off twice against each of the other players (pushing both white wood plus black wood against each rival). Of course, for that to work the time controls would need to be tweaked to fit in the extra game needed for the double Quad pairings. Remember that the tweaked double-play Quad time controls would create more than the advertised five contests. There might be issues of noise in the tournament hall with that section’s new game schedule.

There might be one player that objects to the new time controls. Given the lack of pre-event publicity regarding any section’s low attendance alternatives, that would cancel the entire Quad idea. A Swiss pairing system of sorts, with no tweaked time controls, could be implemented. The idea would still be that some contestants would need to play each other more than once.

TJ Says: In any mid-to-large tournament with multiple sections, combining sections would probably not even be required. All of the sections would draw enough chess enthusiasts so that reasonable pairings could be made in each round. In smaller events, the need to combine sections becomes more of a reality.

I like options three and four. Why? Option three is about as fair as it gets when following the exact announcement on the pre-event publicity. Option four keeps the sections intact. Everyone receives what they expected and more; i.e., it gives more bang for the buck with the tweaked time control double-play Quad option with a bonus game added to the lower section

And let’s not get started on what to do if trophies are involved.

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Tim Just is a National Tournament Director, FIDE National Arbiter, and editor of the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of the US Chess Rulebook. He is also the author of My Opponent is Eating a Doughnut & Just Law, which are both available from US Chess Sales and Amazon/Kindle. Additionally, Tim revised The Guide To Scholastic Chess, a guide created to help teachers and scholastic organizers who wish to begin, improve, or strengthen their school chess program. US Chess awarded the 2022 Tournament Director Lifetime Achievement Award to Tim. He is also a member of the US Chess Rules Committee plus the Tournament Director Certification Committee (TDCC). His new column, exclusive to US Chess, “Just the Rules” will help clarify potentially confusing regulations.