Saturday 23 April 2011

On the the topic of withdrawals

A number of people following the 2011 O2C Doeberl Cup have noticed that players are beginning to disappear from the pairings. The short answer is that they have either failed to turn up for a round or have decided to withdraw from the tournament. At this point ErikTeichmann, David Hacche, and Colin Finlay have decided not to finish the event.
The policy of the Doeberl Cup organisers is to make no distinction between approved or non-approved withdrawer's. Instead we treat all players that pull out the same, regardless of the reasons. The next time they wish to enter the event they will be required to pay a 'forfeit' bond. If they then complete the event the bond is refunded, otherwise the organisers keep it (and increase any future bonds/penalties).

2 comments:

Kevin Bonham said...

What about people who fail to show up for the next round without telling anyone, thus causing their opponent to win on forfeit (ie unnotified as well as unauthorised withdrawals)? Do you treat them the same way too, or more harshly?

Shaun Press said...

So far this isn't an issue, as in the most recent cases the players have normally approached us before the next round to request a withdrawal. When they do so the conversation normally goes something like this
Player: "I would like to withdraw ... " followed by reasons.
Arbiters: "These are the sanctions for withdrawing from the tournament ... " followed by the policy described in the main post.
Arbiters: "Is this clear?"
Player: "Perfectly"
Arbiters: "Do you still wish to withdraw?"
Player: "Yes"

As we are not in a position to force players to play in the event, making them aware of the consequences of their decision *before* they make it is probably the best we can do.

What seems not to happen so much is (a) silent withdrawals or (b) a mass of players withdrawing. Both of these used to happen quite a lot in the past (especially in the Monday round), so maybe the current approach is having a positive effect on the tournament.