Incompleted blocks

[Jerry_S.]

What is the most fair way to handle a situation where a player does one of the following in an 8 player double round robin event;
1. drops out during the first seven games
2. drops out during the second seven games

[wbport]

The US Chess Federation has a set of tables in its Official Rules of Chess to handle that in single round robins by reversing color assignments for games happening after the dropout.  However, for a double round robin, do absolutely nothing.  No player will have had Black or White more than one extra time which would be par with an odd number of rounds in any type of tournament.  Players who would would never meet the dropout would still have equal Blacks and Whites while those who met the dropout only once would only be off by one.

To check out the round robin Berger tables, click here.

[Jerry_S.]

I don't quite understand how you answered my question.
What would happen to the games that were not played?
What would happen to the games that were played?
If there are no dropouts then each player plays 14 games in a 8 player double round robin.
But what happens if one player drops out without playing two of the games in the second series of games, ie somewhere in games 8 to 14?

[wbport]

I haven't had a reason to look it up in some time, but IIRC, the results of someone who has not played half of his schedule are thrown out--if he drops out after during the first 3 rounds everyone gets a full point bye or a zero regardless of the results of those who played him in the first 3 rounds.  If he dropped out later in the first half the results would count and those he didn't play would get a full point bye.

If he dropped out early in the 2nd half, throw out his 2nd half games.  It would make no difference if you gave everyone a 1 or a zero as it would be applied across the field.  If he drops out later, all his results count and those he didn't meet would get full point byes as before.

Modified to change after to during.

[Jerry_S.]

I am not talking about chess where there are draws. Sorry I should have mentioned that earlier. I am talking about a croquet tournament where it is only wins/losses.

A bit more history. The policy for withdrawing early was stated before the event, it was that if a player withdrew during the first series (first 7 games) that all his/her games would be removed. If he/she withdrew during the second series (games 8-14) then the games from the first series would count towards the final results, but the games in the second series would not.

The problem that arose is there were 3 players that the culprit played during the second series and all ended up on 11 wins if the cuplrits games counted. Since the policy says they did not count then the two players that beat the culprit each had a win removed and the one player that lost to the culprit had a loss removed. So two ended up with 10 wins and the other with 11 and the two with 10 were not happy with the policy because this time it went against them.

So I am just trying to see if there is a better system out there. I don't think any system will be completely fair in all situations and I think the one used was fine, but with whiners I must see if there is something else just in case.

[wbport]

My initial reason for building my round robin generator was to illustrate my ideas in running RR chess tournaments and perhaps persuade the US Chess Federation to change its tables "back" with my suggestion.  Since then I've found my tables have been used in all kinds of various sports, games, and leagues all over the world and I have tried to provide instructions for how to use them in other games as I check out requests in this forum.

Still, my background is still chess, chess rules, and chess tournaments--I can direct or assist in any tournament that does not have a national title of some sort on the line.  I can tell you what would happen in a chess tournament if someone dropped out and that may be sufficient to tell your players.  If there is a set of rules for a national or international croquet organization that addresses this, that would be even better.

I can understand you want to be fair and give a good explanation to your players--I've been there many times.  Good luck!