One option that seems to be popular with players is multiple advancers from a group.
Regardless of the number of advancers set by the tournament director, the maximum allowed when the group size drops is 50% of the players in the largest group.
Opinion: This should be carefully considered, especially if the TD wants to see who wins the tournament before his time on the site ends. Depending on other settings, multiple advancers could still be reasonable.
No ties but more than the maximum 50% of a group advanced?
The 50% limit is based on the biggest group in the round.
Since there was at least one group of four players. The number of advancers, 2 of 4 is not below 50%. The groups of three benefitted and 2 of 3 advanced.
Account closed: Who advances? - Added 2012 01 06
If an account is closed prior to the last game in that group finishing, that player does not advance.
It is normal for some players to get better over time. Still a TD may deem a player to be too high rated for a tournament with a specified maximum rating.
A player cannot be removed by a TD unless all their games are over.
Personal Preference: No removals after the start. Having set a high games completed restriction this rise can be attributed to getting better. I find the accusation of sandbagging is overused and not based on facts.
Possible Issue: When a player temporarily abandons the site his rating can plummet due to numerous time out losses. When he returns after 90 days he can enter tournaments designed for lower rated players. There is no ratings floor when a player times out numerous times. Previously after five time out losses a players rating was frozen until a game ended in anything but a timeout loss. At that point the rating was free to move again. Edit 2012 03 26 The ratings floor logic was reinstated.
One possible method of filtering these players and any unreliably rated player would be if the TD had the ability to set a maximum Ratings Deviation (RD). Not currently available.
Tip: Sometimes a TD wishes to advance but is not in a position to do so. Removing players who would advance appears to be a viable action. In this case nobody takes the place of the removed players.
Maximum 50% of a group advance
One option that seems to be popular with players is multiple advancers from a group.
Regardless of the number of advancers set by the tournament director, the maximum allowed when the group size drops is 50% of the players in the largest group.
Opinion: This should be carefully considered, especially if the TD wants to see who wins the tournament before his time on the site ends. Depending on other settings, multiple advancers could still be reasonable.
No ties but more than the maximum 50% of a group advanced?
The 50% limit is based on the biggest group in the round.
Here the setting was two advancers out of of four players. http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=2967&round=3
Since there was at least one group of four players. The number of advancers, 2 of 4 is not below 50%. The groups of three benefitted and 2 of 3 advanced.
Account closed: Who advances? - Added 2012 01 06
If an account is closed prior to the last game in that group finishing, that player does not advance.
The next in line advances.
See groups 4 and 8 http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=17259&round=3
If an account is closed after the last game in that group finishes, that player does not advance.
Nobody takes his place to advance.
Edit: 2012 02 20 - Example fixed
Sandman won both games, so the round was over when the account was closed. You can see here there was no round 2 for Sandman http://www.chess.com/tournaments/player_summary.html?id=29190&member=Sandman
wooknight did not move to the next round. You can see here there was no round 2 for wooknight http://www.chess.com/tournaments/player_summary.html?id=29190&member=wooknight
Account closed: Who gets the medal? - Added 2012 01 07
There is a bug in awarding medals. The site attempts to bypass the closed account.
Display of pairings indicates second place gets gold http://www.chess.com/tournaments/pairings.html?id=28579&round=1
Actual result: Removed player gets gold http://www.chess.com/tournament/the-prestige-tournamant-2011
Removing Players - Added 2012 01 08
It is normal for some players to get better over time. Still a TD may deem a player to be too high rated for a tournament with a specified maximum rating.
A player cannot be removed by a TD unless all their games are over.
Personal Preference: No removals after the start. Having set a high games completed restriction this rise can be attributed to getting better. I find the accusation of sandbagging is overused and not based on facts.
Possible Issue: When a player temporarily abandons the site his rating can plummet due to numerous time out losses. When he returns after 90 days he can enter tournaments designed for lower rated players. There is no ratings floor when a player times out numerous times. Previously after five time out losses a players rating was frozen until a game ended in anything but a timeout loss. At that point the rating was free to move again. Edit 2012 03 26 The ratings floor logic was reinstated.
One possible method of filtering these players and any unreliably rated player would be if the TD had the ability to set a maximum Ratings Deviation (RD). Not currently available.
Tip: Sometimes a TD wishes to advance but is not in a position to do so. Removing players who would advance appears to be a viable action. In this case nobody takes the place of the removed players.
Note: The site provides general tournament information here: http://www.chess.com/tournaments/help.html and here http://support.chess.com/
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