Hou Yifan plays the Fool's mate. Resigns after move 5 in 2017 Gibraltar Masters.

The pairings were messed up in the first round (as it often happens), in the fifth round (because a result was reported wrongly - the highest player involved was 141, though) and in the ninth round (71-118 and 73-124 were switched in 71-124 73-118 to avoid a ISR-IRI game). 

Apart from the first round, all the pairings regarding N. 22 (i.e. Hou Yifan), were correct

Quit yer whining.  We get it that you hate uppity women.

interesting.

They switched games? Of course that would be because of understanable political reasons.

Non the less, it would open up the discussion when are they allowed to Switch opponents.

Because if i recall the last round correctly a husband and his wife played against each other. And also Anton who had 6 times the White pieces was unlucky.

Im not saying i disagree with the System. Its just the question when are the Organizer allowed to interviening a Pairing? And are those rules of interviening fair?

Thanks.  Enlightening if accurate.  Now someone should go ahead and check the integrity of the pairing program.  

Organizers should also report their own findings.  

I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but I would simply like to share my opinion. I apologize if I am making statements that have been made before.

One of the best ways to improve is to play serious games, particularly against higher rated players (I try to avoid playing in OTB tournaments where I'm the highest rated player because I have nothing to gain and everything to lose). With that in mind, I can see why Hou Yifan quit playing in events for women only; she ran out of competition and wants to improve. I can also see why she is angry about playing mostly lower rated women in Gibraltar since this slightly thwarts her efforts.

Her opponents were definitely not "fish" to us; but what were they in her eyes? Imagine going to a tournament with 20+ players rated higher than you, and you end up almost only playing people rated 100+ points under you; beating all of them is fun, but you aren't gaining much (both rating-wise and experience-wise), there is high risk involved (you must win; a draw or a loss would result in quite a large rating drop), and in fact you may be getting worse (I have found that playing lower rated people over and over weakens my game). Gender is perhaps part of the issue with Hou Yifan's pairings, but her inability to increase her rating very much and improve may actually be the key reason why she protested.

A similar event happened once. One of my friends was in a four-round tournament; he inadvertently upset the TD while having a conversation with him. My friend then got Black four times in a row (I severely doubt this was a coincidence). He won the tournament anyway. Based on this experience, I would not say Hou Yifan's pairings were just a run of luck.

If I were in Hou Yifan's place, would I complain and/or protest? Yes. Would I throw away a game (and thus rating points)? Probably not. But I cannot blame her for doing so, and the only person she harmed by losing on purpose was herself, so she doesn't deserve so much backlash. She in fact apologized for throwing the game; you can see the news here: http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/

Also, I couldn't help but notice that a couple of posters on here seem convinced that men are superior to women at chess (maybe this mentality is why people at my local chess club are reluctant to play me?). Perhaps you could challenge me to a correspondence/daily chess game and we could settle this matter over the board? In the spirit of this, I'll play anybody within 100 points of me.

Those are merely my thoughts on the matter. I thought it would be interesting to add more points/views to this debate; from here on I will just be a spectator.

The key is your wording "understandable political reasons". In such circumstances, a switch is considered acceptable, particularly when there is no big difference in players' standings and ratings. It is not fair, in my opinion, but it is practical, and the programs usually have an option to insert forbidden pairings, just to avoid "dangerous" match-ups.

Regarding the game husband-wife. That's a tough one, but where to put the limit? Two brothers (or sisters), two cousins, two close friends... 

The only thing worse than overly long posts is when people quote the overly long posts 

Meh, I don't browse forums on my phone so I don't even notice... unless it's absurdly long like when trolls post something that would be 50 pages.

^^ Too much scrolling.

Is wagering permitted on chess.com?

Yeah! And beaten with a stick! Tarred and feathered! Charged with vandalism, fraud, domestic violence, and failure to signal for a left turn! She should be persecuted, prosecuted, prostrated and defamed! And then every year, on the anniversary of her resignation, a chess festival will be held culminating with the burning of a 50 foot wooden likeness of the fiend herself!

Throwing games for BAD reasons happens all too often.  At least she threw a game for what she believed to be a good reason.  She's already apologized to fans.  If she's shown to be in the wrong about the pairings, she should apologize to the organizers as well.

As for you, you should apologize for your remarks against women and consider retiring from these forums until you learn how to behave.  That's just as unlikely however as Hou Yifan retiring from chess over this.

Some people have clearly never played in swiss events, where it is important to win every game especially against lower-rated players. She did slightly better than average against equals and underperformed against stronger players, and turned an average performance in the end, perfectly normal. What is not normal is her angst towards women players

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