big kid playing in the kiddie pool

I've seen that certain conditions will automatically prevent one from entering a tournament, like if their 'average time/move' is longer than what the TD stipulated when creating the tournament. 

But other things, like whether or not someone's rating is within the specified range, seem to be left solely up to the TD to enforce...or not.

Is there any kind of rule against a TD doing this sort of thing on purpose, either by entering the tournament themselves or by allowing someone else entry when they are well beyond the rating range specified?

I realize that players' rating can change a bit between entering a tournament and when it actually starts, and i also realize that many TDs elect to have their tournaments start automatically, but i've run into what is clearly a deliberate instance of allowing a big bully into the kiddie pool.

This particular tournament is for 8 players and is rated for <1250, yet one of the players is rated 1389.  And, no, it's not like their RD is huge, or anything like that.  

My suspicion of this being a deliberate act is all but proven by virtue of the particular player's handle and the name of the tournament itself.  (I'll refrain from naming them here, lest it would violate the site's TOS.)

Anyway, i'll survive, but my question is this:  

Assuming such misbehavior is tolerated by the site, i'm wondering what will happen if i raise too much of a stink and taunt the TD so much that he decides to kick me out of the tournament -- if that happens, will all of my remaining games be counted as losses and adversely affect my rating? 

I ain't mad --i'm thinking that i'll still be able earn a (non-first-place) trophy.

It's actually pretty funny and clever how they set it up.

(bumpity...)

(...bump-bump)

The TD can't make you lose all your games. 

Also, you can complain as much as you want, if it's respectful and non-invasive, and no one can stop you. 

If that 1389 is doing anything against the rules of the site, you can report it.

Otherwise, I'd recommend just playing chess. After all, that's what this site is for. 

Thanks for the reply, Cherub --

Nope, i don't imagine any rules of the site are being broken (other than maybe the potential ones i mentioned).

Like i said, i'm not losing any sleep over this -- I regularly play against players who outrank me by over three figures -- i've just never seen such a blatant instance of tournament-rigging before.

I jestingly complained -- just once -- on the tournament page (and got no reply), and i don't imagine i can muster up any more 'outrage' to continue doing so.  

Anyway, just for knowledge's sake (as i haven't been able to find this info elsewhere on the site):  So, the TD can kick me out once the tourney has started, but doing so wouldn't automatically make me lose my remaining games, including the ones i'm currently playing?  

(I can see little red 'X's next to the players in the tournaments i've created, but i've been too afraid to press them to see what happens, lest it removes them without giving me a chance to confirm.) 

I see. Well, I don't know what will exactly happen, except that you will not be forced out of rating points, for obvious reasons to avoid abuse.

I imagine that the games that are in progress will continue to be played, and may or may not be counted towards the score (likely will, again, to avoid abuse). 

Generally kids can play up, i.e. play the next higher section (usually must pay an extra fee).  As for allowing a higher rated player to play lower, there may be cases when there's not enough players.  Also, this happens fairly often in quads where you may see +/-100-200 in small tournaments.

Thanks for weighing in, mgx, but we're talking about electronic, chess.com tournaments, here on the site -- it sounds like you're talking about bona fide (forgive the unintentional pun) OTB tournaments.

Sadly it don't violate any policy I've found, but it clearly isn't fair play. I've seen it too, when a 1400+ player suddenly looses lots of games, and then join or create tournaments wit rating range of 12-1300. Then the player wins it all, and suddenly looses a lot of games, and the process repeats itself. These players does this for the O' holy glory of tourament points leaderboard, where several of them are in top 20. 

Since chess.com finds this as accepted practise we can do nothing. Almost. My tournaments are now (after learning the hard way) all set to not auto start, and in the text I write that players with historical rating higher than x are not welcome. Then I manually delete them before the tournament starts. That's all I can do. 

Still can't avoid them though, cause I don't only play my own tournaments, and end up meeting them in other ones. Annoying, cause it still ain't fair play.