BYES
A half point bye is a nonrated draw without play or an opponent.
If you are unable to play a round, you may request a half point bye instead if the publicity for the tournament involved indicates that this is possible, which is usually the case. Byes should be requested at least an hour before the bye round in over the board tournaments, unless the bye rules require notice further in advance. If a half point bye is not possible for a round, you can still skip the round by giving at least one hour notice, but will receive a zero point bye.
Each tournament allowing half point byes announces its own rules for obtaining such byes.
For online tournaments, half point byes must be claimed with registration and cannot be changed.
REQUESTING BYES BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT
If you wish to take a half point bye or byes before arriving at an OTB tournament, such as round 1 (or rounds 1 and 2), you can do so on our shopping cart.
If you wish to take a half point bye or byes
that will occur after you begin play, such as round 2 (while playing round 1) or
round 5,
these should be requested AT THE TOURNAMENT, NOT IN ADVANCE. Recording
such byes in advance would cause extra
work and mistakes, especially as such requests often change.
FULL POINT BYES
A
full point bye cannot be requested.
A full point bye is assigned, when there is an odd number of players that round,
to the lowest
rated player with the low score who has not already had a bye or forfeit win.
If you are given a full point bye and would rather
play, ask the Director, as a fill in player may be available. Often if two
sections have full point byes, those players agree to play each
other, with the game counting both for rating and as a higher section game; the
player in the lower of the two sections still has a full
point bye in that section but the player in the higher section is playing for
score as well as rating.