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Crossposted from Bad Negs, since I figured this was the best place for it:
It's certainly ethical to ask. I would presume the TD would want a reasonable explanation as to the reason for your request. The ethicality comes in whether the TD actually does it and whether it's reasonable to do so. Does it have the likelihood of significantly affecting the records of either team, or worse, which teams make it to the playoffs? Does the team have a good reason?styxman wrote:On a random note, is it ethical to ask a tournament director for placing a certain team with you in the morning pool for a tournament?
First, I don't think it should be done if it has a reasonable likelihood of significantly changing the record of either team. Second, if it will throw off the playoff structure, don't do it. Third, if the reason is nothing greater than a grudge match and wouldn't have any significant effect on the two points above, then I'd also want the consent of the other team. I.e., I wouldn't set up a one-sided grudge match. Last, if this was a regional/state/national title tournament, I think I'd lean away from doing it just to make sure no perception of impropriety was given. Most teams view these tournaments as very important, and I wouldn't want to deviate from the procedure set forth.
But, as a TD, I think it's also important to consider that the reason for the tournament is to have a good time. If making a change helps everyone have a good time, then I think it's a reasonable thing to do. It's actually common practice in lower level chess tournaments to not make pairings that would pit two people together who play each other frequently as long as there's another reasonable pairing to be made.
And, for what it's worth, I've done it once. At my last tournament, we had a deaf team competing and another team with a student who couldn't hear very well. We had set up a special room for the deaf team where the questions were presented visually instead of audially. The coach of the team with the single student asked if I would play his team against the deaf team so they could experience the match without having to worry about hearing difficulties and so they would have experienced the method I was using to determine if there were any issues with it. Since I was running a Swiss tournament, I was pretty much happy to oblige. I paired them against each other in the first round, so that by the time the tournament was over, any change would have been nearly eliminated by the later pairings which were based on overall game and point totals.