Hello,
The topic of player sanctions hasn't been discussed much, if at all for a long time. I have recently had some conversations with other arbiters and organizers on this subject. It arose from, primarily, players dropping out of tournaments / forfeiting games. It has become mainstream that anyone can drop out of a Swiss tournament, provided they notify the organizer prior to the next pairings being made. This is acceptable as far as in, the player won't get paired, nobody sits around waiting for an opponent who isn't coming.
Withdrawing from a Round Robin is far more detrimental, since it completely jeopardizes the integrity of the tournament. Players need to know that, upon registration, they're making a long-term commitment.
The most common cases of forfeits come from people "just not showing up" without letting us know they have withdrawn, in Swiss tournaments, since Round Robins are less common.
I have began instituting suspensions on players who are culprits of the above scenarios. But this is somewhat new and questionable territory. At least open for debate, I'd think.
In my opinion, this should be observed and administered by the overarching chess body, in this case CFC.
There are many different types of reasons for consideration when sanctioning a player. Ranging from incorrect withdrawals (as mentioned above), to cheating, to inappropriate etiquette, breaking of specific types of rules, unsportsmanship behavior, etc...
Some questions that I'd value other opinions on:
A.1 - should CFC / provincial / regional chess political bodies be the one overviewing these sanctions?
A.2 - if so, would / should these be compiled and honoured by various organizers?
A.3 - if not: what's stopping / is it right for a guilty party to just keep doing this across the board, since organizers are applying sanctions independently?
A.4 - if not: do organizers still need to allow players to participate, when organizing a national / local open championship (ie Canadian Open, City Championship, Provincial Rapid) ?
B - should this information be public?
C - How do you deal with these situations regarding a minor?
D - What kind of penalties should be applied? Obviously it would vary from offense to offense.
E - Is this / why is this not already being done? If so, can anyone share their methods?
F - Should this even be done? Not worth pursuing? We're not organized enough? Don't care?
G - Feel free to share Canadian examples (no need for names) where this has happened, which sanctions administered for what offense, why or why not, and which related challenges arose.
Thanks,
Alex Ferreira