Magic Pairings

A funny thing happened in round 7. There were two pairings published. Here is what we, at first, saw on the Aussie Championships official site.

1 GM Chandler, Murray (5) - GM Rogers, Ian (4.5)
2 FM Xie, George (4) - GM Schmaltz, Roland (4.5)
3 IM Smerdon, David (4.5) - IM Lane, Gary (4)
4 GM Johansen, Darryl (3.5) - GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (4)
5 FM Bjelobrk, Igor (3.5) - IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (3.5)
6 IM Wohl, Alex (3.5) - Smirnov, Vladimir (3.5)
7 IM Solomon, Stephen (3) - FM Canfell, Greg (3.5)
8 FM Humphrey, Jonathan (3) - FM Guthrie, Aaron (3)
9 Obst, James (2.5) - Song, Raymond (3)
10 Bird, Andrew (2.5) - FM Goldenberg, Igor (2.5)
11 WIM Moylan, Laura (2.5) - WIM Caoili, Arianne (2.5)
12 Pyke, Malcolm (2) - Ly, Moulthun (2.5)
13 FM Dougherty, Michael (2) - Booth, Stewart (2)
14 Frame, Nigel (1.5) - Lakner, Jay (1.5)

But this was later changed to what you see below (with results indicated).

1 GM Chandler, Murray (5) 0 - 1 GM Rogers, Ian (4.5)
2 FM Xie, George (4) ½ - ½ GM Schmaltz, Roland (4.5)
3 IM Smerdon, David (4.5) 1 - 0 IM Lane, Gary (4)
4 GM Johansen, Darryl (3.5) ½ - ½ GM Ftacnik, Lubomir (4)
5 FM Canfell, Greg (3.5) ½ - ½ IM Zhao, Zong-Yuan (3.5)
6 IM Wohl, Alex (3.5) ½ - ½ FM Bjelobrk, Igor (3.5)
7 IM Solomon, Stephen (3) ½ - ½ Smirnov, Vladimir (3.5)
8 FM Humphrey, Jonathan (3) ½ - ½ FM Guthrie, Aaron (3)
9 WIM Moylan, Laura (2.5) 0 - 1 Song, Raymond (3)
10 Bird, Andrew (2.5) 0 - 1 FM Goldenberg, Igor (2.5)
11 Ly, Moulthun (2.5) 1 - 0 WIM Caoili, Arianne (2.5)
12 Pyke, Malcolm (2) ½ - ½ Obst, James (2.5)
13 FM Dougherty, Michael (2) 0 - 1 Booth, Stewart (2)
14 Frame, Nigel (1.5) 0 - 1 Lakner, Jay (1.5)

It is easy to imagine the ill-effect of this major mistake: players naturally prepared for the wrong opponents. On game day, at least two players were reported to have simply refused to play. After some apparent cajoling, they eventually relented. A Sydneysider was walking around like a headless chicken looking for an arbiter to see what in the world was happening. An IM, I gather, walked into the playing hall in a sort of daze, not from a night of boozing, but from discovering that he's playing the wrong man!

The episode is a black mark in what is an otherwise fantastic event. In an effort to minimise damage, the organising team issued a letter of apology to all Championship players. It was signed by all the arbiters. Stay tuned while we seek a copy of that letter.

But here are some preliminary questions. Where did the second set of "phantom" pairings come from? Who created them? If the pairings were changed, for whatever reason, was that agreed to between all the arbiters? Even assuming agreement between all the arbiters, why were two pairings published in the first place?