A long, long time ago at the Andorra Zonal I remember having a conversation with French GM Gilles Miralles where he opined that the Swiss System was not good for chess. Both he and I had lost early games and were out of the running for a place in the Interzonal, and yet we still had to continue playing the tournament. We were both professional players and could no longer win any money but still had to stay another 4/5 wasted days.
I had a similar conversation last night with an IM playing in my local tournament. He has played an excellent tournament so far, and is unbeaten, but this morning (in the last round) he has to play the top seed with Black and if he loses he will be overtaken by players who have played much worse.
So, my question is: is the Swiss System fair or good? Why don't we have knockout events instead, like other sports? Then strong players can go home or go to another event if they lose and not waste their time.
The obvious problem is for weaker players who get knocked out early, but in that case there could be consolation tournaments, perhaps?