I’m starting this topic as a place to share advice for running online US Chess rated tournaments. The irony is not lost on me that I am offering advice as a TD who has never run an online tournament and who has no intention of doing so. My perspective is shaped by my experience as the current chair of the Rules Committee and as a member of the Ethics Committee. As such, some of what I write may be somewhat indirect.
1. Have tournament-specific regulations.
Have them. Be very detailed. These are the regulations used for the national invitational championships this summer. Are they detailed? Yes. Should you have this level of detail? Yes. You may not need every regulation that was specified for the national invitationals, but my advice is to start with that level of detail and consider very carefully what you don’t need.
I also recommend having the players in your tournament agree to abide by the tournament-specific regulations before participating in the tournament.
2. Educate your players.
Chapter 10 (Internet Chess) of the Official Rules of Chess was completely rewritten as of September 1, 2020. (The revised rules are included in the chapters of the Official Rules of Chess freely available to download from the US Chess web site here.) As a TD, of course, you should study these rules carefully well before your tournament. However, I would also recommend explicitly providing your players a link to the rules as well.
3. Be concerned about platforms that will terminate a player’s ability to play in the tournament as soon as the platform’s fair-play detection flags a violation.
It’s fine for a platform to have a policy of “we’ll terminate your playing privileges as soon as you trip our fair-play algorithms, and you can appeal and have your account restored if we’re wrong” for their own tournaments. US Chess requires due process protection for players in US Chess rated tournaments. If you are running US Chess rated tournaments on such a platform, negotiate with the platform to see if this (mis)feature can be disabled for your tournament.
4. Be very careful about accusations of cheating.
A platform’s fair-play algorithm detecting a violation is not enough to support an assertion that a player has cheated. It is fine (and A Good Thing) to treat it as a very serious indication that attention needs to be paid to the situation, but due process demands more evidence to support such an accusation. During the tournament, have a TD give the TD more scrutiny if possible. Review any available recording of the player. If the TD is a sufficiently strong player, review the games; otherwise, seek review of the games by highly rated players. Consider submitting the games in question for expert fair-play review.
If the available evidence strongly supports a clear conclusion that a player cheated, consider filing a complaint with the office. (The complaint will likely be directed to the Ethics Committee.)
5. Keep records documenting everything.
This is probably good advice for TDs in all situations, but especially in the world of online play where a TD may be isolated and not have colleagues to help refresh memories later, nothing beats a paper trail documenting the TDs rulings and reasons for those rulings should a question arise later.
6. Consider whether the TD staff is sufficient.
If you are monitoring players remotely, it is easy to underestimate the staff required to provide adequate supervision. Put another way: properly monitoring players in a Zoom meeting is more resource intensive than you may at first think. This is still new territory for most TDs. Be conservative in your planning.