If you are running a tournament in Swisssys you cannot upload color information when submitting the tournament for rating. I like being able to show colors on my rating reports. However, manually filling in the colors is a very tedious process and you want to submit the tournament for rating right after the tournament finishes as it’s good customer service since everyone wants to see their new rating immediately. How about allowing the TD to go in and add color information later once the tournament has already been rated?
I use WinTD and use the revised DBF which has the color information.
If you use SwissSys and want to input the color information then do the following:
- upload the tournament
- for each section you want color information added scroll down the header information (right half) and look for the “Office Section Coding” with “Show Color Allocation”. Click on the “Yes (Editable)” option and do a save.
- go in and click on the W or B option for each game (it defaulted to -).
Upon further review, I see that you wanted to add the color information after the rating of the tournament, not before.
I’d suggest switching to WinTD so that you don’t have the additional step at all (just select the revised DBF for the USCF report and the color information is automatically filled in on the upload). There is an issue with more than 12 games per player (it shows the first 12 in one row and the next 12 or fewer in another row), so if you are doing a 7-double-round blitz event you’ll probably want to use the original DBF instead of the revised DBF (color reporting in blitz results is notoriously suspect anyway, heck results reporting is also suspect with two draws often reported the same as a win then loss or a loss then win).
Jeff, I am intrigued by the thoughts of adding this information. i think it would be a very useful tool for parents, coaches and players alike. However, I also have some questions about the mindset of parents who ignore the type " results do not appear in the order of…" and call me complaining their kids were ‘cheated’ on tie-breaks, calling to complain that their kids did not receive equal colors. Of course for the odd round tournaments, this is not going to happen. But for the annoying, paranoid parent this is yet another complaint they have waiting and available to them.
So a question, then, how often do you code your tournaments so that the colors per round appear, and how often have you had parental complaints arising from the color allocation as a result??
Rob Jones
Starting January 2012 every tournament I submit has color information (34 scholastic events including one state and one national, 21 open events with half of them having significant scholastic participation). No parent has called to complain about colors. That is true even when the kids play different colors and the pairing sheet was corrected to reflect what actually happened rather than what was supposed to happen (in which case what actually happened would seem to be a pairing error).
PS One advantage to doing so many events is that parents and players simply figure that I’ll pair it correctly and thus they figure anything that seems strange actually has a good reason. I will occasionally get color questions during an event, but not afterwards.
This is what I have done for the smaller events I have run. For the bigger events, this would take a lot more time. I want to have the tournament rated right after the tournament finishes and at my leisure be able to go back in and add color information to the crosstable later. I was disappointed to see Swisssys 9 does not have the ability to upload color information.
WinTD uses an upload spec that was never actually formally adopted, but Mike added the new fields when people started using it.
Is that upload spec documented?
I thought there was an attempt at one time to define an XML format (schema?) for rating reports. What came of that?
I have a copy, but I’m not sure that’s my place to post it.
The new DBF spec added fields to the existing one (long list of TD’s for the header; time control, FIDE ratable tag and FIDE arbiter ID’s for the section; player name, state and rating for the player detail), but maintained the three file structure. Adding extra fields isn’t a particularly big deal—the same import can work for both, you just don’t have the added information if the older spec is used. The XML spec would be handier since everything could go into a single file, but it does require completely rewriting the import program, and it would be necessary to still maintain the old (and older) import specs at the same time. This may be an “if it ain’t all that broke, …” situation. The lack of the player name (in particular) in the old spec was a costly design flaw back in the day when a scholastic tournament might have 30% blank ID’s when submitted, but isn’t as important now when ID’s are expected to be included for all players.
The specification for the version 2C rating report DBF files is available from the FAQ page of the TD/Affiliate support area. The URL is https://secure2.uschess.org/TD_Affil/fileformat.php.
SwissSys 9.1 has just been released and color information is now included when you upload a tournament to TD/A!
Is there anyway to have the color information not uploaded or excluded from the rating report? The reason I am asking is because I noticed the North American Open Blitz rating report, uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201512292542.0, has color information included but the players just reported the results like 1.5-0.5 so there is no way to know who was what color in the decisive game and in the drawn game.
If WinTD is used then you have the option of using the original DBF (no color info) or the revised DBF (includes color info).
Thanks. What about SwissSys?
Some players play the paired color first, some did not. Either case, they just record the score out of 2 games and we input it that way.
I do know one thing - players did play an equal number of white and blacks for a swiss tournament :mrgreen: !
Acerook
TD of NAO Blitz 2016
Yes, then why is their color information on the rating report?
It seems to me it would be useful (at least occasionally) to have color information for each game in the pair. It might be interesting to know, if the players split the pair, whether white won both games, or black won both. Or which game was decisive and which was drawn. Or perhaps even which game was played first.
Also, it’s handy to be able to report the result independently for each of the two games in the pair, in the event that (for example) the first game was decisive and the second was forfeited (because the loser of the first stormed out in anger after his loss).
Bill Smythe
Yes, but for the tournament I mentioned, the players recorded the results like 1-1 so it’s impossible to know whether white won both games or black won both games so I was asking why incorrect color information was submitted on the rating report. Also, for the tournament I mentioned, all the 1-1 results were recorded as 2 draws.
I think the pairing sheet (where the players post their results) should look something like this in a double-round event:
result 1 result 2 white, then black || result 1 result 2 black, then white
________ ________ Smith, Micah || ________ ________ Smythe, Bill
________ ________ Spassky, B || ________ ________ Fischer, R
________ ________ Jones, Rob || ________ ________ Bachler, Kevin
Then all desired detailed information would be available.
Bill Smythe
WinTD can already do the following. Entry is then done one game at a time.
Rd Bd Scr White Scr Black
01 1. ___ C (0.0,nnnn) ___ F (0.0,nnnn)
01 1. ___ C (0.0,nnnn) ___ F (0.0,nnnn)
01 2. ___ G (0.0,nnnn) ___ E (0.0,nnnn)
01 2. ___ G (0.0,nnnn) ___ E (0.0,nnnn)
01 3. ___ A (0.0,nnnn) ___ D (0.0,nnnn)
01 3. ___ A (0.0,nnnn) ___ D (0.0,nnnn)
01 4. ___ H (0.0,nnnn) ___ B (0.0,nnnn)
01 4. ___ H (0.0,nnnn) ___ B (0.0,nnnn)I believe SwissSys has an option to enter 1-1 as “two draws”. If anyone cares that much, I can go into one of my old double swiss files and check. I don’t see that it matters very much at all.
Alex Relyea