In previous editions of the USCF rulebook (prior to the 5th edition, I think), there was a very helpful section on organizer and TD advice about setting up and running tournaments. IIRC, that section was pulled out of subsequent rulebooks to keep them from being oversized.
One of the big concerns for TDs nowadays - at least, those who rely on electronic rating supplements, pairing programs, and TD/A - is whether a site has or allows sufficient Internet capability to use all those features. With the advent of these conveniences, more TDs are now coming up without the knowledge of ye olde manual wall chart and pairing cards.
What I’m thinking is that maybe a nice document could be crowd-sourced by the TDs and organizers who read the Forums, explaining some of the techie things a TD should do to prepare to run tournaments these days. Among those things, I imagine, would be the following list.
Ensuring pairing program is updated before getting to site
Ensuring rating supplement is updated before getting to site
Checking site prior to event to verify if Internet access is possible*
Checking site prior to event to verify if cell phone access is possible
Setting up and testing printer before getting to site
Having at least one fully functional power strip, tested and (if possible) grounded
Having a backup plan/contact in case any/all of the above fails on site
This list is, of course, not complete. But if a TD checks all these things prior to an event, the unfortunate issue discussed by Mr. Day in this thread should be avoidable. And it doesn’t really take very long to do it. YMMV, though.
I always bring my own dedicated Internet access to tournaments, because I never trust that the place I’m having them either has free wi-fi or that the free wi-fi will be reliable and secure.
Or, the regular computer/laptop fails, is lost/stolen/forgotten, or whatever, and the TD has to use a backup, potentially some random person’s laptop, or a hotel’s business center machine. A USB drive with pairing software (and your license codes in a text file!), the latest database, etc. is a good thing to have.
I have played in a number of tournaments where the TD encountered technical problems with his PC and/or printer. While checking them beforehand is always a good thing, sometimes the gremlins come out and hack your devices at the most inconvenient time. A folder with pairing cards, wall charts, and pairing sheets is good to have as a backup if the electronics fail. In the tournaments where a problem occurred, one TD was at a loss at how to do pairings w/o his pairings program when his computer crashed. At another tournament, a power surge zapped the TD’s printer, though the laptop was not touched because it was running on battery rather than be plugged in. He ended up writing up pairings by hand which made every round late. The printer ran out of ink at another event; the backup cartridge did not work. The TD in one event had a full PC setup and two printers available. His computer crashed mid-registration. Then there is my favorite, a TD went out to get something to eat during the tournament. When he came back, his laptop and printer were gone from the TD room. No one saw who stole it as they were busy playing. For some reason, they did not take his briefcase where he had put all of the entry fee money. Stuff happens and you should have low tech backup just in case Armageddon occurs.
If the tournament is smaller, one should be able to pair on scratch paper, if needed. If the crash happens before the event, approximate ratings can be used to pair the first round, and a phone call can be placed to have someone offsite look up current ratings right after the round starts. (I’ve had to do this once, when my database files got corrupted.)
If the tournament is larger, where pairing by hand is not really feasible (most such contemporary tournaments are scheduled with the assumption of computer pairings), one should have at least one backup computer and printer available in the back room, fully set up and prepared ahead of time. Tournament files should also be saved each round, both locally and remotely. Finally, results sheets should be saved and kept organized throughout the tournament. If an event has to be reconstructed, at least those hard copies provide a mechanism to do that. (Yes, this is a lot of work. But I take at least a backup laptop to every major event I run.)
As for having computers stolen, I’ve never had a properly employed computer lock fail to protect one of my machines.
At one tournament (five sections, about 500 players total) my printer up and died. I used my flash drive to copy the WinTD pairings into an excel spreadsheet and then took it to a computer in the school library to print the pairings (and the team results sheets for the section with 42 eight-board teams).
Yes! Paper pairing cards, pairing sheets, and wall charts should be in everyone’s kit. So should envelopes for sealed moves (what happens should a game need to be suspended for unanticipated cause?).
I have been to an event within the past decade where adjournments should have occurred in all round three games, when the event got hours behind schedule and the facility ordered everyone out at closing time of day one.
The games should have been adjourned. They weren’t; clocks were simply stopped, and the player on move was on move all night.
The laptop I use has a good battery and can last for a few hours of intermittent use (longer if I am more aggressive about putting it into sleep mode). The printer would be the problem. Often if a site loses power it is no longer usable for play (think hotel ballroom), but some scholastic tournaments are at schools with outside lighting making it feasible to continue playing in a gym or lunchroom. The first decision is whether or not to continue the event with no power.
If so then you draft parents to hand-write the board by board pairings (preferably from a spreadsheet copy of the pairings that were transferred to other laptops by a flash drive - distributed to multiple machines so different board ranges are copied from different laptops), hand copy them for multiple postings if needed, and then get the pairings/results sheets out (if the section is small enough to make it feasible to get an alphabetical pairing list out in a reasonable amount of time then it is small enough that such a list is not necessary).
Once the pairings are out you decide what to do about wall charts (including color information and cumulative score) or cross tables (just the game results and total score - rating order would be preferable to standings order if you need it for multiple rounds). It might even be feasible to just have points (name, rating, points, no opponent info).
If your laptop does not have a good battery life then you also go back to cards. Grab the last wall chart or cross-table printed. Get a team of parents to create the cards (you can use index cards if you don’t have pairing cards, and you can use small sheets of paper such as an 8.5x11 sheet quartered to 4.25x5.5) with the player number on the wall chart, the color played (this might be difficult if you are using cross-tables, so you may have to include the various results/pairing sheets), the opponent, the result, and the cumulative score. My own experiences from the '80s are that parents will be willing to pitch in and will quickly learn how to make those cards.
The “fun” part will be making the pairings in anywhere close to a timely manner. Even back in the '80s when people said I looked like a Mississippi riverboat gambler quickly dealing out cards there was a LOT of time needed to update those cards and get them sorted and ready for pairings.
If I had to do it that way again I’d be a bit out of practice, slower because of worrying about full color history, and might have to return to spending almost all my time recording results and updating cards just to get the pairings out quickly. If you do partial pairings as various scoregroups finish you might end up getting the pairings done as quickly as if you used a computer, but you would likely need a dedicated pairings-only TD that really understands the pairing rules. I used to have the parents (with much better hand-writing than mine) writing out the pairings as I finished a scoregroup and then being able to send the completed pairings to the photocopier within five minutes of the final game in a round finishing (back then I had almost no time available to spend in the playing room).
Computers allow for a much smaller back room staff (at the Peoria National JH in the late '80s there were two or three pairing TDs per section, while nowadays at national scholastics it is common for there to be two or three sections per pairing TD).
Use Scotch tape, not painter’s tape. Have the players sign across what the adhesive kind of sealed and then put the Scotch tape over their signatures (so that it will show the tears if the tape is removed) with those signatures visible through the tape.
I wonder how many of our new TDs have been trained using Pairing Cards? IMO, every new TD should know how pairings are to be done, and they should be prepared to use cards regardless the size of the event.
Another TIP: Make sure you bring along another TD to use as an Assistant in worse case situations. When I first started running tournaments in 1987, I made sure that all club officers were certified TDs, and I trained them all, just in case.
Really, if you’re going old school, do it right. Candle, matches, and a seal to emboss the hot wax. If you’re going to seal a move, then really seal it.
On a more serious note, I think your suggestion is good.
I have a bunch of the old sealed move envelopes, too. You should not have to worry how to seal the envelope to protect the security of the move. The envelope will be with the TD until such time as the game resumes. Both players should be present when giving the TD the envelope.
Over the last couple of years, I have been training some younger players to be TDs. We go through a simulated tournament using pairing cards, wall charts, and pairing sheets to show them the mechanics of running a tournament. They get to see how much time it takes to do things. We discuss pairing rules and limits to what you can do. A list of protocols, dos and don’ts, and various short cuts are examined. They catch on fast and now understand why the computer makes its pairings the way it does.
We prepare a master packet of everything you need to run a small event so that copies can be made as needed. Inside the packet goes a sheet with pairing cards that can be cut; wall charts; pairing sheets; sheet of tournament entries forms to cut as needed; scoresheet masters to make copies; tournament accounting sheets; USCF membership forms; TLA form; USCF tournament report form; final results sheet. I also suggest putting in various tapes, scissors, pens and markers, and envelopes for storage of entry forms, money, and miscellaneous items. It all fits in one big manila envelope. Prior to a tournament they make as many copies of the forms as they think they will need plus a few more just in case. In addition, we prepare a list of the “usual suspects” who will likely come to the event so that we can have their ID#s, expiration dates, and most recent official rating handy. Until we get a 6th edition Rulebook, we use a 5th edition plus a set of updates.
BTW, it was the 4th edition of the Rulebook that had a detailed list of items for how to organize and run a major tournament. Some of the items can be dispensed with for smaller events. It was useful, however, and should have been retained for subsequent editions of the Rulebook for TDs and organizers. I think the 3rd and 4th editions were the best Rulebooks.
On a couple of occasions I have directed tournaments when the power went out, once for over 4 hours. We had to stop all of the clocks and have the players leave the tournament room until the lights went back on. I did receive one complaint from a player that, “It’s not fair. He is still thinking.”
Our chess league was forced to leave a building 3 times in one day when a fire alarm was pulled. We told the players to stop all of the clocks and record the time on their scoresheets. Most of the players took all of their stuff with them rather than leave it in the ballroom. Heaven knows what the fire department or the police would do if they heard a ticking clock!
