Periodically, I go to the US Chess online “shop” to stock up on TD supplies (mainly pairing cards and score sheets). Of course, the pairing cards have been unavailable for some time now, and I’m about to have to start printing my own. But today I noticed that they no longer seem to have the standard pads of 50 score sheets that I’ve been buying for over 30 years (both for my own use, and to put out at tournaments that I’m directing). All that seems to be available are the “carbonless” double ones, which I dislike. Are the regular score pads being phased out like pairing cards were, or is this just a temporary “out of stock” situation? Does anyone know?
You could always make your own score sheets as well. What I did a few years ago was take Excel and make an 8x8 grid by making the columns and rows the same height and width as each other. I then shaded [in gray] every other square, and outlined the entire 8x8 in bold, and put in regular lines for each square. I then printed out the resulting blank chess board. Next I put a regular score sheet and the blank chess board next to each other. I then made copies of this combination and had 60 move score sheets with a blank diagram attached.
Larry Cohen
You still use pairing cards in this day and age?
Dennis,
You’d probably have to ask the folks at Sales if they’re being phased out, or just out of stock.
Pairing cards are a good training device even if you never use them in an actual tournament.
TDs shouldn’t assume the computer always gets it right.
Oh, you young-uns. I’m afraid most young TDs nowadays couldn’t make pairings at all without a computer. In my day, we TDs were supposed to know this skill, and be able to explain pairings to the players. “The computer did it” just wouldn’t cut it.
Bill Smythe
Bill, young-uns is not the best term. More accurate would be newbies (those that have been TDs for less than 25 years).
Absolutely, yes. I also work with a computer operator, but it’s good to have a backup, and, as others have said, the computer does funny things sometimes. 90% of the time, I end up agreeing with it, but every now and then I overrule it. Here are some “horror stories” that show why it can be good to have and use pairing cards:
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We had a computer freeze up during a tournament once. Luckily, there happened to be someone else at the tournament with a laptop that happened to have WinTD on it, so we were able to transfer all our data over to that computer and use it for the rest of the tournament. But that process took a while. In the meantime, we paired a round by hand, wrote out the pairings by hand, and were able to get the round started on time without waiting for the other computer to get caught up.
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At another tournament, our computer operator had to go to a funeral or something, and wasn’t going to be able to get to the tournament until the 3rd round. No problem. I printed up some pairing sheets and wall charts (I have “forms” for both), and did everything the old-fashioned way: used pairing cards to do the pairings, wrote them out by hand, and then filled in the wall chart by hand. It was kind of fun. The hand-written wall chart actually looked better than the ones WinTD produces (it helps that I have neat handwriting), and we used it for the whole tournament, filling in results as we got them. “Old school!”
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One time, a local master complained about the pairing we had given one of his students, and demanded to know how we had arrived at that pairing. No problem: I got out my pairing cards and showed him exactly how we arrived at that pairing. He was satisfied and impressed – he said some other TDs in the state wouldn’t have been able to do that (they would have just said “That’s what the computer did”).
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Another time, someone complained about getting Black in the first three rounds of a 4-round event (a reasonable complaint). Again, I got out the pairing cards and showed her and her husband (an ANTD) the situation, and they arrived at the same pairing (everyone in her score group was due White – there was no way to avoid giving someone a third Black, and using normal procedures, that someone turned out to be her). This was another situation where “That’s what the computer did” would not have been a satisfying answer. By the way, the computer also gave her Black, and we were able to give her White in the 4th round.
Inside the binder for running our chess club, we have several different types of score sheets that are in sheet protectors. The one with our club name on it is used frequently to provide a score sheet to each player every round. That form has two scoresheets on it which is easy to take to a copy store. For around $4, we can run off 50 copies and have 100 score sheets. Whenever there is a sale or discount, I run off a bunch of copies of the score sheet template. The score sheet itself has extra sections to fill out at the top. It also has a small block on each move to record your time. We have just run out of our popular club scorebooks which have enough sheets for 100 games.
In the club binder we have a number of other forms for running tournaments, including a sheet with pairing cards. Running off 10 of these sheets on heavier card stock gives us 50 pairing cards which is more than enough to run our events. If you have tournaments with two or more sections, it is good to have pairing cards in different colors and special ones for cross pairings and a house man card or two. Usually at the beginning of our tournament season I run off about 100 pairing cards to have on hand for regular tournaments and impromptu events. They have come in handy a couple of times when I have gone to tournaments at other clubs and their computer crashed. BTW, I still have some old adjournment cards and the envelopes that go with them.
Oh, I won’t have any problem finding scoresheets. There are other online stores that sell them, and I found numerous “forms” online that you can download and print yourself. But none of these have the USCF/US Chess brand/logo on them. If I’m going to put scoresheets out at USCF tournaments, I would think that USCF would want those to have their brand/logo on them. Maybe they don’t care? Or maybe they want everyone to switch to the “carbonless” ones?
Yes, those are the ones! They must have restocked. I swear that it said “Out of stock” yesterday. I am relieved that they haven’t discontinued these (like the pairing cards).
At many of the tournaments I have gone to the organizing club has its own score sheets with the club name or club logo on them. After all, you are advertising your event and organization, not the USCF. You make your own score sheets cheaper than USCF Sales sells them. We usually have people ask us if they can take a few extras just because of the time section blocks on the score sheet.
Your players ask?
Alex Relyea
thanks, alex, just about lost my coffee on that one!
…scot…
Take a look at the new thread Pairing Question where exactly this sort of situation pops up.
Bill Smythe