What is the preferred software for running USCF tournaments?
Any comments upon ease of use would be appreciated?
What would be the minimum requirement in a laptop to run such tournaments?
What type of printer would be sufficient for printing out results?
Myself have the SwissSys 6.0. You could use the WinTD, they have there supporters. The best software is to use the TD/Afiliate, as you can report your tournament that day than mailing the tournament to the USCF office.
There should not be any problem having the laptop downloaded with both programs. The printer, there should not be any problem. Before you have your first tournament with the software, run some test tournaments. This will take care of any of the bugs that could happen because of human error.
The two leading programs are SwissSys and WinTD. The reasons to like one over the other are probably a personal choice. WinTD seems to be the program of choice for national scholastic events. I have used both and like both. If push comes to shove I will pick one over the other; however, it is simply a matter of personal preference on how I like my interfaces and help menus to work.
A link that gets you some discussion on the topic of Swiss Sys Vs WinTD from these very forums: http://www.uschess.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=420&highlight=software
Free demo versions for either of these software packages are available at:
SwissSys: http://www.swisssys.com/
WinTD: http://www.estima.com/chess/
Tim
I have been using Vega ( vegachess.com ) for the last few months and it works great. The licensing is cheaper too.
It has a free version you can try out. You need to register to be able to generate the USCF reports to upload using the TD/Affiliate section of the USCF web site.
As Doug says, you need a software that can generate the tournament report export files.
If you are set up in the TD/Affiliate area as an approved TD for an affiliate that is in good standing then you can upload the export files (for WinTD those are the *EXPORT.DBF files, not the .PTO) and get the tournament rated almost immediately (as long as there are no membership issues that you have to also take care of).
If you are not set up in the TD/Affiliate area, the export files are the files that you need to include on the diskette that you mail to the USCF.
Although I don’t use it, I am sure that SwissSys generates the same uploadable files.
PairPlus has its supporters, and there may be other programs as well.
As far as hardware goes, the Pentium II that I use for WinTD has handled any section I’ve had to worry about, but I have only used it for sections up to 224 players and tournaments up to 824 players.
Your printer needs to be fast enough that printing the pairings will not noticeably slow down the tournament, so tournament size, round spacing, and number of copies to be posted will help drive that decision.
As far as I know WinTD still has a demo version that does everything but save the tournament or write files.
Yes, SwisSys can produce rating report files for uploading.
I think Pair Plus can create those files, too, but that program has not been updated for quite a few years (probably since 1995) and it may not produce pairings in accordance with the current rulebook.
It is also possible that it has a Y2K problem with the date fields in the header file. (Some really old versions of WinTD and SwisSys appear to have that problem, which is why there are override fields for both the starting and ending dates in the upload form.)
I ordered the Swiss Sys on Saturday. With time, I ought to be able to set up my own tournaments. Thanks for all of your help.
You will want to practice with Swis-Sys before using it at a tournament. It has quite a few settings that affect pairings, you should understand what settings you are using, even if they’re the default settings.
I also highly recommend practicing uploading of a rating report before you’re trying to do a live one. (As long as you don’t submit it for processing, which requires payment of the ratings fee, it won’t be rated.)
Excellent idear, Nolan.
Now for my truly stupid question:
I’ve never had a laptop. This will run on a laptop right?
Yep.
Tim
Tim, thanks. Now I’m shopping for a laptop, probably a 500-600 dollar Dell or such like, and then a Black & White printer to go along with it.
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If you don’t need to do color printing, your best bet is to get a laser printer. It will be much faster than an ink jet and the ink will cost much less. Brother has an HL-2040 that is on sale this week at Office Max or Office Depot for under $70 after rebates. The HL-5140 can use high capacity cartridges, which will save even more on ink (toner), but the machine is bulkier to transport than the HL-2040.
If for some reason you need to print from DOS programs, the HL-2040 will not be able to handle that, but the HL-5140 will. There is another model similar to the HL-2040 that can print from DOS programs, but it is a little more money.
I’ve been happy with the Konica-Minolta PagePro 1350W which is also on sale for $70 after rebates at Staples. Actually at that price, I’m probably going to buy another one just for the drum and toner!
JonH,
Thanks for the tip. I'll go look at the Laser model.
You might also consider how portable the printer is; i.e., if it is inexpensive yet hard to lug around it might not be the bargain you had in mind.
Tim
Sometimes it seems like the smaller the printer, the lower the initial cost but the higher the replacement inkjet/toner cartridges.
Bill Hall bought an inexpensive HP printer to use at the ballot counting. I think we spent more money on several sets of refill cartridges than we did on the printer.
I suggested (only half jokingly) that we should buy a small printer locally for the US Open next year so that we have it at the Delegates Meeting, then give it away as a doorprize rather than have to ship it back to Tennessee and buy cartridges for it for the next several years.
I have a several year old Canon printer I take to my annual tournament and I usually wind up putting a new black cartridge in it each year, but for most printing here I have a HP LaserJet 5000N, which must weight about 80 lbs! But I get close to 12,000 pages from each $160 toner cartridge, and it’ll handle 11 x 17 paper.
Any chance that there is an approved pairing program for a Mac?