I live in a small town with no chess club, and I decided to start one myself, have recently received my TD certification, and am brand new to the website. Do I need to purchase chess td software in order to enter rating reports, or is there a free version I can download? Is there any free software for doing pairings as well? And is there a way I can practice plugging in the rating reports to uschess before actually hosting a tournament?
Thank you much.
I think both of the major pairing programs (WinTD and SwisSys) offer limited functionality versions that you can use to practice running events. I’m not sure just what limitations they may have, but others will likely know that.
I think you already know that you need to be a certified TD and have an affiliate to run rated events, and the affiliate needs to authorize the TD to submit events using that affiliate.
You don’t really need pairing software to run events or to submit them online, the online interface can be used to enter the event and section information, the players and the round by round pairings and results. You can run test validations on them, see what kinds of error message you get and pretty much play with them to your heart’s content, you just don’t submit them for rating. (I would recommend you delete them when you’re done playing around, otherwise you’ll start getting messages every few weeks about your pending events.)
It wouldn’t hurt you to take a stack of 3x5 cards and try running some mock events by hand, either. You can make up your own data, or use a rated event as a starting point and see if you can reproduce the next round’s pairings.
If you’re not in a major city, there’s a pretty good chance your events will be small, so you should know how to set up and run quads, hexes, octos, etc, what to do with an odd number of players, and what to do if one or more players drop out during the event.
There are other advantages in learning how to pair events by hand, because the TD should know why the pairings the computer made were done that way, so that you can explain them to players, and on rare occasion the computer’s pairings need tweaking.
Thank you much, Nolan. Good advice about preparing for the event of players dropping out! I will start by trying to familiarize with the website’s interface.
In the TD section regarding rating reports, I’m not sure what these files are, or what they are asking for here lol? sorry for all the questions.
Player File (TDEXPORT.DBF)
Header File (THEXPORT.DBF)
Section File (TSEXPORT.DBF)
Don’t be sorry for asking questions! Asking them in advance means you’ll have fewer problems in your events and your players will have a better experience. That’s what we all care about.
Thanks Mulfish! So far aside from a few website malfunctions when I was setting up my TD and affiliate log-ins, my experience has been positive, and the staff here have been extremely helpful and friendly.
You’ll only need to use those when you generate them from the pairing software. If you’re doing it by hand you’ll want to select “Enter a new tournament online” lower down on that page.
Alex Relyea
As others have said you don’t have to use pairing software for your tournaments. If you become adept and manually pairing (not many TDs are any more) then for small events it might actually slow things down a little.
The bonus of doing pairings manually is that you can explain how the pairings were reached instead of just saying “the computer did it”.
This probably isn’t an issue for the small events you are planning to do but, besides the time savings both during and after a tournament, one big bonus of using pairing software is that people are more willing to believe that a TD did not manipulate pairings to favor or victimize certain players. We had one IL TD who was also a scholastic coach. When manually pairing he scrupulously followed all of the pairing rules and there were still people who thought his pairings were favoring his kids up until he started using a pairing program. The program gave exactly the same pairings he did manually but now the parents of other kids readily believed he was not favoring the kids he taught.
I had a similar experience years ago when pairing software first began.
I learned to pair manually when I began directing in the mid 80’s, and when I bought my first pairing program I ran a number of ‘test’ events just to make myself familiar with how the pairing program worked.
The first tournament I actually used it in I also maintained pairing cards and did every round both ways. My manual pairings and the computer pairings agreed on every game. At the end, more than one player came up and said they were glad I was now using a computer, because the pairings were fairer.
When starting out as a TD, it is better to do all of the TD work by hand rather than use a computer. You get a better feel for the problems you will face in running the tournament from beginning to end. For small events, the time savings from using a computer program are minimal. Since I like to update wall charts during the round, the players and interested spectators get to see what is going on in real time. It also allows me to order the pairing cards to get the pairings ready for the next round. By being in the room working and watching the players, there is less of a tendency for incidents or shenanigans to occur.
The only advantage to doing pairings with a computer is that the pairings are printed out a little faster. OTOH, there is the disadvantage of having to lug a computer, printer, an extra print cartridge, paper, cables along with the other TD stuff you need. That is a real pain if you have to go up a flight or two of stairs. I have reduced that burden to one manila envelope that contains all I need for the day. Inside are customized pairing sheets, laminated board numbers, registration slips, score sheets, wall charts, pairing cards, USCF rating report forms, tournament accounting forms, copies of the active players lists for several clubs which include USCF ID #'s, ratings, and expiration dates. The envelope never crashes; it is impervious when the lights go out; it does not need WiFi or special pass codes; players and little kids cannot push any buttons. If I need more of anything, I have a 1.5 inch binder that has extras of all needed forms and documents. That I leave in the car. When the tournament is finished, I can make copies of the wall charts at a Kinko’s and mail them along with the USCF tournament report form on the way home.
I don’t mind if players want to see how pairings are made. Many a time I have demonstrated how I lay out the cards with only numbers, not names being shown while I am doing pairings. As I pair each score group, the interested party, usually a chess mom or dad, can see that there is no bias, that pairings have rules and run like clockwork by the numbers. After sliding the pairing cards down a little to see the names, I write down the pairings on a customized sheet that explains how to mark results. If the player or spectator is confused, I explain why I made a certain switch, dropped a player into a different score group, why the colors have to be that way, or why he has to play the player he loses to all of the time. Then I offer him the chance to be trained as a TD and do what I do. Most of the time players come over just to see who they are playing in the next round. If that is the only reason they come by, I shoo them away and finish the pairings.
Thanks for your responses everyone! All seems like sound advice! I’m currently practicing entering games manually. I entered a practice quad tourney of 4 people with a total of 6 games [round robin]. But it tells me I have errors with incompatible opponents, even though everything seems correct. So still figuring things out.
There are two different ways to enter a round robin event.
You can enter it in traditional RR format, which means the rows represent players and the columns represent their opponents, so a quad is a 4x4 matrix. In that case, what you enter in each box is the result of the game for that player, ie, if player 1 defeats player 4 then you enter a W in the 4th column of row 1 and an L in the 1st column of row 4.
Or you can enter it in Swiss format, which means the columns represent the rounds, so a quad is a 4x3 matrix. In that case, what you enter in each box is the opponent number and the result, ie, if player 1 defeats player 4 in round 1 you enter W4 for player 1 and L1 for player 4, both in the first column.
You select which data format you’re using for that section in the section block, once you’ve made that selection it cannot be changed.
WinTD has a 30-day trial version with full functions.
Thank you Nolan! Following your instructions I was able to enter a practice tournament with zero errors!
I am scheduling a tournament, and it looks like 5 participants will be in it. We don’t have time for 4 rounds at club, so I wanted to do a 3 round Swiss. Is it possible to view an image of a 5 player, 3 round, Swiss tournament bracket? I’m not finding one online. Thanks 
The challenge with 5 players and 3 rounds is who gets the bye and what to do with that player in the next round?
Suppose this is the first round (white on the left):
1 vs 4, 1 wins
3 vs 2, 2 wins
5 bye
So, how do you pair round 2?
Before you look at the events listed below, try thinking through what’s likely to happen in rounds 2 and 3. Then change it so that 3 beats 2 in round 1 and try it again.
In a 5 player 3 round event, 3 players are going to get byes, and some players are going to get 2 whites and 1 black or 2 blacks and 1 white, but you probably don’t want players getting 2 blacks and a bye or 2 whites and a bye.
sec_eventid sec_secno
201810250612 2
201810219712 6
201810218842 5
201810218652 3
201810218492 1
201810208362 1
201810207982 1
201810207822 1
201810187192 2
201810179972 22
201810176902 3
201810176902 2
201810156872 1
201810135132 16
201810134672 3
201810134572 1
201810134312 1
201810134292 1
201810133682 1
201810123482 2
When looking at a crosstable, remember that there may be issues that don’t show up in the crosstable that affected the pairings.
Thank you Nolan! I will play around with those. So a BYE is basically calculated as a WIN for that person? I think what I may do is try to get a 6th player so we can avoid any BYEs. One last question for now, if two USCF members want to just play a single rated game at club, can I enter just a single game for rating? And would that just be entered as a “tournament?” Thanks.
Yes, a bye given to the odd player counts as a full point for scoring and pairing purposes, though it won’t affect that player’s rating.
Having an even number of players helps, but can’t always be arranged. Pairing 3 rounds with 6 players can result in some ugly pairings in round 3 to avoid pairing two players against each other a second time.
Sure, you can enter individual games, though the minimum fee is still $3.00, so you might want to combine it with another event as a second section.
However, if they play 2 or more games, then the match rule limitations will apply, which means both players must have established ratings and must be rated within 400 points of each other. (Technically the match rules could be applied to a single game, but that’s not usually done.)
Hi fellow TD,
I am not trying to be condescending but do you have a copy of the USCF official rules of chess 6th edition and it’s updated rules? Many answers to your questions can be found in the book and also TD/A 's FAQ.
Best,
~Ybriang
Brian Yang
Indeed - the book is your friend! 
The book may be the TD’s friend, but it is not friendly reading.
I’ve argued in the past for a programmed learning environment (sort of like a Keller course, for those of you who know what that is) to help train TDs. This could even replace the current local and senior exams. (It could even replace the current ‘no experience required’ club certification process.)
There would be some costs to set up the software, some administrative time, and a LOT of volunteer time to write and approve questions and the explanations of the answers. (We’d need probably 500 or more questions.)