What would be the implications of online-rating an event on lichess.org?
The server does the pairings, with the goal of creating interesting games as quickly as possible.
https://lichess.org/tournament/O75IToOO
Some players will play more games than others!
The time control is slow enough to make cheating easy. The overwhelming majority of our players wouldn’t dream of such a thing, but…
I will be available via Zoom 
If it’s a disaster, it’ll be over in four hours.
Thoughts? Advice?
As long as it is marked as having been an online event, so that it only affects online ratings, it is not only permitted it is encouraged, as US Chess made it possible earlier this week for all affiliates to submit online-quick or online-blitz rated events.
Here’s the first few paragraphs of the announcement sent out a few days ago, you can read the full release at new.uschess.org/news/online-rat … ss-events/
I expect to see other measures to encourage players to keep their chess skills sharp by online play while OTB chess is essentially shut down.
Lichess pairings can be a little weird. Also, there were a few times (in tournaments) where I had to wait over 1 minute to be paired for my next game.
Larry Cohen
A whole minute? Whatever did you do for so long? Read War and Peace?
As has been noted before, the ratings system doesn’t care why player A was paired against player B. That’s just not relevant for ratings purposes unless it invokes match rule limitations.
lol
Invoking match-rule limitations could actually happen fairly easy in a lichess event. I played in three one-hour lichess club events (blitz & bullet) on Thurs night, and I might have played ten games or so against the same player. So I hope these limitations will be relaxed for online only.
You don’t need to be in Chicago to enter, of course.
Match rules should only be used for events that are designed to have one player play one other player multiple times. Tournaments where too few players show up should always qualify for a waiver. Surely we all understand that it may require human interaction to determine if a tournament that looks like the former is actually the latter.
Alex Relyea
The validation code checks for events that look like matches, using past abusive behavior patterns, such as events where A and B play each other many times with a game or two against C and D. If the submitting TD disagrees with its conclusion, they can contact the office, explain the circumstances, and request an exception.
The office also has the authority to declare an event a match if it appears abusive in patterns not currently checked for.
One pattern not checked for is the one where, for example, there was a 62-player event (coded S) in which 31 were player A, 27 were player B, and 4 were a third player thrown in for good measure. The Ethics Committee dealt with that one when someone stumbled across it in the MSA. Who knows how many other such schemes are out there undiscovered?
– Hal Terrie
Well, if nobody calls them to the attention of the person who maintains the validation code, it won’t find them.
It’s going to be interesting making sure that I have the handles of all the players, tracking no-shows / late shows, etc.
Registration list (maintained via Bill Buklis’s kingregistration.com)
Direct sign-in via lichess https://lichess.org/tournament/O75IToOO
I have a low-security password players are required to get from me (in order to collect the lichess handle = US Chess ID info)
And how in the world will I enter this? (Using SwissSys because that’s what’s on my laptop.) I understand that I can “force” the pairings for round 1 fairly easily, and maybe even round 2.
But round 3 will begin when the first player begins their third game, no? Others may still be playing their first game…
That’s why they made pairing cards. You can enter the results using the online form afterwards.
So I just use Excel as my “virtual pairing card” and don’t bother with SwissSys?
Well, that was interesting, as “may you live in interesting times” interesting. Nice mix of players, from GM to beginner, but lichess (normally a stable platform) crashed repeatedly during the event. Because I was streaming on Zoom, I was able to assure people that games terminated for server reasons alone (including games that were not started within the lichess 30? second time limit, as I can’t guarantee that that was not a server issue) would not be rated. I threw in the qualifier “to the best of my ability.”
It’s almost surprising that the Web has held up as well as it has in recent weeks.
Here are the games:
share.chessbase.com/SharedGames … baLaFwvh2C
Advice from TDs?
Check out the game OksanaM - XC5
The player of the White pieces (in real life) is an unusually talented Class E player who is also a very good chess instructor.
The player of the Black pieces (in real life) is a grandmaster. Those in the know can probably identify the GM from the opening. 
Time control was G/15 +10 inc. Stockfish evaluation is -9, and Black’s winning procedure is trivial. The GM informed me immediately that there had been a server crash in midgame, and that when the game resumed, White “won” on time.
[Event “Angelo Sandrin Open - US Chess Arena”]
[Site “lichess.org”]
[Date “2020.03.28”]
[Round “?”]
[White “OksanaM”]
[Black “XC5”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B56”]
[WhiteElo “1438”]
[BlackElo “1500”]
[PlyCount “47”]
[EventDate “2020.??.??”]
[TimeControl “900+10”]
So TDs, what do I do with this game?
I don’t play on line so forgive any cluelessness in the response.
You might want to check the time forfeit games. When the higher rated player forfeits on time on move 12 in a decent position then it might be a dropped connection.
Games that went to mate or an actual resignation or an agreed draw are obviously good to rate. An unstarted game should not be US Chess on-line rated (both players have to make at least one move for a game to be ratable).
Part of my wife’s job at the University of Nebraska is to assist professors in her department with distance education. She’s been working hard this week (spring break at UNL) to try to help them get all the classes online on Monday. There are many colleges with similar plans to resume classes using online systems on Monday.
Will there be enough bandwidth to support it all nationwide? I know some IT people who have their doubts.
As to whether or not to use SwisSys, it isn’t that hard to force or jigger the pairings for a round after the fact, but personally if there were a lot of not-paired players in rounds, a lot of cross-round pairings or a lot of not-completed games, it might just be easier to do the whole thing manually or in Excel and enter it into the online editing form for rating purposes. And I’m old-school, I think pairing cards would be easier for me to manage than Excel.
Personally I’d put it in WinTD with a lot of cross-round pairings and some forfeits or unplayed draws to handle times when a connection drop needs to make a game non-rated. Considering the difference in pairing logic I’d probably do all manual pairings after the first round, and maybe even for the first round if there were a number of late starters. In the '90s when I used SwissSys it handled cross-round pairings fine so that would work as well.
That way you have it all taken care of before submitting on-line when there may be connection overloads that cause drops before you can finish entering everything.
Are you sure they were server crashes? Or just dropped connections? If it was just a dropped connection, that may more likely be on the player’s end. He might have an unstable internet or just his route to lichess is unstable. The trouble with networking is that the problem could be almost anywhere.