Although this sounds good, how many times during a blitz event does someone come to you and say “I won with white, and drew with black”, or some other combination of results with white and black?
Personally all I hear is “he won the first and we split the second” or “split, one and one” or “one and a half, half” etc. which then means asking the players to remember which game was drawn or won, what color they had in that particular game, etc.
Sorry, this is making too much work for me to run a double round blitz tournament, especially when who won with what color is totally meaningless.
As for WinTD automatically switching the colors in the expanded view, again I would rather go straight down the list with someone I knew won 1.5 points and press W, D rather than have to look at the screen to see whether they were white or black in that particular game.
Somehow this thread went from how/whether WinTD will handle 2 games per round to whether/how to have a blitz rating system.
Back to the original question, I’ve recently run two quick events, 2 games per round. When I inquired of WinTD about this, they said that colors are not reported to USCF with results, so they don’t worry about having you enter the results by color either. When you enter results, you have to display the expanded game window which will then allow you to enter one result for each game, but the same player will be listed twice consecutively as white. WinTD will double the number of rounds to create the reports you submit to USCF.
If you’re having players post their results on the pairing sheet, I suppose you could print this expanded game window so they could enter the separate results. Instead of that, I’ve used a separate game result slip like what is often used at scholastic tournaments around here, but with two columns to the right of each name to report their results in each game. Players turn in this report to me rather than post their results on the pairing sheet.
I didn’t address the issue of pairing for color correction, so I don’t know how WinTD handles that by default.
With this as with many other threads, I would suggest users contact the software company for technical support first. I’ve contacted Estima several times and have always received prompt and helpful responses.
Just as it may be necessary for players to learn a different behavior pattern when using a move-recording device (move then record it), it may be necessary to train players to report double round (robin/swiss) events including color information.
FIDE may be requiring color information be reported to them starting this summer, and the next reporting format for USCF rated events will also include the ability to report color information, though at this time the USCF has no plans to use that data except when reporting FIDE ratable games.
If/When USCF requires color reporting in results, I assume WinTD will adapt to comply. They already automatically create two pairings per round when I indicate 2 games per round in the section settings, so it should be a simple program change to switch the names shown in each column for the second pairing of each round.
It feels odd to me not to be reporting by color now as it is in this situation, so I trust it will be an easy switch for TD’s to comply as well.
The authors of the two programs used to run most USCF rated events (WinTD and SwisSys) have been notified that there is a new draft version of the reporting format. They were informed some time ago of the requirement to begin reporting color information. which their programs need for pairing purposes anyway.
I hope to have a final draft version of the reporting format available in time to present it at the MIS workshop at the US Open, with the goal of finalizing the standard shortly afterwards.
I assume the results fields are fully flexible regarding leading zeros, number of digits, spaces between fields, etc. For example, would any of the following be permitted?
W3B
W03B
W003B
W0003B
W 3B
W 3 B
Also, why do result codes X, Z, F require that the opponent number be zero? I would think an organizer might, optionally, want to list the opponent to/from whom the player forfeited. (Obviously, B, H, U should not allow an opponent number, while W, D, L must require it.)
And a nitpick proofing question: In the sentence beginning “For a FIDE rated event”, shouldn’t the later phrase “not USCF rated” be “not FIDE rated”?