TD Assistant, Wireless Results Entry and more

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I wanted to bring people up to speed on the app that I have mentioned before for entering results wirelessly. The app is call TD Assistant and works with a server program running on the same computer as SwissSys. It allows you to use your Android phone or tablet to enter results. We’ve used it at all of our recent Maryland scholastic events including our 480 player State Elementary Championship. You can read a full writeup with lots of screen shots at
http://mdchess.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=277:td-assistant&catid=34&Itemid=49.
Below is a low resolution screen shot, with the optional board picture, of the results entry screen.

Some of the current features:

  • Any device can enter results for any board in any section.
  • All results have a confirmation popup.
  • A picture can be associated with a board and round. This can be of the board or a results slip.
  • Floor TDs can get a list of all sections and all boards in a section.
  • The section list displays the starting board number, current round, and number of boards with games left.
  • The app displays the current value of the time to put on any clocks added to games in progress.
  • The app displays when no-shows should be forfeited.
  • You can enter the first few characters of the last name and the app will return all matching players, their current board, and the color they have.
  • It displays a popup (and sends an optional text/email) on the SwissSys computer when all the games in a section are finished.
2

“Entering a results brings up a confirmation dialog to make sure the correct result was chosen.”

The one suggestion that I might make here is to have OK buttons for each player in addition to the TD (at least as an option).

3

Tom,
That’s an interesting option. I had thought that taking a picture of the signed results slip (while also keeping the hardcopy) would be the super-safe confirmation process that might be used at Nationals. This might be useful for a somewhat lower amount of double checking but slower than our fast as possible local tournaments.
Mike

4

How secure is this app? What logging does it do in case someone figures out how to bypass that security and start entering random or incorrect results?

5

If you’re collecting signed results slips as well, are you having someone double-check those against the entered results? I was thinking that this would be a quicker, cleaner alternative to the individual board results slips.

6

Mike,
Authentication is on the todo list. Since it operates on a secure WiFi network, they first have to get onto the network before they could even start anything.

All the incoming traffic is logged. This has been critical during debugging.
Mike

7

Tom,
We don’t use results slips but if it was used in a event that did, then double checking slips against the recorded results could be a step. This nice thing is that the pictures of the boards use the board number in the file name. This means you don’t have to sort them (fun times at Supernationals).
Mike

8

.

WiFi is often not available.

However, your basic idea sounds excellent. The TD should have a tournament webpage where all the pairings are posted - I hate crowding around the posted pairing sheet that is taped to the wall.
And another webpage could be updated with results in real time as the players’ smartphones submit the results.

I’ve seen another application program wherein users communicate by simple text message. I was very favorably impressed. :bulb:

Text messaging does not require the install of any app, because all smartphones natively have text messaging abilities.

(I had the expected questions about format confusion of what to type in, security, blah blah. In summary, all those issues are kinda easy to solve in the text message mode. However, the other app did not involve two competing players who might submit contradictory results.)
.

9

Gene,
We use our own WiFi router, not connected to the internet, for the communication between the hand held devices and the pairing computer. This allows us to be independent of any site WiFi network and to only allow only our devices on the network.

I’m not real clear on what you mean by using text messaging. This program is an extension of my texting program and which sends texts/emails of player’s pairings. I have a hard time seeing how that could work as a method of reporting results to the pairing computer though. I can’t see how to have a program that receives text messages from anyone, parses them, and records a result.

Mike Regan