(This topic is in need of a split).
The following is the organizer’s guide for large scholastic tournaments that we wrote in Illinois probably 15 years ago. Some is a bit dated, and some is very specific to the CoChess tournaments, but most is still appropriate. In many cases, the problems are more a result of poor decisions of organizers rather than TD’s. If the TD shows up early Saturday morning to a poorly setup playing area, it may matter little how experienced the TD is, chaos is likely to ensue.
Organizers Guide
Section 1. Scheduling.
Organizers in a single region should avoid placing multiple tournaments simultaneously on the same date, unless the organizers involved agree to do so. (For example, two organizers with relatively small capacity may agree to hold two tournaments on the same date.) Ideally, tournaments should be scheduled at least two weeks apart
Section 2. Capacity Constraints.
Many tournament sites are not large enough to handle all the participants who might wish to play. If you might need to limit registration, the limit should be included in your tournament flyers. In these cases, entries should be accepted in order of receipt. Any entry which is not accompanied by its entry fee can be set aside until payment is received.
Section 3. Skittles Rooms.
You should provide for adequate skittles rooms for the participants. Most sites have a combination of “team rooms” for the larger teams and another large room (cafeteria or study hall) for everyone else. Keep in mind that there is usually about one adult or other non-participant for every two players. Ideal skittles rooms have lots of flat tables.
Section 4. Playing Rooms.
Most sites use a gymnasium. In setting up tables, there are a few things to take into account:
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Three games per 6’ table is a tight squeeze. Three vinyl boards take up 60" by themselves, leaving only 12" per table for clocks and scoresheets. Three games per 8’ table or two per 6’ table are better. If space is tight, start by putting three per 6’ on the lower boards. Try to keep from squeezing extra players into the top tables, where it is much more likely that players will be using clocks and scoresheets.
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There should be at least a 5’ separation between rows of tables.
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A row of tables which can be reached only from one side can cause some problems for the TD’s (see #4). Consider a layout which has at least small aisles on each side of a bank of tables.
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The TD has to be able to see the clocks from the aisles. Since Black decides on which side the clock will be placed, and most Blacks choose to have the clock on their right, you should place the boards so that Black is on the right side of the table as you view it from the main aisle. If a row of tables can be reached only from one aisle, Black players who wish the clocks to be on their left side will have to rotate the board so the clock points out toward the aisle.
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The lower boards of all sections, and the sections with faster time controls (typically the Primary section) should be nearest the exit.
Section 5. Board Numbering
For tournaments with the standard sections (Primary, Elementary and Jr. High), it is strongly suggested that board numbers starting at 301 be used for Primary sections, 501 for Elementary and 801 for Jr. High.
Section 6. Awards ceremonies
If all sections are playing in a single room, you should consider using a separate room (the cafeteria or a big skittles room) for the awards ceremonies, at least for the early finishing sections. Otherwise, you can’t start the awards for anyone until all sections are finished.
Section 7. Day of tournament contact.
It is very important to have a phone number which can be used to contact the organizer or TD on the day of the tournament. If you can’t use a school phone, consider using a cellular phone. While most tournament day withdrawals will be relayed to you by coaches, there are many players who are not part of teams and who would have no way to contact you otherwise.
Section 8. E-mail.
An e-mail address is very handy, particularly if you can access it on the tournament day.
Section 9. Late entries.
CoChess policy is that all entries are to be in advance, and you are within your rights to refuse to enter players who simply show up on tournament day. The decision whether to allow a late entry is up to you, not up to the TD. Do not just send the player to the TD. If you decide to allow the player to enter, the TD will decide how to fit the player in. Often, it will be possible to get the player into the first round by filling in for a no-show. But that cannot be guaranteed.
Section 10. Refunds.
It is entirely up to you whether to give refunds to players who are unable to play and provide proper notification. Some organizers do. Some organizers, particularly those with tight capacity constraints, don’t.
Section 11. Starting Time.
The clocks are supposed to start at your scheduled starting time. Your pre-tournament announcements should be arranged to permit that. In a large (over 300 player tournament), this probably means having the players seated 10 minutes before the scheduled start, which means that the pairings should be posted about 30 minutes early.
Section 12. Posting pairings.
A single pairing sheet lists about 50 players in alphabetical order. With more than 100 players in a section (i.e. more than two pairing sheets), you should consider posting the pairings in more than one location. The pairings should be posted so as not to block the traffic to and from the tournament room. If possible, it is helpful and avoids congestion if copies of the pairings can be delivered to the team rooms (which requires a photocopy machine), or you can print team pairings sheets.
Section 13. Start times for subsequent rounds.
There are four factors which determine when the next round will be able to start:
- The actual starting time of the previous round.
- The actual playing time for the previous round. While theoretically this shouldn’t be more than twice the section’s time control (i.e. a G/40 section should be done in 80 minutes at most), the first round usually has some games which start late because players are rematched. Later rounds are more predictable. It can, of course, be less if none of the games goes to the time control on both clocks.
- The time required to enter scores, generate, print and post pairings. Again, this tends to be longer between rounds one and two because of pairing switches and the need to handle withdrawals and (possibly) late entries.
- The time required for players to find their pairings and get to their boards once the pairings are posted.
The amount of time required for 2, 3 and 4 all tend to increase with the size of a section (the relevant size is actually the number of players on a particular schedule). With a 100+ player section, figure on about 30 minutes for 3 and 4, with a little extra between rounds one and two. It will usually be a bit less, particularly in later rounds as players and coaches get more familiar with the site. A 50 player section can usually be turned around in about 20 minutes, assuming the TD isn’t working on another section already.
Thus, we would expect a five round G/30 section to have rounds starting at 9:30, 11:15 (allowing an extra fifteen minutes between one and two), 12:45, 2:15, 3:45. The awards could probably be held at around 5:15. A four round G/45 section would run more like 9:30, 11:45, 1:45, 3:45, with awards at around 5:45. (If you try to squeeze in five rounds at G/45, round five would probably start at 5:45, with awards at 7:45).
After “Where’s the bathroom?”, the most frequently asked question at a tournament is, “When does the next round start?” Should you set a round schedule in advance? For a one-day tournament, it probably makes little sense. If you want to keep to the schedule (and the one thing worse than no schedule at all is a schedule that you can’t keep), you would have to allow for even more time between rounds one and two to cover possible delays in getting round one going.
Most of the problems which delay tournaments are encountered before round one and between rounds one and two. Once round two has started, you might consider posting a tentative schedule for the remaining rounds. For instance, if things go well and you get round two in the G/30 section off at 11:00 (congratulations!), you can pretty safely post tentative start times at 12:30, 2:00 and 3:30 for rounds three to five. One thing to note here: if you post 2:00 as the projected time for round four, you cannot start earlier if circumstances (lots of short games) permit. This is unlikely to be a problem if your tournament uses the minimum time controls (G/30 for K-3, G/35 for 4-5, G/40 for 6-8), since you will probably have a least one game in each section which goes near the maximum. With longer than usual time controls, however, it is much more likely that all the games in a section will end well before the allowed time. You could thus end up with an unnecessarily long time between the end of one round and the start of the next. In such a case, you might consider posting a start time for the next round (and only the next round) once the previous round is done. If round three is finished at 1:50 and the TD can pair it right off, you could post 2:20 as the start time for round four.
Section 14. Scorers.
It is very important that your scorers keep errors to an absolute minimum. We’ve had rounds delayed because of scoring errors, trophies having to be returned after they were awarded, and other assorted problems because of out-and-out errors and because of illegible results. Scoring errors aren’t common, but they can be devastating to the children, because few of them will have proof (like a scoresheet) that they actually won if the results sheet has an 0 on it.
- Scorers should use 1 for win, 0 for loss and .5 for draw. These are the only acceptable result codes. This reduces the chance of the TD misreading the score.
- Forfeits (which probably will be reported to you by a floor TD) are indicated with a F after both players’ results (i.e. 1F and 0F).
- The following procedure is strongly recommended to cut down on the number of scoring errors:
The children must come to the pairing table together. If only one shows up, ask him to return with his playing partner. If the opponent has left the playing area, you may need to ask an adult to help locate the other child.
Once you have two children in front of you, follow this procedure:
You: What board?
Child: 315
You: Board 315, Jose Capablanca and Alex Alekhine. Who won?
Child: Jose did.
At this point, write 1 in front of Jose Capablanca and 0 in front of Alex Alekhine. Now read back from your scoresheet:
You: Jose Capablanca won, Alex Alekhine lost. Do you both agree?
Children: Yes
You: OK.
Don’t simply ask Alex if he agrees that Jose won BEFORE writing down the result as you heard it. Put it down first and read it back for both of them.
If a child answers, “I stalemated him,” make sure you clarify the result. Say, “A stalemate is a draw. Was the game a draw?” Some younger children aren’t sure about the difference between checkmate and stalemate. Some may know what a stalemate is but think it’s a win. In any case where the children can’t agree on the result, get a floor TD at once!! The sooner that he can talk with the two children the more likely it will be that he can figure out what happened.
In the first ten to fifteen minutes, many of the games in the Primary section will finish. This usually produces a line at the scorer’s table. You might want to assign an extra volunteer for this brief period (particularly in the early rounds) to make sure that each player has their partner with them when they get into line.
Section 15. Blitz playoffs.
If you want to use “blitz” playoffs to break ties for individual trophies, you should include this either in the tournament flyers or in the pre-tournament announcements. Blitz playoffs work best when you end up with a two player tie. With three or more players, it is hard to structure a playoff which you can count on finishing in a predictable amount of time. For instance, a four player “knockout” playoff will come unglued if one of the two first round games ends in a draw. If you have a tie involving three or more players, you might wait until the tie-breaks are computed and have a playoff game just between the top two. Otherwise, with three or four players, you are better off using a three round round robin playoff if you have time.
One thing to remember in contemplating blitz playoffs is that most players have only played blitz for fun. Quite a few play very loose rules, such as “punch move” (you can take back moves as long as you haven’t punched your clock) and clearly it isn’t fair when the two players think they are playing different rules. Any CoChess blitz playoffs will be conducted according to USCF Blitz Rules, specifically:
- You have to punch the clock with the hand that moves the pieces
- Usual touch-move rules apply
- An illegal move (such as leaving your King in check) is penalized by having two
minutes added to the opponent’s time, not by forfeiture of the game.
- A player can claim a draw by “insufficient losing chances” if his/her clock is inside of
a minute and he has an easily won or dead drawn game.
Section 16. Spectators.
Spectators are discouraged within the playing rooms normally available for most scholastic tournaments, especially for sections involving younger players. It is recommended that if spectators are allowed, that they be from a vantage point such as a catwalk, such that the players will not be disturbed by the spectators, nor will the spectators be in the immediate vicinity of the players.
If spectators are allowed within a playing room which is of the type generally available, for example, a gymnasium, it is recommended that only coaches be allowed into the playing area, that the playing area be cleared for some set period after the start of the round to allow the tournament directors an opportunity to handle the typically large number of “quick” games, and that the movements of coaches be restricted in the playing area to the edges or to main aisles, while not allowing coaches access to narrow rows between players (and occupied by players). If allowed by the TD, coaches may travel these narrower rows only after many games are completed, such that the rows are essentially unoccupied.
Section 17. Trophies.
Virtually all scholastic tournaments offer trophies as the main awards. The typical tournament offers a combination of team trophies, individual overall trophies and individual grade trophies. Additional awards, such as upset prizes or unrated prizes, are common, particularly in larger tournaments.
Trophies, medals and ribbons can be a substantial expense. The number of trophies offered generally depends upon the number of registrants expected and the entry fee charged.
As a rough guide, though, in a five round section, most players who score 4.0 or above should receive a trophy. This is usually around 15% of the players. The typical tournament offers individual trophies for somewhere between 10% and 20% of the likely number of players.
Given a rough number of trophies, the breakdown between overall and grade trophies is again a matter of choice. Standard practice is to offer the same number of overall trophies in each section, and to offer the same number of grade trophies to each grade. A mix heavily weighted towards grade trophies versus overall trophies (offering, for instance, the same number of trophies in each grade as overall trophies in the section) gives quite a few more trophies to Primary players than Elementary and should only be used if you are giving closer to 20% trophies. Shifting the mix towards more overall trophies (such as by giving just one grade trophy), favors the older children in each section, particularly the Second and Third Graders in the Primary sections.
To look at some possibilities: consider a tournament with three 100 player sections. There are three sections and nine grades. At 15%, we would be looking at somewhere around 45 trophies. Various combinations are 12 overall + 1 grade, 9 overall + 2 or 6 overall + 3. The last of these is probably the most common choice. At 20%, we would have around 60 trophies. The combinations are 14 overall + 2 grade, 11 overall + 3, 8 overall + 4, 5 overall + 5. With this many trophies, any of the last three is reasonable and something like each of them has been used in the past. At 10%, we would have 30 trophies. 7 overall + 1 grade, 4 overall + 2. Both of these are common choices.
You need to be very careful when dealing with an awards company that they understand that “1st in grade” is a lesser award than “10th place.” If you have a large number of awards (such as for state tournament), it may not be easy to come up with a 25 or 30 distinct sizes or styles. If you need to, double up on sizes. For instance, 1st and 2nd in grade might be 16", 3rd and 4th 15.5" etc.
Resist the temptation to make very tall trophies. Schools hate them, as they don’t fit in a typical trophy case.
Remember that CoChess rules specify that some type of consolation award (such as a medal or ribbon) be awarded to players who lose a grade or overall trophy on tie breaks. Given that, you might choose to be a little conservative ordering trophies. Some tournaments have chosen to give “generic” trophies to all players in this category, that is, they have a fixed number of overall trophies plus trophies for all those tying for first in their grade. It isn’t practical to have these grade trophies labeled with the specific grades. Something like “Top in Grade” is sufficient. Whether you use trophies or medals, make sure you order enough.