Videos and literature for tournament directors and organizers

Tim has videos for some of the computer stuff (WinTD, SwissSys, TD/A) and they may be a bit outdated.

the80-20td.com/swiss/swissbasic.html
the80-20td.com/wintd/wintdbasics.html
the80-20td.com/uscf/uscfbasics.html

Those videos are for the basics, which is fine for the majority of the computer work that would need to be done. It is the rarer exceptions that can really get you (the larger or more complicated the tournament, the more likely such exceptions will occur). I remember one organizer that had a solid staff but was required to take on two additional experienced TDs as a pre-requisite for being awarded a large state championship bid. His nearby staff could handle almost everything, but those few things they didn’t know how to handle made the staff and organizer happy that those two additional TDs had been forced on them (that staff did just fine on its own a few years later after adding some additional experience).

Handling the floor is a different skill set from working the computer. I don’t know of anybody that has regular classes in how to be a TD (many TDs have instructions that they give new TDs that are working for them, but those aren’t actual classes). Sometimes the most important instruction to give subordinates is “if you aren’t certain of the ruling then come see me first”. At non-rated scholastic events I’ve used floor stewards with 2000+ ratings that were often surprised at the rulings I made in situations that they were pretty sure of but which they weren’t quite certain of. Once they heard the explanation behind the ruling they were glad they hadn’t made the initial ruling they had wanted to make.

Even mentoring new TDs and letting them gain experience may not be enough. The real tests of a TD’s abilities are often not able to be scheduled (you don’t know ahead of time when the organic by-products will encounter the rotary cooling unit).

I believe you are thinking of the web site the80-20td.com. There are certainly some excellent “basics” videos for both SwissSys and WinTD, as well as using the TD/A area, and I highly recommend those. But I think those are introductory in nature and not really targeted toward developing “advanced” TD skills.

(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:

  1. 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.

  2. There should be at least a 5’ separation between rows of tables.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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:

  1. The actual starting time of the previous round.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. 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.

Over time a TD usually acquires several published Rulebooks. Some are the “official” Rulebook, others cover most of the rules plus some other issues of interest to the author. Having these different Rulebooks gives a prospective Senior TD or above a chance to compare and contrast the rules and note the differences and additions that have been made. If you are lucky, you can still find the old Harness “Blue Book” and the “Official Chess Handbook” to add to your collection of Rulebooks. Having all of them is a help when you are taking the test as there are nuggets of reasoning and explanations of the underlying meaning of the rules. Most TDs do not have the opportunity to attend rules workshops, so these many Rulebooks are the distillation of the work done to provide guidance to TDs.

My particular favorite Rulebook was the 4th edition. It included more detail than previous editions. It also had a “TD Checklist” which was useful for TDs and organizers. Whether you followed this checklist or made up your own, it made you think of what you would need or need to do before, during, and after the tournament. Unfortunately, the publisher did not include the list in subsequent editions, probably for space purposes.

Having taken and passed the Senior TD test in the past (90+%), it was really helpful to have all of the editions of the Rulebook.

This topic is a spin-off from Grading of Senior TD tests.

Hi Tom,

Can I use/post this? Perhaps on my 80-20 td site or in a short pamphlet regarding organizing/directing tournaments? Yes proper credit will be given.

Tim

Sure. You might want to clean it up a bit by eliminating anything that’s very specifically “CoChess” practice. Also, this was written when standard practice was to take 5 minutes off a delay clock, so it says that G/40 takes roughly 80 minutes tops, which isn’t true if the TC is G/40;d5.

These are the guidelines I use to give out to my assistant TD’s and volunteers. If any of it is useful, feel free to copy and adapt to your local practice. If some one wants a Word Doc with the original formatting, Google ‘Sequoia Chess’ and send me an email.

Sequoia Chess For Kids Rules and Procedures for Floor Tournament Directors
By
Allan Fifield, USCF Senior Tournament Director

Byes: Each player may have one half point bye in any round.

K-3 section: We will show mercy and compassion whenever possible while enforcing the rules as necessary to be fair to both players.

Cell Phones: All cell phones will set to vibrate (silent) or turned off. The penalty for a first violation is a warning. The penalty for a second violation is forfeit of the game in progress.

Keeping Score (Rated Sections Only): All players in all rated sections are expected to keep score or if at their first tournament to have learned by the end of the day.

Floor tournament directors will be proactive on enforcing this rule. It is NOT necessary for the player keeping score to lodge a complaint as some kids are confused or afraid to ask.

We will not penalize those kids who are following the rules. We want to do this particularly in the first round so that the word gets around. Many times two players will sign a “non-aggression pact” on scorekeeping and neither player will be keeping score. The floor TD will enforce requiring the players to use a score sheet.

Keeping Score Stopping (Rated Sections): Neither player is required to keep score if either player has less than 5 minutes left.

Restroom Breaks: A player must request permission before leaving the room for a restroom break. Permission will be granted.

Check: Announcing check is NOT required. A player who does not notice the check may suffer serious consequences per the following touch-move rule.

Touch-Move: If a player intentionally touches a piece when it is their turn to move, that piece must be moved if it can moved legally. If a player intentionally touches an enemy piece when it is their turn to move, the enemy piece must be captured if it can be captured legally. If a player accidentally releases a piece on an unintended but legal square, the player must leave the piece on that square. Accidentally brushing a piece is not a “touch”. In case of dispute over whether or not a piece was touched, a tournament director may ask neighboring players if a piece was touched. If touch-move becomes in dispute a second time, a “baby-sitter” will be assigned to the game. A move is determined when the hand is removed from the piece. The move is completed when the clock is punched

Piece Adjustment: Players may only adjust the location of pieces by saying “I adjust” when it is their turn to move. The first penalty for adjustment on the opponent’s time is a warning. The second penalty is two minutes added to the opponent’s clock. The third penalty is forfeit of the game in progress.

Clocks: Chess clocks are part of the game. Players will use clocks when clocks are available. A player refusing to use a provided clock after reasonable discussion is forfeited and withdrawn.

Clock Management: Tournament Directors are responsible to ensure that all clocks are facing in such a manner that a quick sweep of each section at the start of a round can be made by TD’s to confirm that all clocks have been set correctly. It is lot easier to take 90 seconds at the start of the round to make sure that all clocks are correct than to sort out clock problems after the games begin. If it is not disruptive to the start of round, a child may get a clock from a coach or parent.

Use of Clock: Players may not rest a hand on the clock or touch the clock except to complete a move. Players must handle the clock with the same hand they use to move the pieces. Under the new rulebook this is mandatory at all times.

4-6 and both rated sections: After two warnings, the director will subtract two minutes from the player’s clock. If the player has less than five minutes on the clock, the director will subtract one minute. After three violations the player will be forfeited and the chief TD notified to determine if the child should be withdrawn.

K-3 section: The director will act with mercy whenever possible but will try to enforce the rule as above.

Player Management: No analysis in the playing room; No watching friends or teammates.
Be Firm; Be Fair; Be Consistent. Don’t “halo” the kids you like. Don’t make exceptions late in round. Often TD’s get visiting among themselves and start letting players with completed games hang around in the corners of the room; Bad Idea!

Result Recording: Tournament Directors must confirm results and record the results of each game. Get both children to confirm result. Confirm game result, player names and color played! It is not unusual for a child to sit at the correct board but to play the wrong color. If a child is struggling with a loss, get positive verbal acknowledgement from the child or get another TD witness.

Late Player and Time Forfeit: A game is forfeited by absent player 20 minutes from actual start of play. The ‘present’ player must remain in the tournament room for the full 20 minutes. If white is ‘present’, they should make a move on the board and start blacks clock. If black is ‘present’, they should start whites clock.

Reporting Time Forfeit Wins: Write 1F for the winner and 0F for the loser. Circle both results. This will alert the computer staff to withdraw the no-show player from the tournament.

Draws 1: Positions with no possible mating material (K+N, K+2N or K+B vs K), intervene and declare the draw but explain the position so you are prepared to deal with a coach or parent challenge. In positions with obvious and forced move repetitions or both players going in clock pounding meaningless circles, observe and count for a three fold repetition and declare the draw.

Draw 2: King vs. King is a draw. Declare it!

Draws 3: Claim of insufficient losing chances (adjudicated draws): Inexperienced TD’s should try to not make this call and should try to summon an experienced TD to make the ruling. The formal criterion is a position a ‘C’ player would likely hold against a master. I believe that a ‘C’ player will usually find a way to lose almost anything with ‘play’ against a master. I only give the draw is very simple ‘dry’ positions or very ‘locked’ positions. (Beware that there are lots of tricks in ‘locked’ positions.) With mobile pawns and rooks left, a ‘C’ player will always find a way to lose. Mobile pawns and anything else is also usually a lost position for a ‘C’ player. One type of position I see fairly often is Rook vs Rook (or Queen vs Queen); If a ruling is requested, watch play for a few moves to see if someone gets careless and walks into an ‘X-ray’; If not, intervene to declare the draw. Bishops of opposite colors and pawns is trickier than you might think; Everyone “knows” these positions are drawn and yet I’ve seen many players lose these positions through poor placement of the bishop. Observe for a dozen moves or so and then use common sense. In all of these, be prepared for coach or parent challenge.

Draws 4: A stalemated position on the board is a draw regardless of any agreement the players reach with each other. A few pointed questions (‘Can the King move? Is it in check? What do we call this?’) will help the players recognize the stalemated position.

Draws 5: If both flags are down, the TD will declare a draw. The position on the board is irrelevant.

Bad sportsmanship:

  1. Refusing to move in the face of obvious mate. Work with child to acknowledge defeat. Intervene and declare the result if child refuses to move. Another TD witness is desirable.

  2. Stalling to annoy opponent. This usually takes the form of making a move on the
    board but refusing to punch the clock so that time runs out in a hopeless position. Take
    the child aside and explain that this is rude and unfair. With a little quiet encouragement and a little time, most players will come around on this but in extreme cases you may have to declare a game lost. Another TD witness is desirable.

  3. ‘Bullying’ an opponent into a non-existent mate or draw. You cannot suggest moves but you can encourage the player to take another look at the board to see if they agree with the claim or if they can find a legal move. Most children will take the hint.

Illegal moves: Only the players involved may call this with the exception of king takes king. The penalty is two minutes added to the opponent’s clock. (i.e., time is give to the non-offending player). Moving a king into check is not allowed but sometimes a scholastic player can not ‘see’ the legal move. If a player is unable to find a legal move after three chances then Rook takes King will end the game (unlike adult tournaments.)

“Move Shopping with Your Hands’ or ‘Caging’: This is not technically illegal but certainly against the spirit of the touch move rule. Encourage children to “play chess with their heads and not with their hands.”

Castling: Yes, you’re supposed to touch the king first. No, we’re not going to enforce that rule when the clear logical intention of the player is to castle.

Questions from players: “Mister, Can I capture en passant here?” or “Lady, Can I castle here?”. You may answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. If a player then executes a move illegally, the penalty is two minutes added to the opponent’s clock and the player must make a legal move with the first piece touched.

Players as Spectators: Players should not view games in progress. Be firm but gentle on this.

Interference: No interference in any game by other players, coaches, parents or other spectators will be tolerated. Penalties include up to expulsion from the tournament. In the case of any dispute over a game, both players should raise their hand to summon a tournament director.

Turn Off Team Pairings: In a tournament with many sections and/or large teams, some sections may be too small to allow for team pairings to continue to the end of the tournament. If SwisSys starts to return irrational ‘bad’ pairings that violate basic Swiss pairing rules, team pairings will be turned off for that section by the chief TD and will remain off for the rest of the tournament for that section. Usually SwisSys runs out of reasonable non-team options rather suddenly in a small section and goes from acceptable pairings in one round to totally irrationally pairings in the next round.

You: Please Smile; Laugh; Giggle. Exchange knowing glances with each other. Have some fun. This is a Great Thing we are doing for Great Kids!

Jeff wrote: I don’t know of anybody that has regular classes in how to be a TD.

Fun Fong, President of Georgia Chess Association has tried to get something like this started.

I have given a class once - not regular, but a start. At the same session, Scott Parker filmed his YouTube presentation on prize distribution.

The particular presentation Scott and I did was organized by a Girl Scout as part of a community service project in furtherance of earning First Class. Nice to see that happen!

Dave Hater

+1

Check out this excellent US Chess TD video about running online chess tournaments from Chris Bird:
https://new.uschess.org/news/morning-membership-event-start-finish-td-guide-running-online-events#comment-11812

It’s excellent at telling you how to set up the tournament, and also at how to submit it for rating afterward, but in a bit over an hour there is virtually nothing on actually running it. Mr. Bird assumes that no player cameras will be in use, and therefore nothing is said about how to work with Zoom. It’s fine for novice organizers, but doesn’t offer much for the TD wishing to learn about directing an on-line event.

What has happened to the80-20td.com site?

It is shut down. The cost and lack of expertise in coding did it in.

Maintaining a website takes at least three skill sets: Managing the physical site/network (even if you have it in the cloud), web design and content generation.

Last nights annual TDCC meeting and workshop used Tim’s 25 tips as a guideline for the workshop (just a guideline, every TD that was done the US Open workshop using these tips is a TD that has plenty of experience to expand on each of these tips). The tips are below. Also the meeting/workshop was recorded and the link is youtu.be/PK6hP3aEZ-A

  1. Think like a player.
  2. Post it!!
  3. Announce it!
  4. Be in the tournament room at time control.
  5. Train someone to be a TD.
  6. Use common sense.
  7. Use the uschess.org/msa site.
  8. Keep everything.
  9. Use the US Chess forums.
  10. Check bye and withdraw sign up sheets.
  11. Check everything (even playing room arrangements) at least twice.
  12. A short time after the round has started, check to see whom has not yet arrived at their board.
  13. Consistently deal with the odd player.
  14. Start the rounds on time.
  15. Treat your TD job as a profession.
  16. You cannot have more prizes than winners.
  17. Submit your tournaments on-line.
  18. Ask accessibility challenged players what they need.
  19. Get a pairing program.
  20. Listen to people.
  21. Use a soft voice.
  22. Don’t take it personally.
  23. Do not rush.
  24. Nothing is perfect
  25. Be prepared.

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