ABOUT
Some USCF affiliates meet on a weeknight and play one-round rated tournaments. WinTD and SwissSys are for Swiss System, Round Robin Tournaments and also for such one-round events. They are the defacto standard. Using small index cards with names and rating data laid out on a table for a TD to manipulate is an old solution. This app automates an adjustable ladder event by pairing similarly rated players. This program will create the three t?export files needed for USCF Rating Reports.
Written in valid HTML5 code, WebKit browser-based. Uses jquery ui autocomplete to access external JSON data sources and automatically fill in the player name. Formats a pairing sheet with up to fifty (50) players on a single page. Boxes with player names are sortable with jquery ui sortable. Players of similar rank are initially listed in the pairing module, but the names can be moved around. Its effectiveness in addressing its mission is marginal. Tested in Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi, and Safari. Guaranteed NOT to work in Firefox.
Is this essentially using 1 vs 2 pairings? (an option in both WinTD and SwissSys)
You may not have used a pairing program in the past but such programs both allow making manual pairings and allow switching colors and/or players after pairings are made. They also print pairing sheets and allow creating the US Chess rating reports.
You describe a program that seems to be very similar to using manual pairing cards. Back in the '80s we had a tournament assistant program that was excel based and would allow a TD to pair with cards and then enter player pairing numbers for each board to generate alpha and board-by-board pairings, wall charts and standings (with tie-breaks). That went by the wayside once computers got faster and pairing programs were developed to do all of that while no longer needing pairing cards (and allowed what used to be a dedicated pairing TD to instead spend the bulk of the time on the floor).
Without provisions for filing rating reports, this web app is basically useless. I have a rating report module that I use here in Rochester, NY. But it involves LibreOffice to transform tdexport.csv thexport.csv and tsexport.csv to *dbf. It’s quick but a kludge.
Without a way to transform those t?export.csv files to dBASE I don’t have a workable program. Interesting, maybe. But not ready for prime time at USCF events.
I bolded the part about single-round rated tournaments. Everybody would have a score of zero so it would go to the next sort (ratings).
PS My club’s ladder is season based and paired 1vs2 by score and then rating (with a qualifier that you have four other opponents before you play the same person again - drops to two other opponents when there are less than three months left in the year-long season). It is not rated so it can be handled on a spreadsheet and can incorporate other quirks like being given the best single-game result in a calendar week and including playing in a league match as a possible way to score the maximum of one game point in that ladder week.
Having seen locations with spotty internet access, using a web-only app should only be done if you can be certain of the connection. A downloadable program is more certain to work on your computer. On the other hand, one advantage of a web app is that a computer crash might allow recovery on a different computer even if the primary computer gets fried, but flash drive backups and web backups make that less of an advantage.
The advantage of a web app is that all users will be accessing the same upgrades. BTW, the data is stored locally with HTML5 local storage (deluxe “cookies”), not online. The advent of HTML5 has made the scripting a breeze. I don’t have a computer degree but I had a lot of paid help in constructing this.
Our affiliate is fortunate in having a meeting place with wifi. We’re in Western NY.
I’m glad I posted this announcement because it has made me aware of the limitations I hadn’t factored in. I guess the old saying, “What looks like a crisis is often just the end of an illusion.” is true.
Not all players want to play every week. Wives and children at home can be influential, as can college studies. Our method gives similarly rated players a game at G80/d5. Guarantees hard-fought games and nobody goes home feeling victimized.
Our season long ladder only pairs people that show up that night by check-in time. 1vs2, 3vs4 may actually mean 2vs5, 6vs8 with 1, 3, 4, 7 not showing up that week (assuming 2 hadn’t played 5 too recently and 6 hadn’t played 8 too recently).
At the end of the season the top eight qualify for a round-robin for a traveling trophy. The provisions delaying rematches gives decent scoring but lower-rated players an opportunity to play (and sometimes beat) the higher-rated players. Back when it was only one different opponent before playing somebody again there were times when the top two players would spend their time alternating between playing each other and (usually) beating players that were rising up from the next tier, with the result that the top two playing in alternate weeks might end up finding it somewhat boring playing the same person so often.
Since you have to be there to have a chance at scoring a point, getting into the trophy round robin meant spending a fair number of weeks at the club (a good player generally needed to attend at least 40% of the time and a weaker player might need 85%).