Hello! I just recently got my Local TD certification, and am now setting my sights on getting Senior TD tournament credits.
I just wanted to ask a few questions about what exactly counts for each credit.
Do the five a1 tournaments need to have me as the sole Chief TD or does being the Chief Assistant TD also count?
Related to the previous, if I am the Chief Section TD and do both pairings and floor TD, and the section itself counts as a Category C tournament, do I get full Chief TD credit for that? As I understand it, you can get C1/C2 credit for only doing backroom/floor respectively, but I assume if you do both, it counts as a “real” credit.
The first five do require being chief. Number six allows chief assistant. Numbers seven through ten additionally allow various substitutions instead of being chief or chief assistant of Category C events.
HOWEVER, note that certification rule 18 discusses the Category C events prior to talking about the subcategories and says that being the section chief of a Category C sized section is just as valid as being the overall chief of a Category C type tournament. You may have more chief credits than you thought.
So being a section chief is much more important than being a Chief Assistant for getting Senior TD credits? Also, is it possible to chief multiple sections in the same tournament and get multiple credits?
Well, being section chief of a section that qualifies for category C is an a1 requirement, while chief assistant TD can only be used for a2-a4. It is only useful if the section qualifies. No, you can get only one credit (for the largest section or for the overall event) on the same day. For example, if you are section chief of a 60 player section and a 39 player section, and chief assistant overall of the two section tournament, you only have one TD credit.
Ryan, at the moment you are showing up as having two C1 credits (assuming they were both Swiss tournaments with at least four rounds for at least 50 of the players in them), no C2 credits and no overall C credits. Getting a an overall chief TD gig of a 50+ player tournaments is often difficult to obtain with that level of experience, but getting a section chief gig serving under an experienced TD is usually easier and usually is also a good chance to learn how to direct events. When I was a local TD I served under a Senior TD at a LOT of tournaments and was section chief so often that I satisfied the SrTD requirements (and most of the ANTD/NTD requirements) without needing to use any of the overall chief TD credits.
PS To forestall another question - yes, when moving to a new certification level you are allowed to satisfy the pre-requisites by using none, some or all of the same tournaments you used to satisfy the prerequisites for an earlier level (that is kinder than FIDE).
PPS If you are the overall chief assistant TD of a 150 player tournament and simultaneously the section chief of a 60 player section then you can use the section chief slot for SrTD as a chief of a category C event and then for the ANTD/NTD you can use the chief assistant slot as chief assistant of a category B event. As Alex said, you cannot use both duty-slots in an event for a single level - but you can still use one of them for one level and either the same one or the other one for a different level.
Thank you for your reply. I know another very experienced Local TD in my area (should be a Senior by now… think he is still taking the test) that is doing a lot of Category B tournaments with regular 50+ player sections. I have plans to assist for him for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately a lot of the standard one-day tournaments that often have 50+ players are taken by a local IA and his SrTD son (he’s an active member of the forum, I’m sure he knows who he is…very nice and helpful director…, just surprised he is doing the small fry tournaments )
Looks like I will have to stick with doing chief at small scholastics and assisting some larger tournaments in the area for now, but this arrangement should work to let me accumulate more practical experience while still progressing towards SrTD.
The certification rule 28 covers says an LTD-level TD should not be chief of a category A or B tournament. The Rules committee has always held that “should not” is equivalent to “must not unless there is a gosh darn good reason” (well, their wording was different but that is the gist of it).
There are some cases where it is allowed.
If the LTD-level chief TD has an assistant and is using computer pairings then the maximum of 100 is raised to 120 (thus an assisted LTD can legitimately be the chief TD of very small category B events).
That maximum is based on expected turnout. If a tournament has been drawing 75 each of the last five years and suddenly has an unexpected growth to 250 one year then that is allowed. Note however, that if the prize fund is based on 200 players then that indicates that more than 100 (or 120) were expected. LTDs directing tournaments of that size may end up getting questions from the office.
A last minute unavailability of the scheduled chief requiring an emergency substitution. When I was an LTD the chief of to state school grade got into a severe auto accident just before the tournament and I moved up from floor chief to overall chief. I wasn’t fully ready for it at that time but nobody else was both qualified and available, so the alternative was cancelling the event. We got through it but the experience makes me really appreciate and agree with the limitation on LTD.
US Chess office pre-approval for an allowance. The only ones I can remember getting that approval were requests that were not based on size, but were rather very small nationals where an ANTD or NTD may not have really been required. An organizer asking for an allowance based on size is much better served by getting a TD at a certification level high enough to handle the size - otherwise the organizer is just wasting time waiting for an approval that is very unlikely to be granted.
PS Alex is the chair of the TD certification committee and I am the vice chair.
I know of no cases where a TD was sanctioned for directing events beyond the TD’s certification level. I think there have been some cases where TDs were sanctioned for problems in events that were beyond their certification level.
Sorry for the alarm, I just checked again and the Category B tournament appears to have been a one-time ordeal, and I also think it was out of necessity - on the event website it lists a qualified director that usually runs the event as director. Since the tournament was just over 100 players at it’s highest, a Local TD with an assistant (me) should be allowed to run the same type of tournament, correct? Prize fund was based on 90 players.
You can’t predict turnout in advance, so a one-time event that draws a lot more people than you expect shouldn’t be a problem.
But we have club and local TDs who FREQUENTLY direct events well over their current certification level. Most of those individuals probably have enough credits to move up a notch or two, to senior TD status, but don’t want to take the test it seems.
Moving up beyond that (ie, to ANTD) is far more difficult unless one lives in a major chess area or is willing to travel, because it’s hard to get the specific events you need if you don’t have a large and strong local player base. I’ve thought there should be a level between Senior and ANTD.
People keep saying it’s difficult to get the TD credits needed because it’s not in their backyard. The title of both ANTD and NTD has the word “National” in them. It kinda implies that one should probably direct tournaments across the nation to get more and diverse experience. But in the end, it’s just a title… the actual directing experience will be show while said person is directing a tournament.
The fact remains, Brian, that if you lived in New York, Chicago, Boston or Los Angeles and perhaps a few other cities, you could have gotten nearly all of the experience credits needed for both ANTD and NTD without leaving the state, possibly without having to go more than 50 miles from home. Those who live outside of those metro areas and have the desire and resources to become NTDs have my utmost respect.
I haven’t checked the requirements lately, but at one point, quite a few years ago, I was only one or two events away from having all the ANTD requirements. But being an ANTD or NTD has never been a goal for me.
NTD is my goal - but I might have to cool down my ambition a bit due to those reasons. Being a 16 year old student slammed with junior year schoolwork, and the fact that all tournaments are usually an hour or longer drive away, is pretty disheartening. Thankfully Central California is very chess-heavy. There is no shortage of tournaments really; the biggest hurdle is convincing the qualified people that run them to let me do it instead . It will be five years until I can even think about FIDE Arbiter too… thankfully NA is limited at 16.
I think if you do a good job at the events you work, organizers and TDs looking for assistants to work at their events will know you’re around. The higher up the TD ladder you go, the more of a closely-knit community it becomes. They know the people who work hard (and smart) and those who just do the minimum.
I’ve had to fire a TD mid-event because what he really wanted to do was play chess with his friends in the skittles room instead of help set up for the next round.
I’ve had no trouble finding (volunteer) work as an assistant - which I think is very helpful and important to gain experience - but I’ve met (understandable) resistant to the idea of a 16 year old being the lone director of tournaments. At this rate, I may very well be the first Senior TD to never be a chief TD .
I can’t imagine working as a TD and wanting to goof off with friends in the skittles area - there’s plenty of work to be done in between rounds that said assistant is being paid to do .
You can always organize your own rated events, perhaps in-school ones.
Organizing is a different task than directing, and one that US Chess has not always treated as a separate yet vital skill, but I suspect you’d find most Senior TDs, ANTDs and NTDs organized a few events along the way.
I’ve organized unofficial blitz tournaments for a school club, it’s certainly important. However, everyone in my town that I know of simply plays chess casually at the school club as a way to pass time - nobody is willing to buy USCF membership and the club cannot afford to do so for it’s members.
Unfortunately I do not see any other way to gain SrTD credit than to section chief 50+ player sections… maybe more opportunities will arise with time.
The thing about running your own events, even if they’re well below the 50 player point, is you’ll learn to think on the fly. And they’ll show up on your TD experience profile, which organizers and TDs looking for assistants usually check. (I’d suggest you register a public contact through the TD/Affiliate Support Area, that makes it a little easier for TDs and organizers to find and reach you.)
You should also look into the Junior Tournament Player (JTP) program, for the cost of a US Chess scholastic affiliate, you can run tournaments for the students in your school without requiring memberships, all you pay for each event is the ratings fee.
I know there were some proposals at last week’s Delegates’ workshops and meeting to create some new affiliate types, but since I wasn’t there I don’t know what was done with them.
I think you can still take the senior exam closed book at a national event and have that replace one of the event experience requirements. It’s not easy to pass it closed book, but it is possible, I did it in 1987.
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. It will be five years until I can even think about FIDE Arbiter too… thankfully NA is limited at 16.
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