When will it be possible to submit tournament reports online?
Since at least 1999 and since probably years before that, there have been demands that the USCF allow tournament reports for USCF rated tournaments to be submitted online.
However, we have been told that there are technical problems in doing this, particularly with respect to new players without USCF ID numbers who join for the first time at the tournament.
However, there seem to be several obvious solutions to this problem. I cannot understand why this has not been done.
Do like the idea of online tournament reports, there has to be a safe guard to this system. Anyone can look up with the MSA and find a director, they could send in a fake tournament report for rating. Say they wanted their rating to go up and they would just send in a fake report with the directors name.
With the paper reports, there is the director that needs to sign for the report; anyone can use a directors name and send the report in. With the problems with identity theft, the credit card can be stolen, the people in the fake tournament identity was used, and one or more people could use this for rating inflation.
If there is to be online tournament reporting, the federation should issue every active director a id number. Do like the MSA, there can be someone that can use it for criminal acts.
Obviously there have to be safeguards and controls, and that’s probably why many events will wind up being rated 1-2 working days after they pass the TD’s validation process rather than within a few minutes.
The security issue shouldn’t be a problem. Provided we have a secure website to log into, with unique user names and passwords (in addition to our USCF numbers) for the TDs, the system should be reliable. However, the individual TDs will have to be responsible for keeping their user names and passwords to themselves.
If TDs aren’t comfortable with that, then perhaps there could be a verification process. After a submission is made to the USCF by a TD, the USCF could send an e-mail to the sponsoring affiliate of the tournament/match to verify that it actually took place. Some might consider that to be too much back-and-forth communication, but it would provide an extra level of security, assuming affiliates stay on top of their e-mail messages. Maybe a non-response should be treated as confirmation, so at least the club will have had an opportunity to stop false reports.
I don’t really think the e-mail verification is necessary, I just suggest it as a possibility. No matter what system we use, we’ll ultimately have to trust the TDs to be responsible. Besides, fake paper reports are probably easier to produce and submit than electronic ones. The only difference is the manual signature, which can be forged. I’d much prefer to submit tournament reports via the Internet, for both convenience and security.
Even with the paper tournament reports, all the federation is asking is my id number and the level of certification; were anyone can get from the MSA. They can use the pin number from the Chess Life, then again that can be left at the chess club or looked at any time. If there is a directors pin/password should be sent in a letter were only the director knows the number.
With the MSA it has become more easy for anyone to hack a tournament, for there wish for a rating inflation or just cause problems. Most of the membership would not think of sending in a false tournament report, then there are those special few. Do not fear a member of the federation would do this act, someone that is a natural hacker that has time could do major problems for the director, and the players if this hacker so wish.
I agree. Having a pin number on the back of each issue of Chess Life is fine for accessing the current “Members Only” area of the website, because there’s not much there (Chess Bytes and Ratings Supplements), but that pin number won’t do for a secure site that’s used for reporting tournament results. The user names should not be public, and the passwords should be determined by the individual users, who can change them at will. I use that type of system with several secure websites.