The Bloomington Normal Area Scholastic Chess Association is making its Chess Registration software available free of charge to anyone who would like it. I have posted an instance of the software at register4chess.com for you to take a look at and try out free of charge. You will see the software has four tasks (1) create a team (2) add players to a team (3) create a tournament (4) enter players in the tournament. The advantage to the organizer is that when registration is complete, you get a text file which can be imported into WinTD software. There are plans to add to what you see, coaches registration and security, optional online payment. If you run a website with MySQL db, we can make the software available to you to host. No Cost - donations to any chess organization appreciated.
Can I ask what the advantage is of using this separate software over simply adding registrants directly into the pairing program?
Sure, you have 20 coaches entering all their players information, selecting the section the players go into, and you get a text file that is imported into WinTD direction to a Master File. Then you create the sections, and drag and drop the 60 to 100 players from each section into their respective section in the tournament. 1 hour set up vs 10 hours
Ah. So the idea is to shift work off the tournament organizer and onto the coaches, yet ensure that what they produce is in a format that you can use.
Does it work with SwissSys as well, or only WinTD?
Don’t know - and by the way, the old way, someone has to fill out all those paper entry forms, keep them organized, manually enter them into WinTD or SwissSys. The correct answer is a lot of people are doing a little work instead of one person doing a lot of work. Probably matters most in a NFP. As for working in SwissSys, it could probably be modified to create the output file in either format. I don’t know SwissSys, but I imagine they allow import in some kind of delimited file format, don’t they? Also, by design, the coach only enters all the information into the tool 1 time, then subsequent tournaments, all they must do is check a box and select a section to enter the player.
Go ahead and add some players to the example teams on the site. Enter them in the example tournament. Then click on this link register4chess.com/eventRegi … nStep1.php which takes you to the tournament entry screen, and check out the little blue link on the right that says “roster” I’m sure that format could be altered to fit an import into SwissSys if it has an import function.
I don’t get it. I have never seen or had any coaches, let alone 20 of them, come to enter any players’ information to tournaments that I have directed or attended as a player.
Why is this useful again?
I wasn’t aware that the recent Saturday tournaments run at the church in Bloomington used this software.
It is very useful if you are running many scholastic events with higher number of entrants (maybe say 75plus for example) We used a similiar system in Peoria when we ran the Illinois State Elementary Championship in 2005 with 653 players.
We haven’t used it since because when the number of entrants are lower it is pretty much easier to cut and paste from email entries the information that you need.
The plus side really is for the coaches and individual entrants when an area runs many tournaments and uses Mark’s system because the system keeps track of previous info. To enter additional tournaments you just check the individuals and click enter.
OK Ron, we have 20 schools involved in our association. We have about 10 other schools who participate on a regular basis. At the beginning of the year, they enter the information about their team, and as many of the players from their team who are planning to play tournament.
Then, when a tournament is posted with registration opened - coaches go to the web site, and all they have to do is check a box and choose the section the player is going to play in - and click on save. Total time for the coach, usually less than ten minutes after the original entry of player information to enter the tournament. Then, to register for the 2nd of the series of 10 events being hosted during the season - the coach only needs to repeat the check a box, select a section, click save steps. About 10 minutes to enter his 25 players.
At the end of registration of all the coaches, the TD clicks on “roster” and the tex file is produced which is imported into WinTD as the tournament master file. Where the section is enterd, we have a sortable field (100, 200, 300, 400) Which can be used to drag and drop into the sections of the tournament. Tournament set up accomplished in about 30 minutes for 400 players. Oh, yes, the preregistration of the adult tournaments often use the software.
Oh, so this software you are offering to share is for a specialty, niche part of the USCF, Scholastics.
Obviously this software is not as useful for the majority of tournaments run in the USCF, fair enough.
Well Ron, anyone with a little imagination one could use it at all levels. Technology can be a good thing. It can let you focus on what is really important, the CHESS.
Yes it primarily designed for scholastic tournaments, however I think it’s helpful to coaches and directors. The idea that a coach can enter all of his players’ information at one time and then pick the players playing in specific tournaments is quite helpful. The biggest headache both scholastic coaches and directors have is trying to have all the information needed. As a director if I need to submit memberships for a group of players from a particular school it’s a lot easier when the coach has all the addresses and DOB. I find quite often a school with 20 players tends to have 5 to 10 players whose memberships expire at the same time. I know many coaches who put their team roster on an Excel spreadsheet and submit that when entering a tournament.
If the program has an import feature where a coach could take his existing Excel file and import to the program that would reduce his work even more.
Excellent Feature to add, thank you Polley. Import from Excel. Must include in next design.
You’re quite welcome! I know a number of coaches who keep all their team information in Excel. Allowing them to import their existing worksheet, would prevent them from having type it all up again.