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Conduct USCF Online Quad Chess Tournament

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Key features and highlights

  • Automated Pairings
  • LIVE USCF Daily Rating Sync
  • USCF Report for rating submission
  • Manual Round Start Control
  • LIVE Broadcast
  • Anti -Cheating
  • Automated section split

How to run quad chess tournament ?

We have tried our best to answer all your questions regarding running quad tournament in this section

We will guide you through! It's simple!

What is a Quad format ?

Quad format is simply a four-player Round-Robin tournament. The players will be divided into sections of four based on their ratings and they will play a total of 3 rounds. This way, it is ensured that all the players get a fair chance to win the tournament as they play against players of similar strength

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What are the Benefits of Quad format?

4 Player Round-Robin | Sections of Equal Strength | Fair Competition | Winner in Each Section

In a Swiss format tournament, it is really difficult for an unrated player or a lower-rated player to win the tournament. The Swiss format produces overall winners of the tournament. However, in Quad, the players are divided into sections based on their ratings. Therefore, it produces a winner in each section. 

Every player gets to play three rounds against other players in the section who are roughly equal in rank, and each player has at least a passing shot at first place in his/her section. This gives the players a lot of motivation.

What if there are an Odd-number of Players?

If the total number of players is an odd number or if it is NOT a multiple of four, the last section will play a Swiss format with 3 rounds. Below are some examples:

16

Players

Section-1: Players 1-4

Section-2: Players 5-8

Section-3: Players 9-12

Section-4: Players 13-16

19

Players

Section-1: Players 1-4

Section-2: Players 5-8

Section-3: Players 9-12

Section-4: Players 13-19 (play Swiss with 3 rounds)

20

Players

Section-1: Players 1-4

Section-2: Players 5-8

Section-3: Players 9-12

Section-4: Players 13-16

Section-5: Players 17-20

21

Players

Section-1: Players 1-4

Section-2: Players 5-8

Section-3: Players 9-12

Section-4: Players 13-16

Section-5: Players 17-21 (play Swiss with 3 rounds)

All sections will play a maximum of only 3 rounds. In case of a proper section with 4 players, it will be a Round-Robin as they would play against the other 3 players in the section in 3 rounds. 

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How to Fetch USCF Live Ratings?

Save USCF IDs for Students | LIVE USCF Rating Sync Daily

  1. Enter USCF ID: The first step is to input the Official USCF ID for all players under Academy → Students and save the records. 
  2. Sync USCF Ratings: Then you can go to Academy → Settings and with just a click on the ‘Sync USCF Ratings’ button, the Live ratings will be synced for all the players with USCF ID. 

How do the Pairings Work?

Auto-Pairing | Auto-Section Divisions based on Seeding | Edit Results | Replay Games

The pairings will be automatically computed for you. Once the players have joined the tournament, you can click ‘Finalize Players’ to lock all the players who have joined for pairings. After the players are finalized, they will be divided into sections of four based on their ratings. The top-4 rated players will play in Section-1, the next four in Section-2, and so on. 

Then you will see the buttons to publish Round-1 pairings and then to start Round-1. The system will do the pairings for you. With just a matter of clicks, you can proceed through all 3 rounds of the Quad tournament.

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In the ‘Pairings’ tab, you can see the total games completed at the top right, see and update results for the games, see the type of the result (Checkmate/Time-out/Draw by mutual agreement, etc.). You can also easily navigate between the rounds.

Game Play in Quad

Once you publish the pairings and click on the ‘Start Round’ button, the games/boards will be automatically loaded for the paired players. 

You can also encourage your students to play for a win by restricting them from asking for a draw and/or resigning the game. 

The games can be seen live in the ‘Live Games’ tab along with the games completion status at the top right.

As the games are completed, the results are cascaded – you can see the results in the ‘Pairings’ tab.

How to Submit Reports to the USCF?

Download DBF File | USCF TD/Affiliate Support Area | Upload DBF File | Submit Report

Upon the tournament completion, you will be able to download the DBF file from the ‘Details’ tab of the tournament. You can then login to the USCF TD/Affiliate Support Area to upload the DBF file and submit the tournament report.

Do I have Manual Control?

Customize Public LIVE Page | Share Link to Parents | Promote Your Brand | Attract New Visitors

Yes, as the Tournament Director/Organiser/Coach, you can do the following:

  • Decide when to publish the pairings
  • Decide when to start the rounds
  • Update round results
  • Replay games (from the latest position on the board)
  • Configure the public LIVE page to promote your Academy/Brand
  • Allow/Disallow students to resign and ask draw
  • Allow/Disallow public chat

How to Engage Parents during the Event?

One of the key aspects of Chesslang is that it is a white-labeled platform; we integrate it with your chess academy website, for example, classroom.yourwebsite.com. 

With Chesslang’s Live X, you can share the public LIVE link with parents/others and invite them to watch the tournament live from YOUR website. They might pass on the public link to their friends and ask them to watch their kids playing chess live. It’s a cascading effect for YOUR academy brand and a great way to gain a lot of traffic to your website.

And while they watch the live games, you can also add some information/Ads about your Academy – for instance, your Academy logo, upcoming tournaments, special classes, coaching camps, etc. Additionally, you can add links to your social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube). 

You can configure the public LIVE page under Academy → Info

How does the Tie-breaker Work?

In the ‘Rankings’ tab of the tournament, you will find the tiebreaks TB1, TB2, and TB3 next to points. They are: 

  • TB1 - Sonnenborn-Berger 
  • TB2 - Buchholz score 
  • TB3 - Buchholz tiebreak

How do we handle Disconnection?

Reconnect Every 15 Seconds | Replay Games | Edit Result

In case a player gets disconnected during the game, we will try to reconnect the player every 15 seconds to see if the player is back online, until he/she is flagged out.

On top of this, as a coach/TD/organizer, you can always let the player play the game from where it was left using the ‘Replay Game’ feature. By doing so, you can let the players play the game from its latest position and you can also assign time-control for the replay.

How does Anti-Cheating Work?

Engine Analysis | Accuracy % Match | Engine Move vs Player Move

We have a dedicated Anti-Cheating analysis engine that will analyze the games played in the tournament. At the end of the tournament, you can see the ‘Accuracy %’ metric for each player and know about the accuracy of their moves with respect to engine moves. 

Therefore, you will be able to spot unusual patterns, for instance, if an average player has a greater Accuracy %.

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Can I Run a Multi-Day Quad Tournament?

Yes, you can conduct a Quad tournament that spans multiple days. While creating the tournament, you can edit the schedule that was auto-generated based on the time-control of the tournament.