Players and rating lists

This chapter covers the rating lists the program keeps, adding and changing players, the player grid, refreshing ratings, and late entries. Byes, absences and withdrawals are in Byes and absences.

Rating lists#

The program keeps a local copy of rating lists, so that players can be found and their ratings filled in without internet access in the playing hall.

The FIDE rating list. About 1.9 million players: FIDE ID, name, federation, title, birth year, and the standard, rapid and blitz ratings. Open Connections (top bar on the Tournaments page), section FIDE database, and press Download rating list the first time. Update from FIDE downloads the current list again (FIDE publishes a new list every month). The program records which month's list it holds. Once a day, while it runs, it also asks FIDE whether a newer list exists (one small request; nothing happens while offline). What it does with the answer is a three-way choice under Connections: on a server it downloads the list by itself (about once a month); on a desktop install it asks you first by default, with a banner on every page (for administrators): "FIDE rating list: a newer list is available. The download is about 41 MB", with Download now, Later (the banner stays away for a day) and Don't ask again. Nothing is downloaded until you press Download now. Under Connections the choice reads Download it automatically, Ask me first or Never; Don't ask again sets it to Never, and you can still press Update from FIDE by hand or set it back to Ask me first at any time. A rating check on the Players page that finds the list out of date raises the same question on a desktop install instead of starting the download. The page shows how many players the local database holds and when it was last updated. On a desktop build you are the administrator of your own installation. On a server only the administrator may update it. A player who is not in the list has no FIDE rating (about two thirds of the rows in the list are unrated players): that means "no FIDE ID or no rating", not a failure of the download.

The national rating list. The Belgian list (KBSB/FRBE) is a built-in national list. It is part of the Belgian pack of features that is switched off for every account unless you turn it on: Account menu, Features. With National rating list sync on, Connections shows the section Belgian national rating list, where Sync from KBSB downloads the federation's public monthly file (about 36,000 players: national ID, name, sex, club, FIDE ID, national rating). KBSB player lookup adds the list to the player search. Bulk player data update adds Update player data to the Players page's More menu. An arbiter outside Belgium never sees any of it. The sync only copies the federation's file; it never writes ratings into your tournaments by itself.

Other national lists are not built in. For a player of any other federation, type the national ID and national rating by hand, or load the list yourself as a CSV file.

Your own rating lists (CSV). Connections has a link to Rating lists (/rating-lists), where you load a list of your own, for instance a national or club list. The first row of the CSV file names the columns: id, name and rating are required; federation, title, birth_year and fide_id are optional. The separator can be a comma, semicolon or tab, and a rating that is empty or 0 means unrated. Check the file shows what was found; Load the list stores it, and nothing is loaded unless every row is valid. A list with the same name is replaced. Only an administrator loads lists on a server. The lists are shared by every tournament on the machine, turn up when a player is added, and can be put in a tournament's rating-list sequence.

Renaming a list. Rename beside a list changes its name and nothing else: the rating-list sequence and every tournament that reads the list keep reading it, because they hold its number, not its name.

The rating-list sequence. Settings, FIDE, section Rating lists, sets the lists a player's rating is taken from when the player is added or the ratings are refreshed, in order: FIDE Standard, FIDE Rapid, FIDE Blitz, Effective Rapid (Rapid, else Standard), Effective Blitz, the national list, and your own lists. Use the arrows to move a list, Leave out to drop one and Add to the sequence to add one; Back to the default sequence restores the sequence that fits the tournament's rate of play. The first list is the main list: its rating is entered automatically. The ratings the player has in the other lists are shown beside the search result, and a click on one (Use this rating instead) picks it. A FIDE list fills the FIDE rating; the national list and your own lists fill the national rating.

Which rating is used. The Elo used of a player is the tournament rating, which the tournament's Tournament rating setting defines (Settings, Options): the FIDE rating only, the national rating only, the FIDE rating else the national (the default), the national else the FIDE, the highest of FIDE, national and a rating typed by hand, or the typed rating alone (see Tournament set-up). It is the rating that the program orders the players by when it assigns the pairing numbers, that the rating-based tie-breaks read, and that it prints. A rating typed by hand is the field Tournament rating on the player's form; only the last two methods read it. The FIDE rating that is filled in is the one of the tournament's format: standard for a standard tournament, rapid for a rapid one, blitz for a blitz one (or the standard rating when the player has no rapid or blitz rating yet).

Ratings entered by hand. Every rating field (FIDE rating, national rating, tournament rating) can be typed or changed by hand on the player's form; the program does not forbid a value because it differs from the list. The form shows what the list says and asks whether to apply it when it differs.

Where a rating came from. A rating read from a list keeps its source: the player's form says, for example, that it is from the FIDE standard list of a given month, that it was changed by hand (and what it was on the list), or that it was entered by hand with no source list.

The Players page#

Top bar, Players. At the top: the number of registered players and three buttons:

• Add player (also Ctrl+I), the main one,
• Print player list,
• More, a menu with the rest, in groups:
  • Print: Print place cards,
  • Numbers: Pairing numbers (Swiss, until round 4 is paired) and Starting numbers (round robin, before round 1), each only while it can still be changed,
  • Player data: Refresh ratings and Update player data (the latter only with the Belgian feature on).

The arrow keys move through the menu and Esc closes it. Below the buttons, when there are any, come the entries waiting from the results site and the postponed games still to be played, the latter with Enter results, which leads to the Pairings page.

Below is the player grid: one row per player. A long club name is cut off with an ellipsis (the whole name shows when you hover over it), and the grid scrolls sideways inside its frame when many columns are on, so the page itself never does. The Display panel on the right chooses the columns.

How to use the grid (double-click to edit, right-click for the Players Card, the Pr. cell, the keyboard) is behind the information button next to the number of players. It is closed until you press it.

Adding a player#

A rating below 0 or above 3000, a birth year before 1900 or in the future and a federation that is not a three-letter code get a warning in the form and in a list above the grid. Nothing is refused, and imports keep such values too.

Press Add player. The form first offers a search box:

• Search the FIDE database (name or FIDE ID). With the Belgian lookup on, Search the KBSB and FIDE lists (name, national ID or FIDE ID).
• Start typing a last name (Lastname, Firstname) or a number; choose the player from the results and the form is filled in: name, title, federation, FIDE ID, ratings, birth year and (Belgium) national ID and club. The federation is the country code from the FIDE list. The Belgian list has a column of its own that looks similar (V, F or D, the Flemish, francophone or German-speaking wing); it is not a country and is never put in the federation field. A member the FIDE list does not know is added with the federation blank, to be typed if it matters.
• Or fill the details in by hand below the search box.

The form fields: full name (required), title, FIDE rating, national ID, national rating, federation, birth year, sex (M or F), club, and further down the fixed table, the extra points, category assignments, registration status (No Paid, Paid, Gratis), Joins in round, and the presence settings (Byes and absences). A player with a FIDE ID that is already in the tournament is refused. Adding a player with no sex chosen does not save at once: the form says that FIDE reports and women's prizes need it, and offers Choose sex (back to the M and F buttons; Escape does the same) or Save without. Editing a player, importing and the lookups never ask. The registration form's FIDE lookup (and, with the Belgian pack, KBSB lookup) looks the player up again in the local list. If the list says something different from what is on file, the form shows what FIDE says and asks apply this? for each difference.

Register the players before round 1 is paired. Their pairing numbers (the starting ranks) are given when the first round is paired.

A player who is added later gets, when the next round is paired, the number their rating earns, with everybody below moving down one place (Swiss only), or the next free number if the setting Late entrants' pairing numbers is After the field.

Changing the pairing numbers of a Swiss tournament. Pairing numbers in the Players page's More menu opens the list in pairing order. Two players with the same rating can exchange their numbers (the Exchange button between their rows) (to order them by another rule), and Regenerate from ratings renumbers everybody by the current ratings, keeping the order you gave to players of equal rating; use it to follow a rating change or to correct a mistake.

Every change asks for your confirmation, a regeneration listing the players whose number changes first. Rounds that were already paired used the old numbers, so a pairing checker will no longer reproduce them; the dialog says so. Each change is written to the audit trail. A regeneration when the numbers already follow the ratings says so and changes nothing.

Until round 4 is paired, the Pairings page warns above Pair round N when the numbers no longer follow the ratings - a rating corrected after round 1, a late entrant numbered after the field, or numbers that came with an imported file. It names each player with their rating, their number and the number their rating earns, and Regenerate from ratings… opens this list. Players of equal rating in any order are never reported: that is what an exchange is for. Pressing Pair round N for rounds 2 to 4 then asks first (Pairing a round, When the pairing numbers do not follow the ratings).

A team Swiss's team numbers can be corrected the same way until round 4 is paired, from the Teams page (Correcting the order of the teams).

Starting numbers of a round robin. Before round 1 Starting numbers (Players page, More) opens the list the Berger tables pair by. Press Order by rating (highest rating first; equal ratings by title, then the tie-break set in the options, then name, then entry order), Order as entered (the order the players were added to the tournament), or Draw lots (the program draws, after a confirmation; the audit trail keeps the draw's seed and the resulting order). Or enter the result of a drawing of lots by hand (a number per player, or move a player up or down). The numbers are used when round 1 is paired and cannot be changed after it; a player entered later gets the next number. The first pairing of a round robin offers the same choices again (Numbering the players of a round robin), and SWAR users find there which SWAR option corresponds to which.

The grid#

The columns can be sorted by clicking the header. Abbreviated headers have a tooltip in plain language. The Display panel chooses which columns are shown, per user; the standard set has the pairing number, title, name, rating, federation, club, games played, points and presence. Further columns include the birth year, national and FIDE ID, both ratings, Elo used, the categories, the registration status (Paid), fixed table, extra points and the rounds-present column (Rds). The same columns can be shown on the Standings page.

Some cells open a small menu (right-click, or Space /

or absent, the Paid cell sets the registration status, the category cell assigns categories, and the header of the presence column sets everybody present or absent at once. The header menus (presence, Paid and category) ask first, keep a restore point and say how many players they changed. The arrow keys move between the cells; the cell menu is announced to screen readers with a sentence that says what the letter in the cell means.

Presence cell. What the letters in the cell mean:

Double-click a player's name (or press Enter or Space on it) to open the Player registration form. Right-click the name (or press the context-menu key) to open the Players Card: the player's opponents, colours and results round by round, with a print button and previous/next buttons.

The Player registration form closes with Esc or Cancel. Clicking outside it does not close it any more, so typed changes are not lost. If the player was removed in another window, the form closes and says so. Lookups in the FIDE list take the player by FIDE ID; a name that matches several FIDE players asks for the FIDE ID instead of taking the first one, and No on the question about a changed name puts the form back as it was before the lookup.

Removing a player#

Refreshing ratings#

Refresh ratings (Players page, More, Player data) looks every player up in the local FIDE list (by FIDE ID) and shows a table of what would change: the player, the field, the old and the new value, with a line such as 12 checked, 5 changes, 3 without id match. Only the FIDE rating and the title are proposed, and a title is only proposed when FIDE's list actually carries one. A player without a FIDE ID is not touched. Nothing is written until you press Apply; Cancel writes nothing. It is an all-or-nothing action, and it is a manual action: the program never writes ratings on its own.

In a tournament lasting more than 30 days (Settings, Tournament) Refresh never touches the starting FIDE rating. It compares the current list instead and adds each changed rating as a later rating, shown as from round R: by default the first round dated on or after the list's date, otherwise the next round to be paired. Change the round once for the whole batch in the box above the table before you press Apply. A rating already given from that round is replaced, and one equal to what the round already gives is not a change. A title is proposed as always. The pairing numbers do not change because of a later rating, and the automatic check below stays quiet in such a tournament.

The check by itself. While the Players or Pairings page is open (and after a finished update of the list), the program compares the ratings and titles on file with the FIDE list that was valid in the month the tournament started and, when they differ, shows a notice: The FIDE list (month) gives a different rating or title for N players, with a Review button that opens the same table. It writes nothing. The month of the list must match the tournament's start month, otherwise the program proposes nothing and says why (only the current list is kept). The notice can be switched off per tournament (Settings, FIDE, Consistency checks, advanced); the Refresh ratings button still works on request. Before a requested check, the program asks FIDE whether its list on this machine is current and updates it first, or says that it could not.

In the table of proposed changes each line has a tick, and there is Select all: Apply selected writes only the ticked ones.

Update player data (Belgian pack) works the same way for everything except the ratings. It finds each player on the KBSB list by national ID, then FIDE ID, then name plus birth year (only when that names exactly one person), and on the FIDE list by FIDE ID. It proposes every field that differs:

• from the KBSB list: the name as the list spells it, the club and club number (one tick for both: they are applied together), affiliation, and a FIDE ID or national ID the player does not have yet;
• from the FIDE list: the title;
• sex, birth year and federation from the FIDE list, or from the KBSB list when the player has no FIDE record. The FIDE list wins because the rating report is checked against it.

The table shows the old and the new value, which list it came from, and how the player was matched. Look at a name change before you tick it. A player with a full date of birth keeps it when the year agrees; when the list gives another year, the old value shows the date, and applying it sets the new year and removes the date. Nothing is ever blanked because a list leaves a field empty, and ratings stay with Refresh ratings.

The sex on the KBSB list arrives with the next Sync from KBSB on the Connections page. Before that, the program did not store it.

Late entries#

A player added after rounds have been paired can be given a round in which they join (Joins in round on the form; the next round to be paired is offered). In a Swiss tournament their pairing number follows the setting Late entrants' pairing numbers (by rating, or after the field). A tournament that still numbers them after the field because it is older than the default says so once, on the Pairings page and on the Options page, and offers to switch (Tournament set-up). The form says what the rounds before it count as. When absences score points (Scoring page), the rounds before the entry count as absences as set on the Scoring page. In a Swiss tournament the new player is paired in the round they join, with the others. In a round robin a player who is added after round 1 is paired is not part of the schedule: the Berger table is fixed once it exists.

Entries from the results site#

When a tournament is published (see Publishing) and entries are open, players can register themselves on the results site. The page Entries from the results site lists them; Fetch entries checks for new ones, and each entry is accepted (it becomes a player) or discarded. An accepted entry can be put back.

Last checked beside the button is stored per tournament, so it is still there when you come back to the page; it also counts the checks the program makes by itself.

Export of the player list#

Settings, Export, Export players (CSV): the columns you choose, in the order you choose, with a separator (comma, semicolon, tab or pipe), ordered by starting rank or by name, optionally without absent players and with a marker for Excel. See Import and export.