Downloading Registrations
Before you can pair your tournament in SwissSys, you need to get your registered players out of ChessRoster. The export produces a SwissSys-compatible file (.sjson) that you open directly in SwissSys to start pairing.
Prerequisites
- You must be logged in as a tournament director or organizer admin.
- The export only includes players with a Completed registration status. Pending payments, incomplete registrations, and withdrawn players are excluded automatically.
How to Export
Open the tournament page
Navigate to your tournament on chessroster.com and open its detail page.
Open the overflow menu in the admin bar
A subtle admin bar with a primary-color left border appears at the top of the page for users with director access. Click the three-dot icon (⋮) on the right side of the bar.
On mobile, tap Admin Actions to open the action drawer, then select Export to SwissSys.
Select “Export to SwissSys”
Choose Export to SwissSys from the menu. A dialog opens with an Export Format dropdown — SwissSys 11 (SJSON) is currently the only option.
Click Export
Click Export. Your browser downloads a .sjson file named after your tournament.
Open in SwissSys
In SwissSys, use File → Open and select the downloaded .sjson file. Your tournament sections and players load automatically.
What the Export Contains
The file includes one record per registered player, organized by section. Fields included depend on what data was collected at registration:
| Field | Source |
|---|---|
| Player name | Registration form (formatted for SwissSys) |
| Rating / Pairing number | Registration rating, sorted by rating descending |
| Primary federation ID | USCF ID (USCF events), CFC ID (CFC-only events), or FIDE ID |
| Secondary federation ID | FIDE ID (if available alongside primary) |
| Membership expiration | USCF or CFC expiration date |
| Chess title | GM, WGM, IM, WIM, FM, WFM, CM, NM (if on record) |
| Sex / Gender | From USCF or CFC player data |
| State / Province | From USCF or CFC player data |
| From registration | |
| Phone | From registration |
| Team | Uploaded Team code when the answer matches the list; otherwise a generated code |
| Club | From custom registration questions (if configured; automatically uppercased) |
| City, Zip, Age | From custom registration questions (if configured) |
| Reserved byes | Half-point and zero-point bye requests |
| Section assignment | Matches the section selected at registration |
Only players with a Completed registration status who have not withdrawn are included. Players who started but did not finish registration, who have pending payments, or who have withdrawn are excluded automatically.
Team Codes and Names
When an organizer uploads a list for a registration question mapped to Team, players select the team name and the export uses the supplied code, uppercased. SwissSys uses that code to identify the team and keeps the uploaded name as its display name. The same team receives the same code across sections.
Team names without a matching uploaded entry receive generated codes that are unique across the tournament, including against uploaded codes. This prevents different teams in separate sections from sharing an export code before you merge sections in SwissSys.
See Upload Team Codes for SwissSys to configure the list. This correction is in ChessRoster and does not require a SwissSys update; the existing file-format version requirement still applies.
After Importing
Once you have opened the file in SwissSys, you can begin pairing as normal. After each round, sync your tournament back to ChessRoster — or upload a web report — so players see live results and standings.
- To publish pairings during the event, see Managing Pairings.
- To set up live sync or upload reports, see Publishing Results to ChessRoster.
Troubleshooting
The Export to SwissSys option is not visible.
You need tournament director or organizer admin access. The admin bar only appears for users with edit permission. Contact your organizer admin to confirm your role.
A player I expected is missing from the file.
The export only includes players with completed registrations. Open the tournament management page and check the Registrations tab to confirm their status. Pending payments or incomplete forms will exclude a player.
The export reports conflicting Team codes or names.
The error identifies the affected registration questions and sections. Ask an organizer administrator to edit those questions’ uploaded Team lists: give different teams different codes, and use one code for the same team across all sections. Re-upload the corrected lists, save the tournament, then export again. See Resolve Conflicting Team Codes.
SwissSys does not recognize the file.
Ensure you are using SwissSys version 11.74 or later. Older versions do not support the .sjson format.
Related Topics
- Managing Pairings — Publish pairings each round and notify players
- Live Results — Show standings on a live display during the event
- Publishing Results to ChessRoster — Sync or upload SwissSys results
- Managing Participants — Edit or withdraw players before exporting