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Director GuideManaging Pairings

Managing Pairings

ChessRoster displays pairings that are uploaded from SwissSys. Your role as director is to run pairings in SwissSys, sync the data to ChessRoster, and then approve notifications so players are informed each round.

Prerequisites

How Pairings Reach ChessRoster

In the standard workflow, ChessRoster displays the pairings you generate in SwissSys — it does not pair the rounds itself. (The one exception is projected pairings, an estimate generated before the event from registrations.) The workflow each round is:

  1. Run pairings in SwissSys as usual.
  2. Get the data to ChessRoster — with live sync (SwissSys v11.76+: click Sync Now, or leave Auto-Sync on) or by uploading a web report. See Publishing Results to ChessRoster.
  3. ChessRoster updates the pairings display automatically.

Players see pairings on the tournament’s Reports tab as soon as the sync or upload completes.

A dedicated Pairings tab is available as a preview feature for users with preview access enabled. All other players view pairings through the Reports tab.

What Players See

Once pairings are uploaded, players can view them on the tournament’s Reports tab (or the preview Pairings tab if they have preview access). The page:

  • Shows board number, player names, ratings, and results
  • Displays byes (full-point, half-point, or zero-point) below the pairings table
  • Automatically switches to the latest paired round when new data arrives
  • Polls for changes every ~30 seconds — players watching online see updates without reloading
  • Allows section selection when a tournament has multiple sections

Pairing Notifications

Pairing notifications are a preview feature. They may not be available for all tournaments. Contact ChessRoster support if you are interested in enabling this feature.

When enabled, ChessRoster can notify players who opted in — by SMS, email, or both — alerting them when round pairings are published.

How It Works

After pairings are uploaded to ChessRoster, the system:

  1. Detects new pairing data and creates a pending notification release.
  2. Sends an approval email to the tournament director.
  3. Waits for director approval before sending any messages.

The director must approve before any messages are sent. This prevents notifications from going out for incomplete or incorrect pairings.

Where to Review Notifications

You can review and approve releases two ways:

  • From the approval email — each release sends an email with a Review & approve link.
  • From the Notifications tab — open the tournament’s Manage page and select the Notifications tab. This tab lists every round’s release with its status (Pending approval, Sent, Declined, Cancelled, or Expired) and a Review & approve button for any pending release.

The review page shows every message about to be sent — player name, board number, color, and the message content — so you can confirm the pairings before dispatching.

The approval link expires after one hour. If pairings are re-uploaded before you approve, the old release is automatically invalidated and a new approval email is sent. Check the Notifications tab or your inbox for the most recent release.

What Players Receive

Subscribed players receive a message on their chosen channel(s):

  • SMS — a single short line, e.g. “Spring Open R3: You are White vs A. Player (1850) on Board 5.” Byes read “You have a bye this round.” A round start time and an optional director note are appended when they fit.
  • Email — the full pairing details: opponent name and rating, color, board number, section, and round start time (when configured).

Only players who opted in during registration receive messages, and only on the channels they selected.

Cancelling a Sent Release

If you approve a release and then discover the pairings were wrong, you can send a follow-up cancellation notice from the Notifications tab:

  • Click Cancel pairings on a sent release to notify those players to disregard the original pairing.
  • Cancellation is only available for a limited window (12 hours after the release was sent, and before the next round’s release is sent).

Notification Quota

Notifications are subject to a per-tournament quota of 10 notifications per paid registration (SMS and email combined). The Notifications tab and the approval page both show how much of the quota has been used. Approval is blocked once the quota is exhausted.

Projected Pairings

If the organizer has enabled projected pairings, a Projected Pairings tab appears on the public tournament page. Projected pairings show estimated matchups based on current registrations, so players can see who they may face before the event starts.

They are:

  • Generated by ChessRoster’s own pairing engine from completed, non-withdrawn registrations — not from SwissSys
  • Read-only — players cannot interact with them
  • Recalculated automatically as players register
  • For Swiss sections, a Round 1 projection; for round-robin sections, the full projected schedule

To enable them, turn on Show projected pairings in the tournament form’s Player Notifications step.

Projected pairings are an estimate. The real Round 1 pairings come from SwissSys and may differ, especially as late registrations arrive.

Troubleshooting

Pairings are not showing on ChessRoster.

Confirm SwissSys has synced after running pairings — click Sync Now in the ChessRoster dialog, or upload a fresh web report. See Publishing Results to ChessRoster.

The approval email did not arrive.

Check your spam folder. The sender is ChessRoster and the subject includes the tournament name and round number. If pairings were re-uploaded before you approved, the old email is invalidated — look for a newer message.

The approval link says “expired” or “already processed.”

Links expire after one hour. If pairings changed since the link was sent, a new release is issued automatically. Open the Notifications tab on the Manage page (or check your inbox) for the most recent release.

A player says they did not receive a notification.

Confirm the player opted in to notifications during registration, and on which channel. Check the player’s communication preferences on the Manage page. SMS and email delivery are not guaranteed and may be delayed.

Publishing Results to ChessRosterLive Results
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