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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

ChessRoster does not generate pairings — that happens in SwissSys. The workflow each round is:

  1. Run pairings in SwissSys as usual.
  2. Export a web report from SwissSys.
  3. Upload the report to ChessRoster (see Uploading Tournament Reports).
  4. ChessRoster updates the pairings display automatically.

Players see pairings on the tournament’s Reports tab as soon as the 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 send SMS notifications to players who opted in, 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 SMS messages.

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

Reviewing and Approving Notifications

The approval email contains a review link. That page shows a table of every message about to be sent: player name, board number, color, and the exact message content.

  • Click Approve and send to dispatch all notifications immediately.
  • Click Decline if the pairings are not final — no messages will be sent.

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

What Players Receive

Each subscribed player receives an SMS containing:

  • Round number and tournament name
  • Opponent name and rating (or “Bye Assigned” if applicable)
  • Their color (White or Black)
  • Board number
  • Round start time (if configured)

Only players who opted in to SMS notifications during registration will receive messages.

Notification Quota

Notifications are subject to a per-tournament quota based on paid registrations. The approval page shows the current quota and how many notifications will be consumed. Approval is blocked if the quota would be exceeded.

Projected Pairings

If the organizer has enabled projected pairings, a Projected Pairings tab appears on the public tournament page before the event starts. Projected pairings show what Round 1 matchups would look like based on current registrations.

They are:

  • Read-only — players cannot interact with them
  • Recalculated automatically as more players register
  • Hidden once actual pairings exist for that round
  • Labeled with a disclaimer that they may change

Enable or disable projected pairings in the tournament settings under Player Notifications.

Troubleshooting

Pairings are not showing on ChessRoster.

Confirm you have uploaded a SwissSys web report after running pairings. See Uploading Tournament Reports.

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 link is issued automatically. Check for the most recent approval email.

A player says they did not receive a notification.

Confirm the player opted in to SMS notifications during registration. Check the Registrations tab for their communication preferences. SMS delivery is not guaranteed and may be delayed by carrier routing.

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