Tournament Management Panel
The tournament management panel is the central hub for running a tournament on ChessRoster. It gives organizers and tournament directors full control over registrations, pairings, pricing, communications, and finances.
Accessing the Panel
Navigate to your tournament’s public page and click the Manage button in the admin bar at the top. The admin bar is visible only to users with edit permission (site admins, organizer admins, and assigned tournament directors).
On mobile, tap Admin Actions to reveal the same options in a bottom drawer.
If you do not see the Manage button, you do not have edit permission for that tournament. Contact your organizer admin to be added as a tournament director.
Panel Overview
The management panel opens at /tournaments/[id]/manage. It contains several tabs depending on your permission level.
| Tab | Who can see it | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | All staff | Registration metrics and section breakdown |
| Registrations | All staff | Full roster with player actions |
| Invitations | All staff | Track and manage personal invitations |
| Pricing | All staff | View all fee tiers and deadlines |
| Discount Codes | Organizer admins | Create and manage discount codes |
| Bundles | Organizer admins | Manage multi-tournament bundle offers |
| Pairings | All staff | Generate pairings and enter results |
| Financials | Organizer admins | Revenue, refunds, and fee breakdowns |
Tabs that require organizer admin permission are hidden for tournament directors.
Header Actions
At the top of every management tab, two buttons are always available:
- Edit Tournament — Opens the tournament edit form to change settings, dates, sections, or registration options.
- QR Code — Generates a QR code linking to the tournament info page, registration page, roster, or reports. Useful for printing at the venue.
If registration is set to Private, a banner also shows the private registration link with copy, share, and QR code buttons.
Overview Tab
The Overview tab gives a snapshot of registration health at a glance.
Summary cards:
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Active Players | Current active registration count, with capacity remaining if set |
| Withdrawn Players | Number of players who have withdrawn |
| Tournament Sections | Total number of sections configured |
| Avg Players / Section | Average active players per section |
Section breakdown table:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Section | Section name |
| Active Players | Current active registrants |
| Capacity | Progress bar showing fill rate (shown when capacity limits are set) |
| Manually Registered | Count of players added by staff rather than self-registered |
| Share of Field | Percentage of total active players |
Registrations Tab
The Registrations tab is the main working area during a live tournament. It shows every player who has registered, with tools to manage each one.
Viewing the Roster
Display options:
- All Players — all players in a single list (default)
- Group by Section — players organized by section
Filtering:
- Search by player name or email
- Filter chips: Active, Withdrawn, Invited
- Clear Filters resets all active filters
Adding a Registration Manually
Use Add New Player to register a player without them going through the self-registration flow.
The admin registration form collects:
- Player name, email (optional), phone number
- Federation IDs and ratings (USCF, CFC, FIDE) with real-time eligibility checking
- Section assignment
- Custom question answers
- Payment status: Paid (cash/check), Unpaid (comp entry), or Invoice (send a PayPal payment request)
- Admin notes
Inviting a Player
Use Invite Player to send a personalized invitation email. The invitation pre-fills the player’s registration details and can include admin overrides for custom fees, eligibility, or capacity.
See the Invitations tab for tracking sent invitations.
Sending Confirmation Emails
Send Confirmation Emails opens a dialog showing all active registrants. Select which players to include, then send. This resends the standard registration confirmation email and is useful for players who missed the original.
Per-Player Actions
Click the actions menu (⋮) on any player row to access:
| Action | When available | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Edit | Always | Edit name, email, section, byes, and custom question answers |
| Request Additional Payment | Active players, when PayPal is configured | Send a PayPal invoice for extra fees (e.g., section change after rate increase) |
| Withdraw | Active players | Remove the player from active pairings with optional refund |
| Refund | Players with PayPal orders; requires refund permission | Process a standalone refund without withdrawing |
| View Details | Always | Open the full Registration Details dialog |
Managing Byes: Each player row also has a direct bye management control. Click the bye chip or the bye icon to open the Manage Byes dialog, where you can set half-point and zero-point bye requests by round.
Copying Email Addresses: Each row has a copy-email icon to copy that player’s email address to the clipboard. Use this to contact individual players through your own email tool.
Processing Withdrawals
Locate the player
Use the search bar or scroll the roster to find the player.
Open the actions menu
Click the ⋮ icon on the player’s row and select Withdraw.
Choose a refund option
If the player paid via PayPal, select a refund option:
| Option | Amount refunded | Who can use it |
|---|---|---|
| Default Refund | Auto-calculated based on the tournament’s refund policy (Standard or Full) | All staff |
| Custom Refund | Enter any specific amount up to the total paid | Organizer admins & site admins |
| No Refund | Withdraw the player without issuing a refund | Organizer admins & site admins |
Confirm or send notification
If there are staff members configured to receive notifications, you will be asked whether to send them a withdrawal notification.
Refunds are processed through PayPal and can take a few business days to appear in the player’s account. Platform fees are nonrefundable regardless of refund option.
For bundle registrations (players registered across multiple tournaments), the system uses bundle-specific withdrawal logic. Refund options may be limited to Net Fee and No Refund.
Viewing Registration Details
Click View Details in the actions menu (or the info icon) to open the Registration Details dialog. This shows:
- Player name, email, phone
- Federation IDs (USCF, CFC, FIDE)
- Section, pairing rating, and registration timestamp
- Who registered the player (self-registered or added by staff)
- Full fee breakdown: base entry fee, discounts (membership, titled player, coupon), play-up fees, custom adjustments, and minimum fee adjustments
- Custom question responses (editable)
- Admin notes
- PayPal payment status, order history, refund history, and refundable balance
- Outstanding invoices with options to Send Reminder or Cancel Invoice
- Withdrawal information (date and who withdrew the player), if applicable
Invitations Tab
The Invitations tab tracks players you have personally invited to register.
Invitation statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Email sent, awaiting response |
| Accepted | Player registered via the invitation link |
| Expired | Invitation deadline passed |
| Cancelled | Invitation manually cancelled |
| Declined | Player declined the invitation |
Per-invitation actions (Pending invitations only):
- Resend — Resends the invitation email
- Cancel — Cancels the invitation
Pricing Tab
The Pricing tab gives a read-only view of all configured fee tiers for every section.
What it shows:
- Every pricing period for each section (active, expired, and upcoming)
- Fee amounts, membership discounts, titled player discounts
- Date ranges and tier status (Current, Upcoming, Expired)
- Registration and withdrawal deadlines in the tournament’s local timezone
Expired tiers are shown with a strikethrough. Use this tab to verify that your pricing configuration is correct before and during registration.
To change pricing, use Edit Tournament and update the section settings.
Discount Codes Tab
Visible to organizer admins only.
The Discount Codes tab lists all discount codes configured for your organization. You can create, edit, enable/disable, and delete codes from here. Codes that have already been redeemed cannot be deleted — deactivate them instead.
See Discount Codes for full documentation on creating and managing codes.
Bundles Tab
Visible to organizer admins only.
The Bundles tab lets you create and manage bundle offers — packages that let players register for multiple tournaments at a discounted combined price. You can create new bundles, edit existing ones, and toggle bundles on or off. Bundles with existing registrations cannot be deleted — deactivate them instead.
Pairings Tab
The Pairings tab is a full pairings management interface embedded directly in the management panel.
Selecting a Section and Round
Use the Section and Round dropdowns to navigate. Rounds that have already been paired are labeled (paired) in the dropdown.
A roster summary card shows the total player count, how many rounds have been paired, and a refresh button to sync any recent registration changes.
Generating Pairings
Select the section and round
Choose which section and round to pair from the dropdowns at the top of the tab.
Click Generate Pairings
For Swiss-system events, pairings are generated for the selected round. For round-robin events, Generate All Pairings creates the complete schedule for all rounds at once.
Review the pairing table
Pairings appear in a table showing board number, white player, black player, and result columns. Bye players are listed separately below.
For Swiss pairings, all results from the previous round must be entered before generating the next round.
Entering Results
Click the result cell for any board and type:
Wor1— White winsLor0— Black winsDor/— Draw
Use arrow keys to navigate between cells. Backspace clears a result. Results save automatically.
Swapping Players
Drag a player from one board position to another to swap them. Works for color swaps within a board and cross-board swaps between two players.
Other Pairings Controls
| Control | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Pairing Settings | Configure the pairing system for the selected section |
| Public View | Opens the public-facing pairings page in a new tab |
| Add Player | Adds a player to the current round’s pairing pool manually |
| Column Visibility | Show or hide the Rating, Score, Team, and State columns |
Financials Tab
Visible to organizer admins only.
The Financials tab provides a complete financial picture of your tournament.
Summary cards:
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Active Players | Number of currently active registrations, with a note showing how many have withdrawn |
| Fees Collected | Gross revenue from completed online payments |
| Outstanding Invoices | Total value of invoices not yet paid, with a count of pending invoices |
| Net Income | Estimated take-home after platform fees, PayPal fees, and refunds |
Additional sections:
- Platform Fee — shows your organization’s fee structure (fixed fee per registration and percentage fee), if configured
- Registration Fee Adjustments — detailed breakdown of how gross revenue was built from base fees, discounts, play-up fees, and adjustments
- Financial Breakdown — connects collected fees to net income through platform fees, PayPal fees, paid invoices, and refunds
- Registration Payment Methods — count of players by how their registration was handled (paid via PayPal, manually registered as paid/unpaid/free)
- Revenue by Section — per-section table showing players, revenue, platform fees, PayPal fees, refunds, and net income
Export Excel downloads a spreadsheet of the full financial report.
See Financial Reports for more detail on each section and exported data.
Admin Bar (Tournament Detail Page)
In addition to the management panel, an admin bar appears at the top of the public tournament detail page for all staff members.
Desktop: Shows Edit and Manage buttons, plus an overflow menu (⋮) with:
- Live View — opens the TV-display scoreboard in a new tab
- Export to SwissSys — opens a format selection dialog, then downloads a SwissSys 11 (SJSON) export file
- Upload Reports — uploads a results JSON file from SwissSys back to ChessRoster
- Delete Tournament — permanently deletes the tournament (irreversible)
Mobile: Collapses to a single Admin Actions button that opens a bottom drawer with Edit Tournament, Manage Registrations, and the same overflow options.
A warning banner appears below the admin bar if the tournament is missing location coordinates, since that prevents it from appearing in “near me” searches.
Permission Levels
| Feature | Tournament Director | Organizer Admin | Site Admin |
|---|---|---|---|
| View Overview, Registrations, Invitations, Pricing, Pairings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add / edit / withdraw registrations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Manage byes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Send confirmation emails | No | No | Yes |
| Issue refunds | Depends on allowDirectorRefunds setting | Yes | Yes |
| Customize refund amount during withdrawal | No | Yes | Yes |
| Request additional payment | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View Discount Codes, Bundles, Financials | No | Yes | Yes |
| Export financial data | No | Yes | Yes |
| Delete tournament | No | Yes | Yes |
| Export to SwissSys / Upload Reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |