| Button | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|
| Player list | who signed up; withdraw or reinstate a player | before the start - as often as you like |
| Add a guest | a player without a phone: a child, a club guest | at any time; the guest goes straight into the chosen group |
| The organiser | take yourself off the list if you are only arbitrating | before the start |
| Split into groups | groups A, B, C… with their own pairings and table | before the start; move a player while they have no pairing yet |
| Attendance | mark who has come; only those marked are paired | before the start and between rounds |
| Show the tournament on a screen | a link to the hall screen; the No photos on the screen toggle | even before the start - while people gather |
| List of players as PDF | a blank results sheet to fill in by hand | if you need a paper copy |
| Start the tournament | round one pairing, pairings go out to players | once attendance is marked |
| Button | What it does | When |
|---|---|---|
| Score for any pair | White wins or Black wins, a draw, White or Black no-show, a double forfeit | a dispute, a dead phone, a player cannot enter it |
| No-show | marked by the arbiter - immediate and final; the absent player is withdrawn | the opponent did not come to the table |
| Double forfeit | zero for both, both are withdrawn | nobody sat down at the board |
| Correct a no-show | enter the real score - the withdrawn player returns to the tournament by themselves | a mistake: the player was at another table |
| Correct a past round | rewrite the score of any game | the current round does not shift, the correct score goes into the next pairing |
| Withdraw and reinstate | a player left or came back | a returning player plays from the next round |
| Pause | the next round will not start; games in progress are finished | a break, lunch, the internet dropped, end of the playing day |
| Resume | if the round is finished, the next one starts by itself | the break is over |
| Button | What it gives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Final standings | places, points, tiebreaks, by group | visible to all players |
| Export PDF report | the table and pairings of all rounds on one sheet | for the prize-giving and the report |
| Export TRF report | a file for the federation | for rated tournaments |
| Show on a screen | the final standings on the hall screen | at the prize-giving |
Why, and how to manage without them - manual pairing changes, the appeals committee. Need one of these features - write to the developers, the link is at the bottom of the page.
In the arbiter's panel open the pair and choose the outcome: White or Black wins, a draw, a no-show by one or a double forfeit. The arbiter's score is final.
Mark attendance in the tournament's player list. Only those marked are paired, and during the tournament attendance changes the next round's pairing.
Both are done from the player list. A returning player plays from the next round.
Yes. The current round does not shift, and the next pairing takes the corrected result into account.
Yes. The organiser takes themselves off the list before the start and runs the tournament as the arbiter.
Pause the tournament: games in progress are finished, and the next round will not start until you resume.
Pairings are computed by bbpPairings, an open-source engine implementing the Dutch system by FIDE rules: score groups, floats on an odd field, colour alternation. Free to use.
The bot is constantly improved based on real tournaments. If you need a feature that isn't there yet, message the developers right inside the bot with the /support command. Many features appeared exactly because organizers asked for them, and useful ideas get added quickly.
More about arbiting: arbiting a chess tournament, how chess game results are recorded, how many arbiters a tournament needs and the tournament hall screen.
At the board since childhood: hazy about his rating, precise about every rook he has blundered. Counts an evening as a good one if the opponent stayed to talk afterwards instead of rushing off to check with an engine. Message →
