Online Congress with Prizes? Arbiting Etc

[Steve Lovell]

We have with sadness decided to cancel this autumn's Bury St Edmunds Chess Congress. A communication will go out to previous entrants in the next week or so. It's not entirely down to COVID-19, though that has certainly played a part. There is a full explanation of our decision one our website (https://www.bsecongress.org.uk/why-ther ... 2020-event).

One of our sponsors has generously said we can retain their contribution, and another regular donor has said they will still give this year despite the cancellation. This raises the possibility of running an alternative online event offering prize money (perhaps with a small entry fee, no more than £5).

I'm familiar with organising tournaments on chess.com, and that's the platform I would probably use, though I'd welcome any suggestions of alternative sites. Anyone got experence with Tornelo? My main question is what I should be doing as an "arbiter" once the event kicks off. It feels like I should be doing something at least at the end to check for computer assistance amongst prize winners before issuing prizes. However, I've little idea of the best approach to doing even that.

What is best practice here? Or in case that's too demanding, what is "good enough" practice?

[Matthew Turner]

Steve,
My impression is that Lichess is simply better than chess.com, so I would advise you checking that out. As an organiser, I think it is all but impossible to regulate cheating yourself and you are reliant on the website's own software. You'll probably be aware that there is discussion on various aspects of that here. In your position, I would hold off making any firm decisions for the next few weeks, there will be lessons to be learnt from the 4NCL's experience of running their online league and I suspect you'll a have much more complete view on what is possible/sensible in a month's time.
I haven't been to Bury for a while, but it is a great congress, so best of luck with your endeavours.
Matt

[Steve Lovell]

Cheers Matt,

That seems like sensible advice re cheat detection. In terms of platforms, for me the lack of an automated Swiss pairing on Lichess is a bit of dealbreaker. Having everyone "self pair" and then collecting the results would be a (k)nightmare. I don't think I can sensibly offer prizes in an Arena tournament.

Assuming COVID goes away and nothing else takes its place, the "proper" event will be back in 2021 though we'll need to find a new (cheaper) venue first.

[David Sedgwick]

If anyone wants to have an online version of their congress, with sections and proper swiss pairings with fixed round times, longer time controls, please contact me. All players would ideally have to be on camera throughout.

This is proving a reasonable alternative to having no chess at all!

Adam

My posting this here does not imply any recommendation, positive or negative.

[Alex McFarlane]

I could be wrong but the way I read an article written by the person behind Tornelo is that the only anti-cheating measures it has is the integrity of the participants.

If correct, this does not seem to be an appropriate platform on which to offer prizes.

Its pairings are also non-standard. It approximates to FIDE but does not pass close scrutiny. Some Australians would say it doesn't even pass casual scrutiny.

[Steve Lovell]

Thanks David and Alex,

I'm planning to get in touch with Adam in the coming weeks. Good to have some thoughts on Tornelo, particularly the pairings. I believe Adam is giving it a try, so I'll try to get some feedback from him at some point too.

[Matthew Turner]

Steve,
This thread may be of interest to you

https://www.chessscotland.com/forum/sho ... 7#pid19837

[Joey Stewart]

as long as the prize money is not automatically awarded, and the software on these sites allows you to readjust the results once the cheats have been weeded out then it sounds like a plausible idea to run cash tournaments - you will 100% get people cheating in some way or other, be it sandbagging, engine use, using fake usernames, colluding with other players but if they know they cannot perform a smash and grab operation it should act as a deterrent.

[Steve Lovell]

Thanks all for the helpful comments.

I notice that Lichess now has Swiss tournaments in BETA, so it may be an option for me to use them after all. However, I'd guess that these will work in the same way as chess.com Swiss tournaments, in particular that each round will start as soon as the previous one finishes rather than at a fixed time. Though I'll be checking that out as soon as I'm able to. Adam R (and others) have means of organising rounds to start at fixed times, which would be my preference.

[Adam Raoof]

Thanks all for the helpful comments.

I notice that Lichess now has Swiss tournaments in BETA, so it may be an option for me to use them after all. However, I'd guess that these will work in the same way as chess.com Swiss tournaments, in particular that each round will start as soon as the previous one finishes rather than at a fixed time. Though I'll be checking that out as soon as I'm able to. Adam R (and others) have means of organising rounds to start at fixed times, which would be my preference.

I have tried the swiss function, and it's not bad - it even gives you a half point bye if you miss round 1! They will no doubt add some more functions, but it looks ok (my first attempt was very buggy)

You can set the time between rounds, but you can't fix the round times at all.