Creating Tournaments

Creating a tournament on TournaChess involves setting up the event details, adding one or more sections, configuring registration, and optionally setting entry fees. This guide walks through every step, from the initial form to advanced settings.

You must have the Tournament Director, Admin, or Owner role in a club to create tournaments. See Roles & Permissions for details on what each role can do.

Tournament Basics

To create a tournament, navigate to your club's page and click Create Tournament. The creation form asks for a handful of essential details that define your event.

Name and Description

Give your tournament a clear, descriptive name. Good names include the date or season and the format -- for example, "Spring Open 2026" or "Thursday Night Blitz - March". You can also add an optional description with additional details such as prize information, parking instructions, or special rules.

Date and Time

Set the start date for your tournament. This is when the first round is scheduled to begin. You can optionally set an end date for multi-day events. For single-day tournaments, the end date can be left blank.

TournaChess supports two registration modes: Standard (Full Tournament) where players register once for the entire event, and Per Round (Weekly/Monthly) where players register for individual rounds. For a detailed comparison and setup guide, see Tournament Registration Types.

Setting Up Sections

Every tournament has at least one section. Sections let you divide players into groups, typically by skill level, age, or format. Players choose which section to register for when they sign up.

When you create a tournament, it starts with a default Open section. You can edit this section and add more sections from the tournament management page.

Section Name

Choose a name that clearly communicates the section's purpose. Common examples include "Open", "Under 1800", "Under 1200", "Scholastic K-5", or "Blitz". The name appears on the registration page, pairings, and standings.

Number of Rounds

Each section has its own round count. This means you can run an Open section with 5 rounds alongside a Scholastic section with 4 rounds in the same tournament. The minimum is 1 round, and the maximum is 50.

Time Control

The time control is a free-text field. Use standard notation that players will understand:

• G/60;d5 -- Game in 60 minutes with a 5-second delay
• G/30;+10 -- Game in 30 minutes with a 10-second increment
• G/90;+30 -- Game in 90 minutes with a 30-second increment
• G/5;+3 -- Blitz: 5 minutes with a 3-second increment

This value is displayed on the registration page and in tournament details.

Rating Type

Each section has a rating type that determines whether games are rated and with which federation:

Rating Type	Description
Unrated	Games are not submitted for rating. No federation IDs required.
USCF Rated	Games are submitted to the US Chess Federation for official rating. Players need a USCF ID.
FIDE Rated	Games are submitted to FIDE for international rating. Players need a FIDE ID.
USCF+FIDE Dual Rated	Games are submitted to both USCF and FIDE. Players need both IDs.

For USCF-rated sections, you can also configure additional USCF-specific settings such as the rating system type (Regular, Dual, Quick, or Blitz) and the section chief TD's USCF ID. See USCF & FIDE Ratings for full details on rated event setup.

Rating Eligibility Range

You can optionally set a minimum and/or maximum rating to restrict which players can register for a section. For example, an "Under 1800" section might set a maximum rating of 1799. A "Premier" section might set a minimum rating of 1800.

These limits are informational and do not prevent players from registering if they exceed the limits, but they are clearly displayed on the registration page to guide players to the appropriate section. Tournament Directors have the ability to move players between sections after registration if needed.

Entry Fee

Entry fee settings are inherited by default from the tournament-level payment options, but you can override them at the section level if there are section-specific pricing needs. For example, the Open section might have a $30 entry fee while the Scholastic section charges $15. See the Entry Fee Configuration section below for details on pricing tiers and date-based pricing.

Section-Specific Settings

Each section is independently configurable. This means different sections within the same tournament can have different round counts, time controls, rating types, entry fees, and BYE policies. This flexibility lets you run a multi-section event where each section is tailored to its audience.

Registration Settings

Registration settings control who can sign up, when registration closes, and what information you collect from players.

Public vs Private Registration

Tournaments have two visibility settings that work together:

• Public registration: Anyone with the tournament link can register, even non-members. The tournament gets a shareable URL and short code you can post on social media or print on flyers. Guest players can register without a TournaChess account.

• Private registration: Only club members can register. Useful for members-only events, club championships, or invitation-only tournaments.

Tip: Even with public registration enabled, you can still restrict sections by rating. This gives you the best of both worlds: anyone can find and view your tournament, but only eligible players can sign up for rating-restricted sections.

Registration Deadline

Set an optional registration deadline to automatically stop accepting registrations at a specific date and time. This is helpful when you need a final player count before the event, want to cut off online registration the night before, or need to finalize pairings in advance.

The deadline is configured with a timezone so players see the correct cutoff time regardless of where they are. After the deadline passes, the registration form is no longer available to players. As a tournament director, you can still add players manually after the deadline through the TD management interface.

Custom Registration Fields

Beyond the standard registration information (name, section, USCF/FIDE ID), you can add custom fields to collect additional data from players during registration.

Available field types:

Field Type	Use Case
Text	Emergency contact name, school name, club affiliation
Number	Age, grade level
Date	Date of birth

Each custom field can be marked as required or optional. Required fields must be filled in before a player can complete registration. Optional fields are shown on the form but can be left blank.

Common use cases for custom fields:

• Emergency contact information for scholastic events
• School name for inter-school competitions
• Dietary restrictions for events that include meals
• T-shirt size for events with merchandise

Custom fields appear on the registration form in the order you arrange them. You can reorder fields at any time from the tournament settings, and the registration form updates immediately.

BYE Request Configuration

Each section can be configured to accept BYE requests during registration. When enabled, players can indicate which rounds they need a BYE for when they register. This is common in multi-day events where a player might not be able to make a Friday evening round but wants to play Saturday and Sunday.

You can configure:

• Whether BYE requests are accepted at all for each section
• Maximum number of BYE requests a player can make (e.g., limit to 2 out of 5 rounds)
• BYE point value for requested byes (see the Advanced Settings section for details)
• Round restrictions to block BYE requests for specific rounds (e.g., disallow byes in the last round)

TD Notifications

Tournament directors can subscribe to receive email notifications each time a player registers for the tournament. This is a per-user setting -- each TD on your team can independently choose whether to receive registration alerts.

To enable notifications, open the tournament management page and subscribe to registration updates. You will receive an email with the player's name, section, and registration details each time someone signs up.

Entry Fee Configuration

If you want to charge entry fees for your tournament, your club needs to have Stripe Connect set up first. Stripe handles all payment processing, including credit card payments, and deposits funds directly into your club's connected bank account. See Club Management for instructions on connecting Stripe.

Setting Fees Per Section

Entry fees are configured through payment options, which can be set at either the tournament level or the section level. Each payment option has an amount and a description, such as "$30 - Adult Entry" or "$15 - Scholastic Entry". You can create multiple payment options per section to offer different pricing tiers.

Multiple Entry Options with Date Ranges

Each payment option can have an available from and available until date. This lets you create time-based pricing tiers:

• Early bird pricing: Set a lower fee that is available from tournament creation until a cutoff date. For example, "$25 - Early Bird (before March 1)" available until March 1.
• Regular pricing: Set the standard fee that becomes available after the early bird period ends. For example, "$35 - Regular Entry" available from March 1 onward.
• Late registration: Optionally add a higher fee for last-minute registrations. For example, "$45 - Late Registration (day of event)" available only on the event date.

Players see only the payment options that are currently active based on the date. If multiple options are available at the same time, players choose which one to select.

Tip: When you duplicate a tournament, all payment option date windows are automatically adjusted by the same offset as the tournament start date. If your original tournament started on January 15 and the duplicate starts on February 15, all early bird cutoffs and pricing windows shift forward by exactly one month.

In-Person Payment Tracking

TournaChess lets you mark players as paying at the venue. When a player registers and selects in-person payment (a payment option with an online price of 0), their registration is recorded but no online payment is collected. On tournament day, you can mark their payment as received from the registration management interface, giving you a clear picture of who has paid and who still owes.

For complete details on the registration and payment experience from both the player and TD perspectives, see Registration & Payments.

Advanced Settings

These settings give you fine-grained control over how your tournament operates. They are all optional and have sensible defaults, so you only need to adjust them if your event requires specific behavior.

Board Number Allocation

TournaChess supports three modes for assigning board numbers to games:

Mode	How It Works	Best For
Sequential (default)	Boards are numbered 101, 102, 103, and so on. Each section can optionally start at a specific board number.	Most tournaments. Use the start number to offset sections (e.g., Open starts at board 101, U1800 starts at board 201).
Manual	You provide a specific list of board numbers or board IDs for each section. Supports ranges (e.g., "5-10") and non-numeric identifiers.	Venues with fixed, labeled boards or non-standard numbering.
Tournament Pool	A shared pool of board numbers is defined at the tournament level. Sections draw from the pool as needed, with optional fallback when a section's boards are exhausted. Rounds across all sections must progress in sync.	Venues with fixed, labeled boards and rounds for all sections are kept in sync.

Board number configuration is set per section, so different sections can use different modes within the same tournament. For most events, the default Sequential mode works well with no configuration needed.

Tie-Break Configuration

When players finish with the same score, tie-break methods determine their relative ranking in the standings. Displaying tie-breaks is optional and is off by default. TournaChess supports the following tie-breaks:

• Buchholz: The sum of the scores of all opponents a player faced. Higher Buchholz means the player faced stronger opposition.
• Sonneborn-Berger: A weighted sum where points scored against higher-scoring opponents count more. This rewards wins against strong opponents over wins against weaker ones.

Tie-breaks are calculated per section and can be enabled or disabled in each section's settings. When tie-breaks are enabled, the standings table shows Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger columns and uses them to sort players with equal scores. When disabled, players with the same score are sorted by rating.

BYE Values

When a player receives a BYE (either because of an odd number of players or by request), you can configure how many points that BYE is worth. The default is a full point, but you can set it to value of 0, 0.5, or 1:

• 1 point: Full-point BYEs. The player receives a full win. This is a common setting for requested byes in casual club events.
• 0.5 points: Half-point BYEs. Typically used for BYEs requested in advance, up to some limit of BYE requests.
• 0 points: Zero-point BYEs. The player receives no points. This is often used beyond the number of allowed BYE requests in advance.

Pairing Method

Each section uses a pairing algorithm to generate matchups for each round. TournaChess supports the following methods:

• FIDE Dutch (Swiss Pairings) (default): The pre-2026 FIDE Dutch pairing system, widely used in Swiss tournaments. This uses the bbpPairings engine - a solid and highly performant pairing engine approved by FIDE.
• FIDE Dutch 2026 (Swiss Pairings): The updated FIDE Dutch pairing rules effective from February 2026. This is based on a newer pairing engine provided by FIDE and released to help implement the updated rules.
• Manual: No automatic pairings. You create all pairings by hand, useful for special formats, or if you want to continue a tournament beyond what the FIDE rules will allow. For example, FIDE swiss pairings do not allow players to meet more than once. If you want to do that (in a non-FIDE event), you can switch to manual pairings once you reach a point in the tournament where you want to move outside the FIDE rules.

Note: USCF allows the use of FIDE pairings for USCF-rated events, but it should be announced in advance. TournaChess does this by listing the pairing method for each section on the registration page, as well as the sections tab of the tournament details page.

Duplicating Tournaments

If you run similar events regularly, duplicating a tournament saves significant setup time. From any existing tournament's management page, you can create a copy with one click.

How Duplication Works

When you duplicate a tournament, you provide a new name and start date. TournaChess creates a new tournament in DRAFT status with everything copied from the original:

• All sections with their names, round counts, time controls, rating types, and pairing methods
• Rating eligibility ranges and BYE configuration per section
• Board number configuration per section
• All payment options, including section-level pricing
• Custom registration fields
• Registration visibility settings (public/private)
• USCF configuration (affiliate ID, location, TD assignments)

Automatic Date Adjustment

Dates throughout the duplicated tournament are automatically shifted based on the difference between the original and new start dates. If the original started on January 15 and your duplicate starts on February 15, then:

• Registration deadlines shift forward by one month
• Payment option availability windows (early bird cutoffs, late registration starts) shift forward by one month
• End dates shift by the same offset

This means you usually do not need to manually update any dates after duplicating -- everything adjusts proportionally.

What Is Not Copied

A few things are intentionally excluded from duplication:

• Player registrations: The new tournament starts with no players registered
• Pairings and results: No rounds, pairings, or game results are copied
• Grand Prix associations: The new tournament is not automatically linked to any Grand Prix series
• Short URL: A new unique short code is generated

When to Use Duplication vs Recurring Series

Duplication is best for one-off events that happen to be similar to a past event. You duplicate, adjust the details, and you are ready to go.

If you run the same event on a regular schedule (weekly, biweekly, or monthly), consider setting up a Recurring Series instead. A recurring series automatically generates new tournament instances on your schedule, with all the same settings, so you do not have to duplicate manually each time.

Putting It All Together

Here is a typical workflow for creating a tournament:

1. Create the tournament with a name, start date, and registration mode.
2. Add sections with names, round counts, time controls, and rating types.
3. Configure registration: public or private, deadline, and any custom fields.
4. Set up entry fees if your club has Stripe Connect, with early bird and regular pricing.
5. Review advanced settings: board numbering, tie-breaks, and BYE policies.
6. Set the tournament status to Active so that registration is open and players can sign up.
7. Share the registration link with your players.

Once players start registering, you can monitor the entry list and manage registrations. When it is time to play, see Running Tournaments for the complete guide on generating pairings, entering results, and managing rounds.

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