Roles & Permissions

Running a chess club is rarely a one-person job. Whether you have a co-organizer who handles membership, a volunteer who directs your weekly blitz nights, or a parent who helps enter results at scholastic events, TournaChess gives you the tools to delegate responsibilities safely. This guide explains how the role system works, what each role can and cannot do, and how to manage your team as your club grows.

Role Hierarchy

TournaChess uses a four-tier role system within each club. Every role inherits all of the permissions of the roles below it, so an Admin can do everything a Tournament Director can do, and a Tournament Director can do everything a Member can do.

Owner > Admin > Tournament Director > Member

Roles are scoped to individual clubs. A single user can hold different roles in different clubs -- for example, you might be an Owner in your own club and a Member in another club where you play as a participant. Your role in one club has no effect on your role in any other club.

Permissions Comparison

The table below is the definitive reference for what each role can do. If you are deciding which role to assign someone, start here.

Permission	Owner	Admin	TD	Member
View club and tournaments	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Register for tournaments	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Create and manage tournaments	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Manage pairings and results	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Create virtual members	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Create Grand Prix series	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Invite members	Yes	Yes	No	No
Manage member roles	Yes	Yes	No	No
Manage club settings	Yes	Yes	No	No
Export data	Yes	Yes	No	No
Delete the club	Yes	No	No	No

Tip: When in doubt, start with a lower role. You can always promote someone later, and it is easier to grant additional access than to revoke it after the fact.

Club Owner

The Owner role is created automatically when you create a club. As the person who founded the club, you have unrestricted access to every feature and setting. There is exactly one Owner per club.

What Owners can do

Full administrative control: Every action available in TournaChess is accessible to the Owner, including all Admin, TD, and Member capabilities.
Delete the club: Only the Owner can permanently delete a club. This action removes all tournaments, member records, settings, and history. It cannot be undone. See Club Management for details on the club lifecycle.
Promote to any role: The Owner can promote any member to Admin or Tournament Director. This is the only role that can promote someone to Admin.
Demote anyone: The Owner can demote Admins back to TD or Member, and can demote TDs back to Member. No other role can demote an Admin.

Ownership cannot be removed or overridden by any other club member. If you need to step away from your club, consider promoting a trusted member to Admin so they can manage day-to-day operations in your absence.

Club Admin

The Admin role is designed for trusted co-organizers who need broad management access without the ability to delete the club itself. Admins can handle nearly everything an Owner can, making this the right choice for your second-in-command or any organizer who shares responsibility for running the club.

What Admins can do

Manage club settings: Update the club name, display name, description, location, privacy settings, and tournament defaults.
Manage membership: Send invitations and remove members from the club.
Manage roles: Change permission levels for any member except Owners and other Admins.
Create and manage tournaments: Full tournament lifecycle access, including creation, configuration, pairings, results, and completion.
Create Grand Prix series: Set up and manage multi-tournament series with cumulative standings.
Export data: Download club member lists and tournament participant data.

Limitations

Cannot delete the club: Only the Owner has this permission.
Cannot demote other Admins: An Admin can demote Tournament Directors and Members, but cannot change another Admin's role. Only the Owner can demote an Admin.
Cannot remove the Owner: The Owner's membership is permanent and cannot be modified by anyone else.

When to use Admin

Assign the Admin role to co-founders who share organizational duties, club managers who handle membership and logistics, or board members responsible for club finances and Stripe payment setup.

Tournament Director

The Tournament Director (TD) role is purpose-built for people who run tournaments but do not need access to club-level management. TDs have full control over the tournament lifecycle without the ability to change who is in the club or how the club itself is configured.

What TDs can do

Create tournaments: Set up new events with sections, time controls, rating types, registration settings, and entry fees.
Configure sections: Add, edit, and remove tournament sections with custom settings for each.
Manage registration: Open and close registration, approve or reject entries, and add players manually using TD Quick-Add.
Generate pairings: Run the Swiss pairing algorithm for each round, review pending pairings, and start rounds.
Enter results: Record game outcomes as they finish, manage byes, and handle withdrawals.
Publish standings: View and share final standings with automatic tiebreak calculations.
Create Grand Prix series: Set up multi-tournament series and associate tournaments with them.
Create virtual members: Add player records for participants who do not have TournaChess accounts, so they can be included in tournaments immediately.

Limitations

Cannot modify club settings: The club name, description, location, privacy settings, and tournament defaults are managed by Owners and Admins only.
Cannot manage membership: TDs cannot invite new members, remove existing members, or change anyone's role.
Cannot export data: Club member lists and participant data exports are restricted to Owners and Admins.

When to use Tournament Director

The TD role is ideal for volunteers who direct your weekly rated tournaments, guest arbiters who run special events at your venue, or parents who organize the scholastic section while you handle the open section.

Tip: If someone only needs to help out for a single tournament day -- entering results as games finish, for example -- consider using a Guest TD account instead. Guest TDs have even more limited access and do not require a full TournaChess account. See the Guest TD Accounts section below.

Club Member

The Member role is the default role assigned when someone joins your club through an invitation. Members can participate fully in tournaments but have read-only access to club management features.

What Members can do

View club information: See the club description, member list (if enabled by club settings), and tournament history.
Browse tournaments: View all published tournaments, including sections, schedules, entry lists, pairings, and standings.
Register for tournaments: Sign up for events, choose a section, and pay entry fees if applicable.
Participate fully: Play in tournaments, view their pairings, check standings in real time, and review results after the event.

Limitations

No management access: Members cannot create tournaments, modify settings, manage other members, or perform any administrative actions.
No data exports: Member and participant data exports are not available to Members.

Every player in your club who is not an Owner, Admin, or TD holds the Member role. This is the right default for the vast majority of your club's participants.

Guest TD Accounts

Sometimes you need an extra pair of hands on tournament day. A Guest TD account is a special shared-access account designed for exactly this situation. It gives your helpers restricted tournament access without requiring them to create a TournaChess account or become a permanent member of your club.

What Guest TDs are

A Guest TD account is a single shared account that you create for your club. It is protected by a password that you set, and anyone with the password can log in through a dedicated login page for your club. Unlike regular TD accounts, Guest TD accounts are not tied to a specific person -- they are a shared credential that multiple helpers can use simultaneously during a tournament.

Creating a Guest TD account

You set up your Guest TD account from the club settings dialog:

From your club page, click Settings to open the settings dialog.
Select the Access tab.
In the Guest TD Access section, click Set Up Guest TD.
Enter a password for the Guest TD account. Choose something easy to share verbally but not trivially guessable.
Save the settings.

Once enabled, TournaChess generates a dedicated login URL for your club's Guest TD account. Copy this URL and share it with your helpers along with the password. They can bookmark it for future use.

You can update the password, disable Guest TD access, or re-enable it at any time from the same settings dialog.

Guest TD settings

Guest TD login page

What Guest TDs can do

Guest TD accounts have a deliberately narrow set of permissions focused on day-of tournament operations:

Enter results: Record game outcomes as they finish during a tournament.
View pairings: See the current round's pairings and board assignments.
View entry lists: Check who is registered and in which section.

What Guest TDs cannot do

Guest TD accounts are locked out of everything that is not directly related to running a tournament in progress:

Create tournaments: Guest TDs cannot create new events.
Modify tournament settings: Configuration changes require a full TD, Admin, or Owner account.
Manage members: Guest TDs have no access to the member list, invitations, or role management.
Access club settings: The Settings page is hidden from Guest TD users in the navigation entirely.
Export data: No access to data export features.
Access other club features: Guest TDs are limited to tournament-day operations only.

When to use Guest TDs

Guest TD accounts are designed for short-term, low-trust scenarios where you need help but do not want to grant permanent club access. Common examples include a parent volunteer entering results at a scholastic tournament, a helper stationed at a results table during a large event, or a friend covering one section while you direct another.

Tip: Change your Guest TD password periodically, especially after large events where you shared it with multiple helpers. This keeps your club secure without needing to remove individual accounts.

Managing Roles

As your club evolves, you will need to promote, demote, and occasionally remove members. TournaChess provides straightforward tools for managing your team from the member management page.

Promoting members

Promoting a member gives them a higher role and the additional permissions that come with it.

Owners can promote any member to Admin or Tournament Director.
Admins can promote members to Tournament Director.

To promote someone:

Navigate to your club's member management page.
Find the member you want to promote.
Select their new role from the role dropdown or action menu.
Confirm the change.

The promotion takes effect immediately. The member gains access to all permissions associated with their new role the next time they load a page.

Demoting members

Demoting a member reduces their role and removes the associated permissions.

Owners can demote Admins to TD or Member, and can demote TDs to Member.
Admins can demote Tournament Directors to Member.

Admins cannot demote other Admins -- only the Owner can do that. And no one can demote the Owner.

Demotions take effect immediately. If a demoted member is currently logged in, their access is restricted the next time they navigate to a management page.

Removing members

Owners and Admins can remove members from the club.

The member loses access to all club features immediately.
Their past tournament results are preserved.
They can rejoin the club if they receive a new invitation.

This is useful for members who have moved away, lost interest, or otherwise no longer need to be part of the club, but where you want to leave the door open for them to return.

Manage roles

Tip: Before removing someone, consider whether demoting them to Member might be sufficient. Members have read-only access and cannot make any changes to your club, which may be enough to address the situation.

Next Steps

Now that you understand how roles and permissions work, explore these related guides:

Club Management -- Set up your club's settings, privacy controls, and member management workflows
Creating Tournaments -- Learn how to create and configure tournaments as a TD, Admin, or Owner
Running Tournaments -- Pairings, results entry, and round-by-round tournament management
Grand Prix -- Create a multi-tournament series with cumulative standings across events

Still have questions? Visit our Contact page to get in touch with TournaChess support.