Proposed Report-on-Disk Changes

File structure and information contained.

As the structure for the files included when a disk is submitted with a report duplicates our current files, the suggested changes will also need to be supported by our in-house files. I have made the assumption that the current system of having a set of files containing the data for the events not yet rated and the use of our current crosstable files for rated events or something similar will be kept. A different concept is up the designer and my use of the current system as a guide for the discussion should not be construed as a mandate for the system design.

Some of the goals I want to accomplish are:

Include necessary information to greatly reduce ID number errors and properly identify players where the ID number is not provided or incorrect.

Make it easier for the TDs to handle memberships.

Provide membership receipts to new and renewing members.

Simplify and speed up tournament processing where ID numbers need to be entered into a rating report.

Provide an automatic email report received capability.

Allow submission of reports by email or by the WWW.

Greatly reduce delay in rating reports while the TD is contacted for necessary information or corrections. One area I especially want to improve is validation of reported pairings and results.

Current problems:

The USCF computer system, the Tournament Administrator (TA), and the some pairing programs cannot handle creating rating reports for double or more round robins. This causes problems for both office staff and TDs when entering results and can slightly skew ratings as the games cannot be rated as one event unless converted to a swiss system input. The new format should separate the idea of the data format and the event type. This would allow greater flexibility when entering tournament data by the TDs but allow correctly formatted crosstables to be generated. Although a data purist might prefer that each game in a multi-round robin be reported separately, this might not fit the way all our organizers run these events. I suspect that we should allow for both separate and total score reports. Total score reports can cause problems when unplayed games are included. How do we handle the multiple possibilities here? Suggestions are appreciated.

The report-on-disk file contains no name information. This results in several problems:

A hard copy of the report must be submitted.

Because the disk report does not have all the information, a hard copy must accompany the disk report. With the inclusion of necessary information, this requirement will be avoided, making complete electronic submission possible. In addition to the member information, the information normally included on the official tournament report form must be included for complete electronic submissions. This should include a detailed financial report for money submitted. Some of the information should be:

By-section calculation of rating fees, crosstable fees, PHBF fees, and acknowledgement fees.

Membership financial details ( provision for including non player memberships)

Organizer and TD details.

One reason for the by-section calculation of the rating fees is because some tournaments have both scholastic and non-scholastic sections. I expect to have this changed to allow sections to be designated as scholastic in the USCF computer.

One possible idea is to have the USCF computer automatically send an email acknowledging receipt of the tournament report when logged as received to all TDs with an email address. The address would have to be included in the report.

With the organizer’s computer keeping name and address information for new and pending members, it would be nice to have a way to electronically update the database once the ID numbers are received by email. As soon as all the memberships are updated for an event, an email message would be generated with the names and ID numbers for the players without ID numbers for a given event. The TA or pairing program could then input and update this information.

It would be nice to be able to analyze things such as popular time controls. As many TDs will enter time control information into the pairing program, should we collect this data? Any other data? As TLAs are also being converted to a database, most information send in a TLA will be available.

Undetectable errors in ID numbers.

The report on disk does not include name information. If there is a typo or lookup error in an ID number, there is no automatic way to crosscheck this information. Although it would be best to have the error caught at the site, it does not always occur and we must be able to easily catch these type errors at the office. By requiring name information to be included in the rating report file, the computer can crosscheck the name against ID number and produce an error report. My actual goal would be to have sufficient information in the report to automatically look up and correct the ID number and allow the USCF data entry operator to approve the correction.

Manual entry of ID information required.

When a report is received without ID numbers for all the participants, the office staff has to look up and enter every player in this status. This can actually occur for 2 or three events until the TD gets the new ID numbers to use. We will get some scholastic events where our data enter clerks have to look up and enter 200-300 names for one event. Although our new system should simplify and speed up this process, I want to automate as much as possible. The discussion below makes suggestions to correct this problem also.

Difficulty in identifying the correct member.

This problem is greatly exasperated by our current system and I hope the new system will ease the work necessary and reduce the associated errors. However, I want new system to help both the TD and organizer as well. This may require some extra work by some TDs but the change should be a plus for all. Some of the problems that make this a difficult task are very common names and differences between the name on the membership form and the tournament wall chart.

I propose that the following information be required to be included to produce a report on disk where the ID number is not provided. (o) = optional but strongly encouraged. (R) indicates required regardless if ID number is provided.

(R) ID number (NEW if membership submitted with tournament, PENDING otherwise)

(R) Last name

(R) First name

Middle Init. (o) Strongly encouraged for all members.

Address (optional but strongly encouraged for pending, mandatory for new)

City

State

Birthdate (o)

Membership type

The ideal procedure would be to have the TD enter all the information for advance entries. For door entries, either the minimum be entered so the event can be started or the entire set of data be entered depending on how the TD likes to work. Before the event is completed, any missing information is entered and the computer prints out membership receipts to be signed by the TD and given to the members who joined or renewed at the event. This information should be automatically saved so the information can be recalled if another report is submitted before the ID numbers are received.

This information would be provided to the USCF on the disk to save data entry time. This will also save the TD the time needed to fill out the membership forms so the new and renewing members get a receipt. As both membership and wall chart information come from the same file, the name information should always be the same.

By providing the above information, our computer has sufficient information to either positively, tentatively, or not associate a name with an ID number without operator assistance.

Each field should have an positive indicator for a change to previously submitted data. Changes will only occur when the appropriate field is checked. This will allow a TD to submit change of address or corrections for the member.

The provided electronic information will reduce errors in memberships and will hopefully reduce the processing time and manpower needed to process memberships.

Pairing errors, score errors, cross-round pairings, duplicate ID numbers and missing files or data.

Theoretically, current users of the TA program need to correct pairing or result errors. Actually, they can override and force submission of a report. This can also occur at the USCF. One reason this is allowed is that no procedure exists for dealing with cross-round pairings. Unfortunately, this does allow actual errors to be included in the reports. The following errors constantly occur and require significant amounts of time to correct either by analysis or by contacting the TD involved. This can greatly delay rating an event. By checking the events before they are submitted and notifying the TD of the problems and requiring that they be fixed before being submitted, both office staff time and TD time is reduced.

Cross-round pairings

A reporting code to indicate and allow the computer to verify cross-round pairings needs to be developed. Suggestions for implementation methods for the report on disk is requested.

Invalid pairing or result.

With cross-round pairings eliminated as a source of error, all remaining errors should be actual mistakes and should require correction prior to submitting the event. Typical errors include

5 beat 3 but 3 drew 4, 7 forfeit win but 11 beat 7

Is it possible that programs need to be changed to permit different results for the tournament and for rating purposes? For example, players 5 and 12 play and do not appear or report the result in time before the next round pairings need to be done. TD gives both a loss for tournament purposes but later wants to properly report the game for rating purposes.

Duplicate / invalid ID Numbers.

ID numbers are checked within each section and an error report generated for the TD to fix. Some are valid such as re-entries. Others should be corrected. ID numbers should be checked to insure proper format. NEW or PENDING should not produce a duplicate error message.

Bad disk or files, missing files.

We receive several reports a week with these problems. Some are due to damage in the mail. Others occur through operator error. All validation should occur using the files saved to the floppy disk for submission. This should result in a good reduction these type errors. Once email or web submission is in place, the process should be automated to have the program verify and send the files eliminate potential operator error.

Other problems.

Residence is different then mailing address.

Your friend visits from another country. You or he wants to purchase a membership so he can play in a few events during the visit, he does not care about the magazine or you will mail them to him every 6 months or so. He has a FIDE rating. If you just list your address as his, it becomes difficult to identify his FIDE rating. Or he is visiting various cities around the US and it becomes difficult to associate the John Smith who joined in New York in March with the John Smithe who shows up in Chicago two weeks later. The program needs to be able to show his actual address as different from his Chess Life mailing address so we can properly identify him without the requirement to charge for a foreign address. This should be part of the membership module for the new TA program. This also applied for foreign GMs and Ims who are allowed to play in USCF rated events without becoming a member. We still need to assign an ID number and be able to identify him 2-3 years later so the correct rating information is used.

Identifying FIDE rated players.

The new rating system will use adjusted FIDE or CFC ratings for unrated players. Additionally, the FIDE ID numbers and ratings should be reported for USCF & FIDE rated events. Our organizers need a way to provide this information. Some would appreciate the ability to show FIDE information on their wall charts.

Problems such as these two are probably rare as a percentage of the total player pool and we may want to submit this information as a second file to keep the first file as small as possible. Please provide suggestions. Although our ability to provide FIDE ratings as part of a disk package may be restricted by FIDE and I don’t know what they might say, I believe that a cross-reference between FIDE and USCF ID numbers may be easily providable with the USCF rating supplements on disk.