VEGA

www.vegachess.com

Chess Pairing Software

Luigi Forlano (Italian Tournament Director)

Users Manual (20 December 2010)

Copyright Luigi Forlano 2003, 2010

INDEX 1. OVERVIEW AND MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS ...............................................................3 1.1 DOCUMENT CONVENTIONS ........................................................................................................3 1.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................................................4 1.3 INSTALLATION ...........................................................................................................................4 2. VEGA FOR INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENTS .........................................................................5 2.1 CREATING A NEW TOURNAMENT ...............................................................................................5 2.2 CLOSING THE REGISTRATION .....................................................................................................9 2.3 NEW PAIRING ............................................................................................................................9 2.4 RESULT ENTRY ........................................................................................................................11 2.5 CROSS TABLE AND OTHER USEFUL REPORTS ............................................................................13 TOURNAMENT WEB SITE ..............................................................................................................14 2.6 FILE DANGEROUS STUFF .....................................................................................................16 2.7 THE STANDING MENU ..........................................................................................................16 2.8 THE EXTRAS MENU .............................................................................................................18 2.9 THE RATING REPORT MENU ................................................................................................18 2.10 SPECIAL TASKS ......................................................................................................................19 3. VEGA FOR TEAM TOURNAMENT: VEGATEAM ............................................................29 3.1 CREATING A NEW TOURNAMENT .............................................................................................29 3.2 CLOSING THE REGISTRATION ...................................................................................................31 3.3 NEW PAIRING ..........................................................................................................................31 3.4 ENTERING THE RESULTS ..........................................................................................................32 3.5 UPDATE PLAYERS ....................................................................................................................32 3.6 IMPORTING PLAYERS FROM A FORMATTED DATABASE..............................................................32 APPENDIX A: THE DUBOV SYSTEM ......................................................................................33 APPENDIX B: VEGA AND THE DUBOV SYSTEM ................................................................36 APPENDIX C: FILE *.VEG..........................................................................................................41 APPENDIX D: FAQ .......................................................................................................................44 APPENDIX E: THE VEGA PAIRING SYSTEM........................................................................47 APPENDIX F: NOTES ON THE USCF SWISS IMPLEMENTED IN VEGA........................50 APPENDIX G: USCF RATING REPORT ..................................................................................51 APPENDIX H: DANUBIAN VARIATION OF THE DUBOV SYSTEM ................................53 APPENDIX I: ECF REPORT .......................................................................................................54 APPENDIX L: ADDING AN EXTERNAL PAIRING ENGINE...............................................55 APPENDIX M: SWISS SYSTEM WITH PROGRESSIVE ACCELERATION .....................57 APPENDIX N: TOURNAMENT WITH INDEPENDENT GROUPS. .....................................58

1. Overview and main recommendations

Vega consists of two programs for the administration of a chess tournaments; Vega for individual tournaments and VegaTeam for team tournaments. Vega has been designed in a way that reflects, as close as possible, the tasks of the arbiter during a tournament: 1. Registration of players. 2. Pairing the next round. 3. Entering results for the current round. 4. Compile the cross table and other lists for display to the players. During these steps some additional tasks are allowed such as managing withdrawals, printing positions, data correction, etc Vega monitors the user's activities and only offers permitted functions at the proper time. Vega includes the following functions: - Registration of up to 999 players and the evaluation of 20 rounds for the Swiss system or registration of up to 99 teams of 10 players each and the evaluation of 14 rounds. These limits can be changed. Registration of up to 24 players/teams for the round-robin system single and double. Automatic pairing according to the Swiss system: FIDE Dubov (certified by FIDE), FIDE Lim, FIDE Dutch, USCF, Swiss based on Buchholz (Vega). Manual pairing. Manual improvements to pairings. Management of odd numbers of players. Evaluation of results (1-0, 1/2, 0-1, 0-0, forfeited, adjourned games, etc...). Administration of the cross-table. Facility to change data (results, names, ratings etc.). The import of players from any formatted database. The export of players or an entire tournament. Management of withdrawals and re-entries. Entry of players arriving late during the tournament. Output of pairing lists, reports, cross-tables, lists of players standing, etc

- Generates web content of the tournament results. - Prize distribution according to the Hort system. - Accelerated rounds up to three groups. - Platform support for both Windows and Linux in native 32 bit mode. Although Vega has been designed to be very intuitive and easy to use, it is recommended that the user reads this manual and tries to simulate a few tournaments in order to learn all of its functions. The user must have some knowledge of the rules of the Swiss system and its implementation in Vega in order to properly manage pairing. There are occasions when manual pairing is required.

1.1 Document Conventions

Graphical labels referred to in the text are marked using bold text. Transition during menu navigation is marked using an arrow: File Exit Parameters to be substituted by the user are marked with <angled-brackets>.

1.2 System requirements

Vega runs on Linux and Windows operating systems from Windows XP onwards fitted with a hard disk and a graphic card capable of supporting a resolution of 800x600. A printer is recommended for the display of pairings and results during tournaments, although in principle Vega could be used without it. Vega will print only ASCII files. HTML output can be printed from the browser, but there is little control over page breaks. Vega may run even on a USB pen drive.

1.3 Installation
Windows version: Vega comes in the self-extracting archive VegaSetup.exe. To install the program just double click on the icon program and follow the instructions. Please do not install the program in the folders Desktop or Documents, instead use the usual directories of c:\programs\vega, c:\vega, etc... without spaces in the name of the installation folder. After installation, the program can be run from the start menu in the usual way. Please note that: Vega.exe refers to the version for individual tournament VegaTeam.exe refers to the version for team tournament

Linux version: VEGA comes in the compressed archive vegalinux.tar.gz. To install the program, the user should create an installation directory and then extract the contents of the archive using tar xvf vegalinux.tar.gz. VEGA will be installed in the directory ./vega. To run the program the user must change directory and enter the following command: ./Vega5 for individual tournament ./VegaTeam5 for team tournament

Custom Menu By default, Vega shows the menu in English. The user can select a different language using Select Language under the Extras menu. The program will need to be re-started for the changes to take effect. If necessary, the user can customise Vegas text labels by editing the message catalog as described in Appendix D. Unistall Vega Vega for Windows does not use any DLLs, so to uninstall the program, just run the uninstaller from the start menu. On Linux, simply erase the installation directory. Reporting Bugs The author will appreciate all comments, questions and bug reports (if any). E-mail: [email protected] License The user will find the program license in the installation directory. The user must be aware that by using the program, he accepts all terms of the license.

2. Vega for individual tournaments

In this tutorial the user will learn how to start a tournament, produce pairings, insert results and show the cross table in the standard way. Special tasks are covered in section 2.9. The working area of Vega consists of a menu bar, 3 tabbed pages (Players Archive, Round Manager, Output), and a status bar. From the File menu, the user has access to operations that involve the use of files and from the Extras menu, the user has access to special functions. In each of the tabbed pages, the user can perform very specific tasks the name of the page suggests what these tasks are. When the program starts the page titled Players Archive is shown:

menu bar tabbed pages player form

Click to sort registered players

Status bar and Database

2.1 Creating a new Tournament

To create a new tournament, select New Tournament from the File menu. A new form will prompt the user to enter essential information required for the tournament. It is possible to select one of seven different pairing systems: Round-robin single-round, round-robin double-round, FIDE Swiss Dubov (see appendix A), FIDE Swiss Lim, FIDE Swiss Dutch (see appendix O), Swiss Vega (see Appendix E) and Swiss USCF (see appendix F). For a brief guide on which Swiss system to use, see Appendix D: FAQ.

Please note that the Rounds variable will have no effect on round-robin systems, since they are managed automatically by Vega. The field Federation must contain the FIDE country code (3 characters). This information is important as it determines the national rating system and in the case of FIDE ratings, it affects the international norm. Vega uses a working directory <TournamentFolder> in which it will store all the files generated during the tournament. Each tournament has its own working directory, if a tournament has many sections, then each of them should have its own directory. This directory is set by pressing the button. It is recommended to avoid the use of spaces, accented and unusual characters (such as @...#.) when defining its name.

The name of the directory is used for some very important files generated during the tournament. If the user prefers to run a tournament with accelerated rounds, they can check the box Acc. rounds. Before closing the registration, Vega will prompt for the required parameters. The Use FIDE rating checkbox forces Vega to use FIDE ratings during pairing under the Swiss system and for performance rating calculations. Otherwise the national rating will be used.

NOTE: For FIDE tournaments: If the player is FIDE unrated (Rtg FIDE = 0), Vega will use his national rating for ranking and pairing purposes. NOTE: For national tournaments: If the player is unrated (Rtg Nat. = 0), Vega will use his FIDE rating for ranking and pairing purposes. NOTE for the ECF tournament director: If the user does not check the box Use FIDE rating and selects the ENG federation then the field Rtg Nat will be automatically treated as ECF grades. Even the grading performance is calculated according to the ECF rules. NOTE: The swiss system FIDE Dutch (Handbook FIDE C.04.1) is performed thanks to the pairing engine JaVaFo Roberto Ricca. JaVaFo needs the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) at least version 5, that can be downloaded from http://www.java.com (you need to have the privilege of administrator). The user can choose among different tie breacks. As far as the Buchholz system is concerned the user can chooce two different ways to calculate it depending by how to consider the unplayed game. This is done via the Use Buchholz Kallithea 2009 checkbox. If checked it forces Vega to follow the rule of 80th FIDE CONGRESS 2009 Kallithea, Greece Minutes of Swiss Pairings Programs Committee Meeting:
7. Handling of unplayed games in Swiss tournaments The committee agreed unanimously to handle unplayed games in Swiss tournaments as follow: There are two points of view: a. For the player himself who gets a result by default or is absent b. For the opponents in other rounds of the player who gets a reult by default a. The new style Buchhloz uses a virtual opponent to calculate the Buchholz score for a result by default. A virtual opponent has the same points at the beginning of the round and the result by default of a player is treated as a normal result, so a loss by default (by absence) is a win for the virtual opponent and vice versa. For each next round the virtual opponent gains half a point. b. For reducing the consequence for the opponents when calculating Buchholz, each result by default of a player is counted as a half point (draw) for the buchholz of the players opponents Examples: 1 In a 9 round swiss the player A achieves 6 points including a default win in round 3. After round 2 A had 2 points score. The contribution of round 3 for A is 2 + 0 + 6 x 0.5 = 5 points Buchholz The contribution of A for his opponents Buchholz is 5.5 2 In a 9 round swiss the player B was absent in round 7 and scored 6 points after round 9. After round 6 B had 4 points. The contribution of round 7 for B is 4 + 1 + 2 x 0.5 = 6 points Buchholz The contribution of B for his opponents Buchholz is 6.5

Otherwise will be used the old FIDE way: the unplayed game is counted as if the player drew with himself. Once finished filling in the form, the user must click on Done. To correct these settings later on, select Dangerous Stuff! Modify Tournament from the File menu.

After creating a new tournament, the user must enter player information. Players are entered by filling out the fields in the Edit Payer section and clicking Add Player, after which the data is moved to the bottom of the Player List. NOTE: Only the Name field is mandatory for adding a player. The user can sort the list by clicking the following header columns: ID, Name, Rtg Fide Rtg Nat. While the registration remains unclosed, the selected player can be moved up and down using CTRL + Up and CTRL + Down. To print the player list just click on Extras Print registered players. The information to be supplied during registration is: Name: Last and first name for a total of 25 characters. Fed: 3 characters for the Federation (country) of the player. For FIDE tournaments enter the exact FIDE code otherwise Vega will not calculate the resulting FIDE norm correctly. For unofficial tournaments, the field Fed can be used to enter the club or team name instead. This is useful if the arbiter want to avoid pairing players from the same club (see sections 2.3 (new pairing) and 2.7 (Rank Federation)). Birthday, 10 characters (default = 00.00.00); Gender: choose between Male and Female (default = M); Category: choose one of the listed category (default = the last value inserted). These are GM, WGM, IM, WIM, FM, WFM, CM, A, B, C, D, E, NC or -- (not classified). The categories M, A (=1N), B (=2N) , C (=3N), D, E are useful for national categories when players have no FIDE title (the categories 1N, 2N, 3N, are used in some Countries). ID FIDE: FIDE code in 8 digit format (default = 0). Rtg FIDE: current FIDE rating of the player (default = 0). ID Nat: player national code in 8 digit format (default = 0). Rtg Nat: current national rating of the player (default = 0). K: Coefficient for rating calculations (default = the last inserted value). The rating variation made by Vega uses the following FIDE formula: R = R0 + K i (P i PA i) Where R is the final rating, R0 is the initial rating, Pi is the player score result of round i (1, 0.5 or 0), PAi is the score probability depending upon the rating difference between the player and their opponent at round i. Vega can be modified in order to met specific requests from other Federations, in this case please contact the author. Status: A player can be in one of three possible states: Available, green square -the player will participate in the next round; Not available, red cross -the opposite case; Byed if he got a half point BYE, red 1/2 - that is a draw to forfeit the next round. A player maintains their status until the user changes it by clicking their status checkbox.

Player

available:

he

will

be

present

in

the

next

pair;

Player got a half point BYE: he draw to forfeit the next round: no opponent, no color, no contribution for tie break (see 2.10.4 ) Player Not available: he will be absent in the pair of the next round.

NOTE: By default the players awarded by a point BYE get no contribution for the tie breaks. Refer to section 2.10.4 in case the user decides otherwise. To modify a player already added, the user should: 1. Select the player in the Player list. 2. Modify its data. 3. Click on Modify Player. To delete a player the user should: 1. Select the player in the Player list. 2. press the button Remove Player. The player and tournament data is saved in the file <TournamentFolder>.veg. In our example it is rome2008.veg. To quit the working session, the user should select Exit from the File menu. To resume an old session, select Open Tournament from the File menu and look for files with a *.veg extension in the working directory.

2.2 Closing the Registration

When the user has finished inserting the players, click the Close Registration button to start the tournament. Once the registration is closed, it is not possible to remove players, only modify existing ones. The user can add late entrants by pressing the Add Player button (see section 2.7.7 for details).

2.3 New Pairing

The pairing is performed in the Round Manager page. From left to right the buttons perform the following operations:

Verbose output: when it is checked, for each round N, Vega stores 3 files: 1. verboseN.txt : Contains all the steps made by VEGA to produce the final pairing, except the color allocation task. 2. ScoregroupN-0.sgr : Contains the players distributed in the score groups before the pairing.

3. ScoregroupN-1.sgr : For Swiss Dubov pairings only, it contains the players distributed in the score groups after some operation to equalize the score group just before the pairing. By examining these files, the user can check the output of Vega. The program shows the application of rules for the selected pairing system. Using the Dubov system, a typical output for a score group calculation is as follows:
----------------------------------------------Group 2: score = 1.5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------9 1890.0 2355 F | 8 2264.5 2400 15 2240.0 2130 | 22 2327.5 1850 3 2272.5 2579 N |

This shows the white and black players with their ID, ARO and rating, together with the state of the c and u flag. c indicates the player can change their duecolor. When c=F the duecolor is fixed, i.e. the player has an absolute color preference. u indicates the player can upfloat, i.e. if he can be transferred to a higher score group. When u=N this is not possible. The following is a typical output of the verbose file:
================================ Pairing group 3 ================================ [Ch 7.1] ISLANDs: they are: 2 5, 10 > moving player 10 from [W 3] to floater group 3 > moving player 9 from [B 6] to opponent group 3 > moving player 5 from [B 3] to floater group 3 > moving player 8 from [W 6] to opponent group 3 Total pairs in the group 3 ***** 10 - 9 ***** 5 8

The score group 3 had two islands, i.e. players that have no compatible opponent in their score group. These players have IDs 5 and 10 and Vega proceeds to their pairing as per Chapter 7.1 of the Dubovs system. The code [W 3] means White subgroup in the score group number 3 and so on. The floater group and its corresponding opponent group are special logical groups (internal to Vega) used to transition islands and floaters that occur during pairing. The detailed information helps the user keep track of the work done by Vega. Accept WWW/BBB: When this is checked, Vega allows pairings in which a player can have the same color three times in a row. This option is useful to force pairing between players with a perfect score (players who have won all their games), which might otherwise be possible due to the color allocation rule. This situation can occur easily when the number of players is less than or equal to 2R, where R is the programmed number of rounds. NOTE: For the Dubov system, this option conflicts with the FIDE rules and cannot be used in a FIDE tournament.

For the Lim system, this is automatically taken into account in the last round and cannot be used in FIDE tournaments before the last round. Danubian variant: When this is checked Vega uses a different rule for article 7.2 of the Dubov system (see appendix H for details). Avoid same Federation: When this is checked Vega will avoid pairing players belonging to the same federation. Memo: By pressing this button, the user can write notes and choose which round they should be reminded in. At the start of that round, the icon becomes yellow. Automatic: Instructs Vega to produce pairings according to the selected pairing system. Vega stores the result of the pairing the file pairsN.man. The format of a *.man file consists of a number in the first row indicating the number of pairs, followed by the player IDs of each pair in successive rows. This is a typical *.man file containing 11 pairs:
11 5 2 17 10 16 13 8 9 11 3

In the case of an odd number of players, depending on the pairing system, Vega automatically assigns a BYE. The fictitious player is assigned with ID = 0 and a name of __BYE__. Manual: The user can create their own pairing and Vega will check the legality of each inserted pair. More details about this important function can be found in section 2.9.1. Verbose: Open a window showing the contents of the files verboseN.txt and ScoregroupN-0.sgr. NOTE: This button will work only if the Verbose button was active before the pairing. Print Pairing: Print the pairing in the pairing list. NOTE: The user can exchange the colors of a pair by a double clicking on the selected pair. Improve colors: Permits a quick exchange of colors. See the Appendix for details. Modify Pairing: Permits modification of the current pairing. See manual pairing for details.

2.4 Result Entry

The results are entered using the Insert Result section in the Round Manager page. It is possible to enter results of the current round or modify those of past rounds. The results are entered by choosing a pair in the pairing list and then clicking on the button corresponding to the result:

The F denotes a forfeit. Alternatively, the user can enter the result by pressing the following keys: 1 : 1 - 0, 0 : 0 1, 5 : - , 3 : 1F 0F, 4 : 0F 1F, 2 : 0F 0F, 7 : adj = adjourned (it is equivalent to - for pairing purpose) 9: skip result The consequences of a forfeit in Vega are: 1. For the purpose of rating variations, the game is considered as not played for both players (so that they can be paired again in subsequent rounds). 2. The winner will get +1 point. 3. The color for that round is considered NO_COLOR for both players. 4. For tiebreak purposes, it will be counted as if the player drew with himself (FIDE rule). The Buchholz tie breack will be handled as specified at the tournament definition. The special point BYE given instead by the arbiter in the Status coloumn is counted for tiebreak purposes as if the player drew with an opponent having 0 points and 0 rating. In this way he gets no contribution for tiebreak. In order to reproduce others behaviour see section 2.10.4. The pair with the BYE is assigned an ID = 0 and the name BYE. The user will choose the result to assign to the BYEs opponent as usual (the default it is 1F-0). NOTE: The user can exchange colors of a pair by a double clicking on that pair. NOTE: To restart entry from the first pair, press the ENTER key. A non standard result, for example - 0, 0 , 0 0, can be assigned using the button non standard and filling out the following form:

See Appendix D: FAQ, question 15 for further info about non standard results.

After choosing a result, Vega will automatically move on to the next pair. The results should all be entered before performing a new pairing or modifying an old one. If the user is not able to finish this operation in one session then they can Save the data and Exit from Vega. Upon restarting, Vega will remind the user to finish entering the round. Once entry is complete, Vega will automatically update the Cross Table. NOTE: Each time the user wants to update the cross table and ranking list, after modifying the tiebreak criteria or the name of a player for example, they must press the Update Cross Table button. The data concerning the tournament is stored in the file <TournamentFolder>.veg. It is a common ASCII file and is updated when the user presses Save Tournament. Although it can be modified using most editors, the user should not do so for risk of seriously damaging the tournament data. However in some very special cases, the expert user might need to edit them to recover data quickly or to modify the tournament. In this manner the arbiter has a total control over the tournament. If the user wants to correct results or just show previous pairings, they must first choose the round. To this end, select the round number in the round field. All the pairings for that round are displayed and the user can, as usual, select the pair and the result. After entering the results for a round, say round 5, Vega produces a backup file named <TournamentFolder>-VEG-5.bak. If for some reason the normal file is damaged, the backup can be re-loaded using Dangerous Stuff! Load Round from the File menu.

2.5 Cross Table and other useful reports

Moving on to the Output page, the user can visualize and print several files. All the data files generated by Vega are in text format, although they have several different extensions. A few generated files have the extension QTF and when printed, result in higher quality output. These files are in Rich Text Format and can be modified within Vega using the UWord editor, by pressing the button. button. All other files can be opened with the

Files relevant to the tournament can be shown by pressing the buttons in the Output page. They are: Cross Table, Standing, Board Cards, Player Cards, Pairing, . . : labels to put on the table. : history card of the players. .

Result,

Print, : permits to print the content of the window. The number in the box indicates the point-size of the text to be printed and not of the text to be showed in the window. The user can print the selected text with the before printing commences. Rating Variation, . button. A preview is shown

Here is the list of relevant files generated by Vega:

Filename
verbosN.txt tourstat.txt tourstat.html <TournamentFolder>.veg standing.txt standing.qtf scoregroupsNend.txt scoregroupsN.txt resultN.txt rankgrp.txt rankdate.txt rankcat.txt playerlist.txt playercd.txt pairsN.txt pairsN.man pairsN.qtf pairsRR.txt Round-robin calendar Elo Rating Report for FIDE FIDE cross table Summary of rating performance for each player FIDE history card Elo variation Rating variation depending on the result of the current game Cross table Board card Generated Web pages Score groups after pairing (only Dubov system) Score group before pairing Game results at round N Players ranked in several Elo intervals Players ranked in several intervals specified by their birthday Standing by categories Registered players History card Pairing at round N Tournament file archive Standings

Description
Pairing explanation at round N Tournament statistics

FIDE-<TournamentFolder>.txt
fidecros.txt fidenorm.txt fidecard.txt elovar.txt eloprev.txt crosstable.txt boardcrd.txt boardcrd.qtf *.html

Tournament WEB Site

Throughout the tournament, Vega generates Web content in HTML format, in a directory called www<TournamentFolder> (as a subdirectory of the working directory). In this directory, the site home page is a file called index.html. A banner for all pages on the site can be added by putting an image file named logo.jpg into the directory. The user that

wants to publish the site must publish on a server all the files presents in www<TournamentFolder>. The web content is automatically updated by Vega while the tournament proceede. In order to force the upgrade of the site the user must press the button Update Cross Table button. . The user can tune the site using WWW site manager from the Extra menu.

Link pgn file game: if checked the pgn game are available for download; Add rating report FIDE, Add rating report Nat: if checked it is created a html page with the rating (Elo) report relative to FIDE or National federation (currently mostly oriented toward the Italian federation); Use country flag: if checked a country flag will appear in coincidence of the country name. It is possible to install a pgn viewer able to read the pgn games generated by Vega. So far have been tested on server linux the viewers MyChess (www.mychess.com) and DHTML Chess (http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com). Both are freeware. In the following is described how to install MyChess being almost identical the procedure to install DHTML Chess.

Download and unzip on your computer the program MyChess. Copy all files and directories of MyChess on a directory of the server. Lets call this directory mychess/ although its name is arbitrary. Copy the file vegaviewer-mychess.php from the directory pgnviever (inside the Vega installation directory) on the directory mychess/. Then rename the file exactly as vegaviewer.php. Take note of the server directory in which vegaviewer.php stays and put it on the field pgn viewer in the previous window. In the field relative path games insert the relative path between mychess/ and the directory of the server that will contain a mirror of www<TournamentFolder>. The viewer is now installed and nothing more should be done in the directory containing MyChess. NOTE: the previous name of the directories should end with the backslash / In the box External links the user may add the links to external pages of the site. All of them will appear under the men item Festival (see picture on the right side). The link and its alias should be each on a row. The box ftp site parameters should be filled with the usual parameters to enter the site in case the user want to use the embedded ftp client. The field folder will contain the www<TournamentFolder> generate by Vega. The button Generate local site permits to create the web content in case one o more files are missing or damaged.

2.6 File Dangerous Stuff

Delete Round will delete the current round and bring Vega to the state of Waiting a pairing in the previous round. Vega stores all the data of past rounds so the tournament can be undone right back to the first round this way. Reset Tournament will return Vega to the first round with the same players, including the late-comers. This could be useful during a simulation of the tournament. Modify Tournament permits the modification some of the tournament parameters. Please note that the system of play can only be changed by reopening the registration. Reopen Registration will return Vega to the state it was in before closing the registration. The arbiter must once more close the registration to start the tournament. Load Round will re-load the round file at round N from backup, if for some reason the normal file is damaged.

2.7 The Standing Menu

Sorted Cross Table produces a cross table in which the ID of each player is regenerated and sorted by rank. In the case of the round-robin system, it is saved in the file crosrr.txt with the ID regenerated in ranking order:
N NAME Elo cat nat score | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 ANDREW GEORGE 2 LOAN FRED 3 ARMENTANO ALESSIO 4 KIM JO 5 MITTER MARY 6 CATAPANO FRANCESCO 7 HOLTON GEORGE 8 KASPIROV TOMMY 9 FORLANO LUIGI 10 FRANCIS JOHN

2130 2355 1980 2300 2145 1850 1930 2080 1950 2300

FM USA IM USA FM ITA IM KOR GM FRA A ITA M USA FM USA A ITA IM ENG

6.50 | 6.00 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 5.50 | 3.50 | 3.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 |

# 0 0 1 % % % 0 0 0

1 # % 0 0 0 % % % 0

1 % # 0 % 0 0 1 0 %

0 1 1 # % % 0 0 0 %

% 1 % % # % 0 0 % 0

% 1 1 % % # 1 0 % %

% % 1 1 1 0 # 0 1 %

1 % 0 1 1 1 1 # % 0

1 % 1 1 % % 0 % # 1

1 1 % % 1 % % 1 0 #

Missing Point Score System: This is a new way to calculate the final standing in a Swiss tournament. The method pretends to transform the Swiss system into a round-robin tournament and tries to predict the results of games amongst players that were not paired in the Swiss tournament. This is performed by analysing the cross table and the relationships between all players via their common opponents. The details of the pairings are saved in the file mpscorelog.txt, while the new ranking is stored in mpscore.txt. Further details can be found at www.vegachess.com/Swiss/missingpoint.htm Rank Rating Group. This generates the file rankgrp.txt, containing ranked groups of players, the groups being defined by specifying rating ranges. Rank Date Group. Generates the file rankdagr.txt, containing ranked groups of players, the groups being defined by specifying birthday ranges. This option is very useful for school tournaments. The date format is ddmmyy. There is no control over the format of this date. Be aware that if yy<15, it means 20yy, otherwise it means 19yy. Assign Prize (Hort system). This system aims to better distribute the prize money amongst players on same points at the end of the tournament. Here is an example of this system; suppose 4 players share the same place. The four prizes are as follows: 1st 10.000, 2nd 8.000, 3rd 6.000, 4th 4.000. We have to split 28.000. We split this amount in two equal parts, of each 14.000. The first part will be split equally and each player receives 3.500. The second part will be split according to the ranking after a tie break. #1 receives 3.500 + 5.000 = 8.500 #2 receives 3.500 + 4.000 = 7.500 #3 receives 3.500 + 3.000 = 6.500 #4 receives 3.500 + 2.000 = 5.500 (Please note that the amounts 5.000, 4.000, 3.000 and 2.000 are just half of the original prizes) Rank Federation. This saves a ranking of all chess federations participating in the tournament, to the file rankFed.txt. The points for an individual federation/team is the points total of all the players in that team. It also shows the ranking applied individually to the first 4 boards. The players in each team are ranked using their initial rating. Rank Categories. This writes a ranking of players grouped by their grading categories to the file rankcat.txt. Set Festival. This permits to indicate the sections of a tournament. A drop down menu will appear on the right side of the menu bar listing all the sections. The user can quickly jump among the sections selecting them. Before to open a new section the current one is automatically saved.

2.8 The Extras Menu

Backup *.veg file. This saves a backup of the tournament VEG file using a BAK extension. Round Robin Calendar. This saves all the pairings in a round-robin tournament to the file pairsRR.txt. Add external pairing engine. See Appendix L. Make Badge. It prepares form with key words to be filled with values referring to the tournament data. The form should be in the folder /badgetemplate in the installation folder. They can be prepared/modified by using the integrate editor in the page Output (icon These are the key words that can be used:
##PLAYERNAME : player name ##TOURNAMENTNAME : tournament name ##RTGFIDE : FIDE rating ##RTGNAT : Rating/grade national Rating/grade ##RTG : Rating/Grade used for pairing ##PLAYERID : player ID during the tournament ##DATAB : tournament begin date ##DATAE : tournament end date ##TITLE : player title ##TOURNAMENTPLACE : place tournament ##COUNTRY : player federation ##IMAGE : player federation flag ).

2.9 The Rating Report Menu

From this menu it is possible to generate several rating reports intended for submission to a number of Chess federations. FIDE:
1. 2. 3. 4.

Rating Report permits insertion of new data and the creation of a rating report to be sent to FIDE (file fideelo.txt). History Card contains the player cards of all FIDE rated players and those unrated players that have played against at least 3 FIDE rated players. Find Norm produces the file fidenorm.txt containing a list of players and their performance relative to the various title norms (GM, IM, WGM, WIM). Tournament statistics. This reports general statistics of the tournament to the file tourstat.txt. It contains the number of federations, number of rated and unrated FIDE players, titled players, etc. FIDE Certificate: saves the files fidenormID=NasX.txt (in text format) and fidenormID=NasX.html (in HTML format) containing the FIDE norm certificates: N is the player ID, and X is the sought norm (GM, IM, WGM, WIM).

5.

WARNING: Vega performs the calculation regarding the rating (substitute the rating floor where occur) and produces a detailed report. It is responsibility of the Arbiter to check that all the FIDE requests are present in order to validate the certificate (i.e. number of unrated, number of titled players, etc...). USCF: This generates the files used by USCF (USA) for rating reports (see appendix G for details). FSI: This generates rating reports for the Italian chess federation. ECF: generates rating reports for the English chess federation. Rating report for other federations can be provided free of charge. Please contact the author.

2.10 Special Tasks

2.10.1 Manual Pairing (not for the round-robin system) Vega provides easy insertion of manual pairings. This is done by pressing the button Manual. The pairing continues by filling in the fields labeled White and Black, then pressing the button Add Pair. The user can enter IDs with the mouse by selecting the players in the list at the top right of the window. In this list the players are sorted by score, rating and name; it even shows their duecolor (Col) and whether is changeable or fixed (c=F). The pair is accepted only if it is legal. The user need not be concerned about the colors because Vega will assign it automatically when the user press the Done button. Only in the first round will Vega will accept colors entered by the user. NOTE: it is recommended that the user has a clear idea about which pairs he wants to add and write down them on paper before proceeding. The user can change the order of the pair or assign a table to a particular pair by selecting the pair and then pressing the keys CTRL+Up or CTRL+Down. If the user just wants to check the legality of a pair, they should press the Verify Pair button. To remove an inserted pair the user must press the Remove Pair button. The function Load Pairing allows loading of pairings in the *.man format specified in section 2.3. Please note that Vega will not check the validity of the pairing loaded in this way. This could be useful if the expert user needs to insert unusual pairings, such as one in which a player will face the same opponent a second time. However the user should be very careful with this option and they are advised to load only pairings saved by Vega itself.

The button Save Pairing will write the currently inserted pairings to a file specified by the user. This is useful if there are many pairs to insert and the work cannot be completed in one session. During the entry, Vega shows the number of the remaining players to be inserted and the number of pairs already inserted. In some cases the user might find it useful to load the pairing produced by Vega after pressing the Automatic button (see section 2.3). To obtain a preliminary pairing by Vega, the user should press the Automatic button and then delete it. Afterwards, the user will find the file *.man corresponding to the current round. NOTE: the BYE (ID = 0) can be assigned manually in the same pairing as many times the user wants. When entry is finished, the user can click Done. Vega will correctly assign the colors (except in the first round) and return to the Round Manager page, waiting for a command. 2.10.2 Export Data The File Export function is useful when the user wants to extract the personal data of the players to be used in other tournaments. There are three possibilities: Export All Players, Export Tournament, and Export Selected Player. i) Export All Players: With this option, the data for every player is exported to a text file. The format of the file, called Vega format, is very simple and can be managed by any spreadsheet or text editor. It consists of a first row with the name of the fields followed by the data for each player in subsequent rows separated by a comma. Below shows the first 7 lines of a typical file:

NAME;COUNTRY;BIRTHDAY;GENDER;TITLE;IDFIDE;ELOFIDE;IDNAT;ELONAT;KCOEFF KASPAROV GARRY KARPOV ANATOLY GAVRIKOV VIKTOR ; RU;13.04.63;m;IGM; 4100018; 2830; 0; 0; 0 ; RU;23.05.51;m;IGM; 4100026; 2693; 0; 0; 0 ; LT;29.07.57;m;IGM;12801747; 2570; 0; 0; 0

KUPREICHIK VIKTOR D; BL;03.07.49;m;IGM;13500066; 2501; 0; 0; 0 KUPOROSOV VIKTOR ; RU;26.09.61;m; IM; 4100999; 2470; 0; 0; 0 KRASNOV VIKTOR A. ; RU;24.09.50;m; NC; 4161319; 2444; 0; 0; 0 ...

The maximum length of each field is the following: - NAME: 25 characters; - COUNTRY: 3 characters; - BIRTHDAY: data in the format dd.mm.yy or ddmmyyyy (8 characters); - GENDER: 1 character (m or f). - TITLE: 3 characters; - ID FIDE: 8 characters - ELOFIDE: 4 digits; - ID NAT: 8 characters - ELONAT: 4 digits; - KCOEFF: 2 digits; The players in this archive can be loaded later with the option Connect Database Vega, as described in section 3.3. ii) Export Tournament. This option is useful in tournaments with many sections. In this situation it is best to have one large tournament, then extract the data for each section, selecting the rating range for each of them (see below):

The user can select players by their national rating, FIDE rating, or both. In any case, each section should be exported to its own directory (folder) -do not mix the sections in the same directory. The exported players are not removed from the current large tournament. iii) Export Selected Player: This option is useful when the user wants to move a player from one section to another (note that the player is not removed from the current section). The user should select the player to be moved from the current section and then select the VEG file of the destination section. This VEG file must not be in use by a running Vega session otherwise the modification will be lost.

2.10.3 Importing players from a formatted database Vega can import players from any formatted text database by using the database tabbed pages in the lower part of the window. The user can defines up to three different databases and work with them simultaneously.

The wanted database is choosen with the option Set DB. Then Vega must be informed about which fields to import and where they are. This is done by pressing the Set Filter button. The following window will appear:

The previous picture shows the case in which the user wants to import the fields Name, Rating, Title, Country, Birthday, ID code and Gender (the corresponding check boxes are pressed). Then for each field the user inserts the column from which begin to read that field (the first column of the record start from 0). For example in the FIDE database the Rating begin at column 53. The length of each field is fixed by VEGA. The selected filter can be saved for reuse using Save Filter and the filters filename should have an FLT extension. It can be reloaded later with Load Filter. Vega comes with fide.flt to help import the FIDE data. By clicking Done, the filter becomes active.

After the filter has been defined, the user must enter a string of at least 5 characters long. If the user enters the string ***** all the players in the database are shown. The user should ensure there is enough memory in the computer to avoid a program crash that might be caused by loading a huge database. The predefined databases does not need a filter. Vega will show all the players matching the entered string (the search is not case sensitive). To add a player to the tournament, the user must: Select a player. Double click the selected player or press the ENTER key.

A DB of type Fixed Length is treated in the same manner to that described above, but the rating and ID data populates the national fields instead of the FIDE ones. The user can configure a filter for their own database providing it has fixed length fields. The DB type Vega and VegaFSI (Italy) are the easier in that they dont need a filter and contain both FIDE and national data. In particular, the first one is the native format of Vegas archive (see section 3.2 for details), while the last one is the format of the Italian Chess Federation. The option Update button is useful when the ratings have changed and the arbiter needs to synchronize them with the newest value contained in the database. To perform such task it is used the player ID and his last name in the selected database. Please note that in case of the FIDE database will be not updated those players inserted initially from a national database (they show even a national ID). To update these players the operation should be performed with the previous national database. 2.10.4 Vesus (Vega Subscription System) It is an integrated system that permits the online registration of the players and successive tournament publication. It has been realized by Santino Puleio and on the site www.vesus.org is present a tutorial. By using Vesus the TD creates a chess event; the players register online to the tournament; then TD using Vega download all the registered players and can publish the tournament round by round. The system at the moment is based only on the FIDE and FSI (Italian chess federation) database, but in future will be extended to other Federation. Please contact Santino for further information. 2.10.5 How to modify the Cross Table of late entrants or byed players. The user can award the late entrants with points (gained against the BYE) in the round in which they were absent. This procedure can be used even to modify the results against the BYE. For example, if a player enter at round 3 and the user want give him a draw in round 1 and 2: 1. Select a player in the All Players page. 2. Double click on the desired player.

3. Fill out all the fields and press Ok. Please note that the results inserted this way will not appear in the list of pairs. This just modifies the cross table, so this procedure should only be used in rare cases for assigning a BYE. Please note that a result of Null means the game for that round has not been played. If the box Valid for the tie break is unchecked then that game is not considered for tie break purpose, i.e. the players get 0 in case of Buchhoz calculation. 2.10.6 Treatment of late entrants (only Swiss system) This is for players that did not communicate their participation in the tournament and arrive after the first round has started, when player registration cannot be reopened. The late entrants are added using the Edit Player section in the Players Archive page. Their registration proceeds as that of normal players with the exception that they cannot be deleted, only modified when necessary. Vega assigns consecutive IDs to each late entrant as they are entered. Usually the user manually pairs these players against themselves. NOTE: it is recommended that the user forms a clear idea about what pairs they want to add and writes them down on paper before proceeding! For example, we closed the registration with 58 players and generated the pairing for the first round. Then 6 late entrants arrive. Vega will assign them the IDs 59, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 64. Lets suppose the user wants to pair them in this way:
59 60 61 62 63 64

To let Vega to add these new pairs the user must press the Modify Pairing button. The window for manual pairing appears and at this point, the user can add the new pairs listed above. This way the new pairs will appear in the normal pairing list. NOTE: The Modify Pairing button can be activated only for the current round (the pairing of the previous rounds cannot be modified). 2.10.7 Importing results from an external file In a large blitz tournament with several hundreds pairs, it is convenient to work with many computers. Each arbiter has one computer and will insert the results for a subset of the

total pairings. This task is performed using another program, which will collect all the results and produce a text file with an extension of *.res in following format:
1st row: number_of_pairs current_round id_black code_result and for each successive row: id_white

The value for code_result is that which is reported on the tooltips over buttons in the Insert Result section of the Round Manager page. For example the first 6 rows of such a file could be:
16 9 8 7 19 1 7 10 2 3 5 17 1 0 1 5 3

2.10.8 Improving colors Vega automatically assigns the correct color to each player1. However in some cases the arbiter might decide to assign them manually to refine the pairing, exchanging colors. Press the Improve colors button in the Round Manager page. A new window will appear (see below) showing the details of the pairs in the current round. The user should pay attention to the colored squares because their colors have special meaning. In fact the duecolor white is indicated by a white square, the duecolor black is signalled by black square. A blue square appears for players that have no duecolor, for example at round 2, after a forfeit game. Inside the square there is smaller square that is red if the player has a fixed duecolor, or green if the player can change their duecolor.

If using the USCF Swiss system, Vega will, after the so called natural pairing (upper half vs bottom half), improve the color distribution using the Look Ahead method th described in the USCF Official Rules - 5 edition. See Appendix F for further details.

To improve the colors the user should avoid, or at least minimise the number of pairs, in which both players have the same duecolors. To this end he should exchange these players by using transposition (exchange between players in the same column) or interchanges (exchange between players in different columns). To exchange two players the user should press the ID-buttons of the selected players. Their IDs will appear in right hand side of the window. Just below this appears the rating difference involved in the exchange. With the button Exchange Players the user can exchange the players. Vega will inform the user about the legacy of the proposed exchange. If the user needs only to know if the two selected players are compatible they should press the button Verify Pair. To accept the new pairing the user should press Done otherwise press Cancel to abandon all the changes. NOTE: Some expert USCF TDs prefer to improve the colors themselves after natural pairing. Vega saves the natural pairing at round N in a file named natpairN.man. This pairing can be first loaded with the option Modify Pairing and then improved using the Improve colors option.

2.10.9 Accelerated rounds The option Extra Set Groups for accelerated rounds allows the definition of up to three groups of players. The user can choose the boundary of the groups, in terms of rating, by using the context menu (right click on the mouse). See picture below:

The right hand side of the window shows the details of each group after the limits have been chosen. Acceleration works by adding a fictitious number of points to each players score based on which group they are in. When it comes to pairing, the groups are separated by virtue of the fact that the players are, at least initially, on a different number of points. The user should set the fictitious points for each group and the number of accelerated rounds after which the fictitious points are removed. Please note that during the pairing, the total score of each player (real score + fictitious points) is shown in brackets:

It is possible to run the tournament using a system of acceleration that allows the groups to merge more progressively based on the score of the players. For higher scoring players, the acceleration is increased by half points, effectively decreasing the acceleration difference between them and those in higher groups (see Appendix M). This variant (invented in France) can be activated by clicking the Decreasing Acceleration checkbox.

3. Vega for team tournament: VegaTeam

Most of the features described in section 2 are also valid for the team version. However there are a number of differences that are covered in this section.

3.1 Creating a new Tournament

To create a new tournament proceed as with Vega with File New Tournament in the menu bar. A new form will prompt the user to enter essential information to define the tournament. In particular there are two new fields: Boards is the number (max 10) of players that will sit at the tables to play. Max Bo. is the total number of members in a team, i.e. it is Boards plus the reserves. The max value is 10. Pairing score is the principal score used to rank the teams and to realize the pairing. The user has two possibilities: Sum Player Results. All points scored by individual players (0 for losses, for draw, and 1 for wins) are accumulated. Match Points. Points 0, 1, or 2 are assigned to the team after each match. For example, if team A faces team B with 6 players with result of +3 =2 1, then team A gets 2 points and team B gets zero points.

As far as the Tie Break is concerned, the user should be aware that Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger systems are calculated over the pairing score selected from the dropdown above. Moreover the Av. Rat. Opp. is the Average Rating Opponent and Weighted Boards, is a sum of individual results where each board is weighted by the following factors: 1 board = 1.9 2 board = 1.7 3 board = 1.5 4 board = 1.3 5 board = 1.1 6 board = 0.9 7 board = 0.7 8 board = 0.5 9 board = 0.3 10 board = 0.1 The Koya system is calculated with respect the match point.

NOTE: The swiss system FIDE Dutch (Handbook FIDE C.04.1) is performed thanks to the pairing engine JaVaFo Roberto Ricca. JaVaFo needs the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) at least version 5, that can be downloaded from http://www.java.com (you need to have the privilege of administrator). JaVaFo works even with VegaTeam only if the standing is based on
match points.

After creating a tournament, the user must provide information regarding teams and their composition in the Edit Team box. The entry of a team is performed by filling the fields Team Name, Origin, Federation, IsAvailable status and clicking on Add Team. The data is moved down in the team list and the overall rating of the team is assigned automatically as described below. Team Name is the only mandatory field required to add a team. To add a player, double click on a row and insert the data as usual. The players with green status will participate in the next match. No more than Boards players can be available at any one time. Each added team is assigned a rating calculated as the average of its first Boards number players with the greatest rating (the position of a player at the table do not affect the average rating). For example, in a team of six players with rating: 2600, 2600, 2300, 2300, 2600, 2600, and Boards = 4, the average rating of the team is 2600. The players can be sorted in different ways by simply clicking on the header of a given column. The button Default Status set available the first Boards players. To change a team that has already been added, the user should: 1 Select the team in the Team list. 2 Modify its data and eventually modify the player list. 3 Click on Modify Team. To delete a team the user should: 1. Select the player in the Team list; 2. Click on Remove Team.

3.2 Closing the Registration

When the user has finished entering the teams, they must click on the Close Registration button to start the tournament. A unique pairing number is assigned to each team. Each player is assigned a unique number using the formula: ID_player = (ID_team 1) x 10 + Board, where Board is from 1 to 10 When the registration is finished it is not possible to delete a team. The user can only modify the present team.

3.3 New Pairing

The pairing is performed in the usual manner.

3.4 Entering the Results

The window is split in two parts. The top part shows the pairing amongst teams, while the bottom part shows the pairing amongst the corresponding players. The result should be entered into the bottom part. VegaTeam will automatically move on to the next match when all players have got their results.

match result: 1-0, 0-1, -, 1F-0F, 0F-1F, 0F-0F

3.5 Update Players

It sometimes happens that a few players in a team must be substituted at the last moment. In this case the pairsN.txt file still contains the name of the previous players. To update all files in this situation, the user should make available the new players, make unavailable the old ones, and then press the Update Players button. This option works even with rounds already played (this is useful to correct errors in previous rounds).

3.6 Importing players from a formatted database

VegaTeam can import players from any formatted textual database by using the option File Connect Database, just as Vega does. Position of the imported player

Appendix A: The Dubov System

C.04.3. The DUBOV Swiss Pairing System (Based on Rating) Approved by the 1997 General Assembly. Preface: The DUBOV Swiss Pairing System is designed to maximise the fair treatment of the players. This means that a player having a higher rating performance than another player during a tournament should have more points as well. If the average rating of all players is nearly equal, like in a round-robin tournament, the goal is reached. As a Swiss System is a more or less statistical system, this goal can only be reached approximately. The approach is the attempt to equalise the average rating of the opponents of all players of a score group. Therefore the pairing of a round will pair players who have played low rated players before with players having high ratings now. 1. Introductory definitions "R" is the rating of a player "ARO" is the average rating of a players opponents. ARO must be calculated after each round as basis of the pairings. The "due color of a player is white", - if he has played more games with black than with white before - if these numbers are equal and he has played black his previous game. The "due color of a player is black", - if he has played more games with white than with black before - if these numbers are equal and he has played white his previous game. 2. Pairings limitations 2.1 Two players who have played each other shall not be paired again. 2.2 A player who has received a point without playing shall not receive a bye. 2.3 The difference of the number of black and the number of white games shall not be greater than 2 or less than -2. 2.4 A player shall not have the same color three times in a row. 2.5 Apart from the last round a player cannot be transferred to a higher score group two times running and more than three times (if the tournament has less than 10 rounds) or four times (if the tournament has more than 9 rounds) during one tournament. 2.6 A player shall not be transferred from the subgroup due to a color to the subgroup due to the other color if this would violate the limitations 2.3 or 2.4. 3. Color allocation. Pairing two players the color allocation shall regard with descending priority: - give both players their due color - equalise the numbers of black and white games played before - alternate the colors of both players regarding the first difference of their color history going back from the previous round to the first round - assign white to the player with the higher ARO - assign white to the player with the lower R. 4. Odd number of players at the tournament. The player from the lowest score group, who has the lowest R will get the bye. If there are players with the lowest R in both the color subgroups, then the player to get the bye must be due to the dominating color and in case there are several players with equal R, the player to get the bye must have the higher ARO. 5. Pairing for the first round. The player's list calculated before is divided into two equal parts: The players from the upper part of the list are placed on the left and those from the lower part, on the right. The first player from the left-hand list plays the first player from the right-hand list, the second plays the second, etc. After that, the color of the pieces is

determined by drawing lots for one of the pairs, for example, for the first pair. In such a case, all oddnumbered pairs have the same colors as the first pair, whereas all even-numbered pairs have the other color. If the number of the players is odd, the last player in the list gets the bye having no color. This pairing procedure leads to identical results as the procedures used within the other FIDE Swiss Systems. 6. The standard pairing procedure for the remaining rounds. 6.1 Standard requirement (Special cases see below chapter 7): The number of players having the same score is even and the number of players with due color white and black is the same. Each player in the score group has at least one possible opponent in the score group. 6.2 First attempt The players who should play with the white pieces are arranged in order of increasing ARO , the ARO being the same the player with the lower R is placed higher. If ARO and R coincide completely, the players are to be placed alphabetically. The players who should play the black pieces are arranged in order of decreasing R, if R is the same, the player with the higher ARO is placed higher. If ARO and R coincide completely, the players are to be placed alphabetically. Two columns of numbers are written down, thereby arranging the pairs. For example: White (ARO) 2310.0 2380 2318.4 2365 2322.3 2333.7 2280 2340.5 2344.6 2250 Black (R) 2300 2260

The names of the players are then written down, and only one fact is checked - whether the players have not played their opponents before. 6.3 Improvements If the players have already played each other, then the "white" player is paired with the first "black" player whom he has not played before, from the lower rows; If such a coincidence takes place in the last row for a group of players with the same score, then the last but one row is changed. If a coincidence takes place in a row No. k of a group with the same score and all the "blacks" from the lower group have already played with the "white" No. k, then we change the pairing in row No. k - 1, if this does not work, in row No.k-2, etc. If the "white" No. k has already played with all the "blacks", we look for an opponent for him, beginning with the "white" No.k+1 down to the end of the column, and then, beginning with the "white" No. k -1 down to the "white" No.1. The colors of the pairings are assigned due to the color allocation rules. 6.4 Floater The aim of the pairing procedure is to pair all players within a score group. If that cannot be achieved the remaining unpaired players are transferred to the next lower score group and treated according to chapter 8. If there is a choice the floaters should be chosen due to these characteristics with decreasing preference: - the player was not floater from higher score groups and can be paired in the lower score group; - the player was not floater from higher score groups and cannot be paired in the lower score group; - the player was floater from higher score groups and can be paired in the lower score group; - the player was floater from higher score groups and cannot be paired in the lower score group. 7. Transfer of players to meet the requirement of Chapter 6. If the requirement of the standard pairing procedure is not fully fulfilled the following transfers shall be carried out in the order listed below 7.1 If a player has already played with all the players of his own score group, a player from the next possible lower score group is transferred to the score group to be paired who has not yet played with the player in question and can be paired according to the color allocation rules. The player to be transferred should fulfill the following requirements with descending priority: - the due color is opposite to the due color of the player in question;

- if there is a choice, then the player with the highest R is to be transferred; - if there are more than one players having the same R then the one with the lowest ARO will be transferred. 7.2 If the number of players of the score group odd, a player from the next possible lower score group shall be transferred to the score group to be paired, who has not yet played with at least one of the players of the higher score group and is allowed to be paired according to the color allocation rules. This player to be transferred should fulfill the following requirements with descending priority: - his due color is opposite to the dominating due color of the higher score group; - if there is a choice, then the player with the highest R is to be transferred; - if there are more than one players having the same R then the one with the lowest ARO will be transferred. 7.3 If the number of players in the score group is even and the number of Whites exceeds the Blacks by 2n, then n "white" players, who have the lowest ARO, are transferred to the black group. If their ARO is equal, the player with the higher R is chosen. Should both (ARO and R) coincide completely, the list of the players is arranged alphabetically, the transfer being made from the upper half. 7.4 If the number of players with the same score is even and the number of Whites is smaller than the number of Blacks by 2n, then n "black" players, who have the highest ARO, are transferred to the white group. If their ARO is equal, the player with the lower R is chosen. Should both (ARO and R) coincide completely, the list of the players is arranged alphabetically, the transfer being made from the upper half. 8. Treatment of floaters 8.1 Priority of floater-pairing The floaters having due color white are arranged according to chapter 6.2. The floaters having due color black are arranged according to chapter 6.2. Beginning with the highest "white" floater the floaters are paired one by one going down to the lowest floater alternating between "white" and "black". 8.2 Pairing the floaters Each of the floaters is paired with the player having the highest R, if possible having the opposite due color. If there are more than one player with equal R, the player with the lowest ARO is chosen. 9. Final remarks The list of AROs should be published after each round to make it possible for the players to calculate the pairings on their own. A situation, which cannot be directly resolved by using the given instructions, the referee should proceed wisely and impartially in the spirit of the basic principles outlined above.

Appendix B: Vega and the Dubov System

Let's remind (see Appendix A) that in the Dubov system the player with a higher ARO will play against a player with a low rating and vice versa. The preliminary tasks done by an arbiter before to produce a pairing using such a system are the following: 1. Calculate the Average Rating Opponent (ARO) of each player; 2. Determine the due color of each player as in chapter 1 of the FDS (FIDE Dubov System); 3. Put each player in a score group according to his score and due color. With respect the other Swiss systems the Dubov system requires more work if the arbiter is not helped by a computer. In contrast the subsequent pairing is much more easy to perform than other Swiss systems. Standard case (chapter 6 FDS) Let's examine first the standard case, i.e. that for which in a score group the number of white and black players is the same. The next picture shows a simply standard case with 10 players. Each player is in the respective due color subgroup. The white subgroup is sorted in increasing ARO, while the black one is sorted in decreasing rating (Rat). ---------------------------------------------Group 4, score = 1.5 ---------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------2 1664.0 1777 N 16 1122.3 1592 | 23 1578.7 1551 | 6 1590.0 1700 5 1579.0 1715 | 14 1624.7 1622 11 1604.7 1643 | 15 1613.5 1613 3 1607.0 1777 | 18 1610.0 1580 F

Player ID=2, ARO=1664, Rat=1777, cannot upfloat (u=N), i.e. cannot be transfered in a higher score group

Player ID=18, ARO=1610, Rat=1580, has a fixed duecolor (c=F), i.e. an absolute color preference

The Vega output shows even two very useful flags. The flag 'c' indicates if the player can "change due color": the value F means not (Fixed duecolor). Two players having the same due color and c=F cannot face each other without exception because of their absolute color preference (see section 2.6 FDS). Instead the flag 'u' indicates if the player can "upfloat", that is if he can play with an opponent with a greater score: the value N means not (see below for further notes about u flag). In the case above the pairing proceeds trying the pairs 16-2, 23-6, etc... providing that these players have never played before each other. Otherwise we must perform other pairs (section 6.3 FDS). Then the color allocation are done as in section 3. Before to start a pairing in the standard case we must be sure that each player in the score group has at least one opponent. Nevertheless may happen that the pairing cannot be done because remain unpaired players, the floaters. There is a special kind of floater that can be discovered easily in a score group. It is that player that cannot play with no other player in his score group irrespective of the transposition and exchange we could try. Lets call this floater island. The island is a floater, but the floater may be not an island. The treatment of the floaters is covered in section 8, while the island are treated in section 7.1. The Dubov System works on the premise of the standard case. When this not occur the score group has to be patched stepwise as follows: 1. to each player who cannot play any opponent in his score group (the island) find a suitable opponent due to chapter 7.1 in the next lower score group; 2. if the number of players in a score group is odd (after step 1 has been done) find a suitable additional player due to chapter 7.2 in the next lower score group; 3. equalize the number of players with due color white and black (chapters 7.3 and 7.4).

Now let's examine some examples of non standard case. "Island" case (chapter 7.1 FDS) In a score group we can have n islands. In the case of 1 island his opponent is looked for in the next lower score group with the following priority: 1. opposite due color 2. highest rating 3. lowest ARO 4. same due color 5. highest rating 6. lowest ARO For example in the following situation:
----------------------------------------------Group 4, score = 6 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------34 1707.0 1570 | 29 1697.1 1613 35 1823.6 1565 | ----------------------------------------------Group 5, score = 5.5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------32 1700.4 1580 | 8 1864.7 2156 N 7 1891.3 2202 | 20 1823.8 1700 | 28 1844.7 1622 F

Player 35 is an island because he has already played with 34 and 29. Vega found for him the opponent 20 (please note that the compatible opponent 8 with higher rating than 20 is stopped by the flag u=N). To understand the messages of Vega in the verbose.txt file the user should know that when a player is transferred: D symbol refers to the lower score group (Down); U symbol refers to the higher score group (Up); D and U are followed by a number that says how many pairs we can realize in that group with the remained players. For example, D=2 means that down, after a player has been removed, the remained players can realize 2 pairs; U=3 means that up, with the arrival of a new player, it is possible to do 3 pairs; The number that follow D or U can be positive or negative. If it is negative then it represents the maximum possible number of pairs that we can realize in that group. So when Vega try to get an opponent to make even a group it tries to choose the one that maximise U and D to limit the floaters.
================================ Pairing group 4 ================================ [Ch 7.1] found 1 ISLAND(s): 35, ... 20 better opponent: (D=-2)

Player 35 is an island

20 is the better opponent and in his score group, 5, with the remained players we will realize 2 pairs, the maximum. > moving player 35 from [4 W] to floater group 4 > moving player 20 from [5 B] to opponent group 4 [4 W] means score group 4 and white duecolor: [5 B] means score group 5 due color black. The "floater" group is a logical space in which are parked the islands/floaters before to pair them with an appropriate opponent. [Standard case] 1 White e 1 Black 34 - 29 In the score group 4 now are remained the players 34 and 29 that can be paired

Odd score group case (chapter 7.2 FDS) When the number of players in a score group is odd a suitable player must be found in the next lower score group. This player, of course, must not be an island in the score group where he is going to be transferred. Moreover he must be found with the following priority: 1. opposite due color of the dominant due color of the higher score group; 2. highest rating; 3. lowest ARO; 4. same due color of the dominant due color of the higher score group; 5. highest rating; 6. lowest ARO. Unequal numbers of players with due color white and black (chapter 7.3 and 7.4 FDS) This is the last step to be done after the previous case 7.1 and 7.2 if necessary. In this case simply we must equalise the colors. Let's consider the following case in which we are treating the score group 6:
----------------------------------------------Group 6, score = 1 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------11 1915.0 2100 | 4 1984.8 2268 3 1998.5 2361 | 7 2002.0 2213 | 8 2004.8 2162 F N | 19 2033.3 1918 | 27 2049.5 1789 | ----------------------------------------------Group 7, score = 0 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------16 2059.3 1997 |

First we must even group 6. The Vegas output is the following:

================================ Pairing group 6 ================================ [Ch 7.2] Group odd! 6 White e 1 Black > moving player 16 from [7 W] to [6 W] [Ch 7.3 7.4] > moving > moving > moving Colors player player player not equal 7 White e 1 Black 11 from [6 W] to [6 B] 3 from [6 W] to [6 B] 7 from [6 W] to [6 B]

[Standard case] 4 White e 4 Black 8 - 3 19 - 7 27 - 4 16 - 11

Suppressing rule 2.5 of FDS

(2)

The arbiter should always keep in mind that the Dubovs system is a Swiss system that tries to pair players having the same scores or with the minimum score difference. This means that, although not clearly stated,

The Vegas author is indebted to Professor Dubov for the clarification of this important aspect.

in special situation the rule 2.5 should be neglected to avoid new floaters. For example in the following situation:
----------------------------------------------Group 1, score = 6.5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------| 12 2018.4 2095 F ----------------------------------------------Group 2, score = 5.5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------5 2036.8 2219 F N | 9 1968.6 2136 N 20 2113.1 1889 |

apparently only player 20 could face player 12 while players 5 and 9 are blocked in their own group (u = N) and cant play with 12. However 20 faced player 12 so, for necessity, we neglect rule 2.5 and let try to pair 12 first with 5 and then with 9. Lets examine another case:
----------------------------------------------Group 5, score = 5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------43 1704.3 1461 | 32 1710.1 1580 29 1710.1 1613 | 34 1708.8 1570 21 1719.4 1691 | 35 1840.3 1565 9 1739.0 2151 F | ----------------------------------------------Group 6, score = 4.5 ----------------------------------------------white | black ID ARO Rat c u | ID ARO Rat c u --------------------------------------------23 1892.4 1673 | 3 1789.6 2287 | 28 1795.6 1622

================================ Pairing group 5 ================================ [Ch 7.2] Group odd! 4 White e 3 Black ... better upfloater:3 (U=-4, D=0) if we transfer player 3 in group 5, then we can realise 4 pairs (the maximum possible). However in group 6 well produce no pair with the remaining players that would become floaters. So Vega try a better upfloater... ... better upfloater:23 (U=-4, D=-1) player 23 is better than 3 because no additional floaters will be produced in group 6 > moving player 23 from [6 W] to [5 W] player 23 is moved up in the white subgroup [Ch 7.3 7.4] Colors not equal 5 White e 3 Black > moving player 43 from [5 W] to [5 B] [Standard case] 4 White e 4 Black 29 - 32 21 - 34 9 - 43 23 - 35 ================================ Pairing group 6 ================================ [Ch 7.3 7.4] Colors not equal 0 White e 2 Black > moving player 28 from [6 B] to [6 W] [Standard case] 1 White e 1 Black

28

- 3

Lets see the last case with two islands and how new floaters are avoided with a smart choice of their opponents:
----------------------------------------------Group 7, score = 6.5 ----------------------------------------------white | ID ARO Rat c u | | | Group 8, score = 6 ----------------------------------------------white | ID ARO Rat c u | | | | black ID ARO Rat c u black ID ARO Rat c u

--------------------------------------------23 1891.1 1673 1 2013.8 2344 7 1847.8 2202

-----------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------12 1686.1 2054 43 1709.8 1461 21 1801.5 1691 11 1732.7 2073 17 1680.7 1777 25 1734.7 1643 N

================================ Pairing group 7 ================================ [Ch 7.1] found 2 ISLAND(s): 7, 1, ... better opponents 12, 21: (D=1) if we transfer players 12 and 21 in group 8 will be possible only one pair. ... better opponents 21, 43: (D=-2) with players 21 and 43 instead we can pair all the remaining four players > moving player 1 from [7 B] to floater group 7 > moving player 21 from [W G8] to opponent group 7 > moving player 7 from [7 B] to floater group 7 > moving player 43 from [W G8] to opponent group 7 ================================ Pairing group 8 ================================ [Ch 7.3 7.4] Colors not equal 1 White e 3 Black > moving player 25 from [8 B] to [8 W] [Standard case] 2 White e 2 Black 25 12 - 17 - 11

Appendix C: file *.veg

The information regarding the tournament is saved in an ASCII file tournament_file_name.veg. Here are some notes about its format. The user normally should not to change it although in some special occasion this could be done.
Vega 5.4 # Do not edit this myTournament myTown ITA 24/12/2007, 27/12/2007 myArbiter 0.5 1.0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 5 5 9 0 file! Header file Tournament name Tournament city FIDE code hosting federation begin date , end date arbiter name points for draw and win tiebreacks details: 0=not active, N=some tiebrack Buccholz Cut 1 Buccholz Total Buccholz Median Sonneborn-Berger Cumulative Average Rat. Opp. Most Blacks Most Wins Av. Perf. Rat. Opp.

1 1 0 number_of_rounds current_round pairing_system: Swiss Dubov=1 simple round robin = 2 Swiss Vega = 3 Swiss USCF = 4 double round robin = 5 amalfi rating = 6 Swiss Lim = 7 amalfi color = 8 user defined = 9 using_fide_rating_for_pairing: 1=yes, 0=no registration: 0=opened, 1=closed tournament_status= 0=wait pairing, 1=wait result use Kallithea 2009 rule for Buchholz: 1=yes, 0=no

0 0 4 2300 2000 0.0 0.0 0.0 accelerated_pairing: 0=no, 1=yes accelerated_groups: 0=not defined, 1=defined decreased acceleration: 0=no, 1=yes accelerated_rounds

rating_high_limit rating_low_limit points_first_group points_second_group points_third_group not used 1 # not used 13 number of registered players NAME; COUNTRY;BIRTHDAY;G;TITLE;IDFIDE;ELOFIDE; IDNAT;ELONAT;K;ISAVAL xfcvxc ;ITA;00.00.00;m; GM; 0; 0; 0; 0;30; 1 cxvcxv ;ITA;00.00.00;m; GM; 0; 0; 0; 0;30; 1 erter ;ITA;00.00.00;m; GM; 0; 0; 0; 0;30; 1 players archive detail # players color: 1 1 -1 1 ... -1 = black, -1 0 1 = white, 0 = nocolor

# players opponent 1 7 2 6 8 0 ... # players floater: 0 = no floater, 1 = 1 0 0 1 0 0 ... # round results 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 1 1 2 1 0 3 2 1 0 1 0 4 1 0 0 0 0 5 1 0 1 0 0 6 0 1 1 0 0 7 0 1 0 1 0 8 0 0 3 0 0 ... 1: player win 0: player lost 2: draw 3: win for forfeit 4: lost for forfeit 6: 1/2F - 1/2F draw 5: no game // 8: 1/2F - 1/2F draw # code pairing 7 7 10071 20011 80020 40030 30091 60051

floater

// i forfeit sono per res>2 forfeit forfeit, no tie-break calculation

7 30020 120041 10060

7 20121 60030 130051

7 110029 30129 60139

100040 50111 120061 130003

130120 70081 90100 110003

50071 100130 110091 80003

40110 70101 80010 90003

90079 10059 40089 100009

each column represents the pairing at round N. The first number is that of the pairs in that round, then followa number in the format xxxyyyz, xxx=white ID, yyy=black ID, z=result code as follow 1: 1 - 0 0: 0 - 1 5: 1/2 - 1/2 3: 1F - 0 white win to forfait and get the BYE 4: 0 - 1F black win to forfait and get the BYE 2: 0 - 0 they lost, no color for both 6: 1/2F - 1/2F no color for both 7: adj 1/2 - 1/2 not valid for elo 8: 1/2F - 1/2F draw, forfeit, no color, no tiebreak 9: ... waiting a result

Appendix D: FAQ
1. May I have the source code? No, sorry... maybe in future. 2. Can I exchange the colors of a pair? Yes, of course. Just double click on the table that shows the pairing. 3. Why the Linux version is freeware? Im very indebted with the Linux community and this is a way to give something back. From other side Vega born under Linux. 4. What I have to do if my tournament is made by many sections. It seems Vega can administer only one section. Not at all! You can administer simultaneously how many sections you want... of course depending upon the memory capability of your computer. Vega can manage one section but you can run many sessions of the program at the same time and simply switch among them by using the menu bar of your operative system. 5. I am not a registered user and I need help. Can you answer me? Of course yes! Usually I answer within 12 hours from your email. If there is a delay, it is because I am abroad or far from Internet access. If you do not get an answer within few days, it is likely I have not received your email so please send it again. 6. Is there a software house behind Vega? No. The author is a chess player, arbiter and organizer that knows very well what a TD really needs to do. The author is the first user of the program and it is born to my own needs. For this reason the program is very cheap and there is no upgrade cost while it remains freeware for Linux. However, some TDs may need a feature not present in the current version and in this case, suggestions are very welcome. 7. I would like to print/save the file players.html with the players sorted by national rating. Click on the header column to be sorted (you can choose: ID, Name, Fed, Rating FIDE, Rating national), then use the option Print Registered players. 8. Can I change the error message and the words in the menu and error message? Yes. First open a DOS (Linux) terminal and move using cd in the directory where Vega.exe resides. The execute the command:

Vega.exe

--export-tr

enus_

(for other languages substitute enus_ with : dede_ for German, eses_ for Spanish, frfr_ for French, ptpt_ for the Portuguese, ruru_ for the Russian, itit_ for Italian). In the same directory Vega will save the file enus_.tr with the translation that can be modified (the first item is the key, while the second one is the translation). 8. Vega does not recognize the draw. All the points made by draw are not reported in the output. This may appear in some old Linux distributions. It happens when the decimal separator is the ,. Please modify your environment and set instead the ..

9. Im not a registered user. Can I run the freeware Linux version under Windows by using an emulator/virtual machine? No, it is not permitted. 10. How do I use the registration code? I do not see where I can enter the serial number. Just save the registration file I sent you by email in the same directory of the executable (where the program has been installed). 11. Can I run the registered version on both my desktop and notebook? Yes of course. You can run it on any number of computers. It is only required that in a real tournament with more than 30 players the organizer or at least one of the arbiter has a valid registration. 12. Do you accept suggestions? I need this feature... Yes, please let me know your request. I will implement it for free if it is of general use. I want to filter all requests to maintain the program easy to use and very intuitive. If you like programs with million options and not intuitive interface there are around many good softwares for you. 13. The version 5.5 is not able to read tournaments created by a previous versions. This is expected. The 5.5 version has a new VEG format (one file instead of two) and there is no backward compatibility with the previous version. Sorry for any troubles this can cause. 14. Which Swiss system should I use for my tournament? Here is short table showing the main features of the systems implemented in Vega: System Dubov Feature It tries to treat each player in the same way: In the same score group all players should have the same performance. If all are treated in the same way the stronger player should make more points to win the tournament. The player that plays in the first board it is not automatically favored in case of tie break The priority is the rating. The player with a higher rating will face stronger opponents and in the case of a tie break it has some advantage. The priority is the color. The player with a higher rating will face stronger opponents and in the case of a tie break it has some advantage. The rating is priority. Two arbiters could produce different pairing but equally legal. Vega It uses the Buchholz for pairing. Preferable if There are many rounds (greater than 7) and the rating of the players differ by less than 200300 Elo points. To avoid if The rounds are less than 8 or the rating of players differ by more than 200-300 Elo points.

Dutch

There are few rounds and the color assignment is not important. There are few rounds and the color assignment is important. There are few rounds and the color assignment is of no concern. The players have no rating or if it is more or les the same. The players have a rating distributed over a wide interval.

Lim

USCF

15. How to consider the unrated game valid for the tournament? Before 2009 for the FIDE a game could be considered in two ways: (a) played and rated; (b) unplayed and unrated. Since July 2009 a new possibility appeared and a game could be considered (c) played but unrated. B.04.5.1 (Unplayed games). "Whether these occur because of forfeiture or any other reason, they are not counted. Any game where both players have made at least one move will be rated." The case (c) appear when the player loose without to perform the first move (for example when a mobile telephone produce a noise). The result appear on the cross table but does not produce rating variation. In this case the arbiter need to insert a normal result (no forfeit). This prevent the players to face again each other. When the tournament is finished the arbiter has to modify that result inserting a forfeit and producing the rating report for his federation. The forfeit prevent that game to be rated. 16. In a round robin tournamet a player withdrew before to play the 50% of the games. How to delete all his games and neglect them during the calculation of the Sonneborn-Berger tie break? Set the red [X] in the Status column of the player page.

Appendix E: The VEGA pairing system

Im sorry but the translation is not yet ready. Any way it is a sort of Dubov system with two big differences: 1) in each score group the player having white duecolor are sorted by increasing Buchholz, while the black ones are sorted by decreasing Buchholz; 2) in case of odd number of players in a score group a player from the lower score group is upfloated. 1. Definizioni introduttive Il colore spettante a un giocatore il bianco, - se prima ha giocato pi partite con il nero che con il bianco, - se il numero fosse pari ma ha avuto il nero nel turno precedente. Il colore spettante a un giocatore il nero, - se prima ha giocato pi partite con il bianco che con il nero, - se il numero fosse pari ma ha avuto il bianco nel turno precedente. bye la vittoria data a quel giocatore che in un turno con numero dispari di giocatori non ha avuto avversario. Floater il giocatore costretto ad essere accoppiato con un avversario avente punteggio inferiore. "Bucholz" di un giocatore la somma dei punti degli avversari di quel giocatore. Nel caso di partite vinte a forfait o per BYE allora al computo del bucholz interviene lo stesso punteggio del giocatore. Esso deve essere determinato dopo ciascun turno come base per il nuovo abbinamento. Score group il gruppo di giocatori aventi lo stesso punteggio. 2. Restrizioni nell'abbinamento 2.1 Non possono essere abbinati due giocatori che abbiano gi giocato tra loro. 2.2 Un giocatore che ha ottenuto un punto senza giocare, non pu ricevere il bye. 2.3 La differenza tra il numero di partite giocate col bianco e col nero non pu essere maggiore di 2 o minore di -2 2.4 Un giocatore non pu ricevere tre volte di fila lo stesso colore. 2.5 La differenza di punti tra giocatori accoppiati deve essere la minima possibile, idealmente essa deve essere zero. 3. Attribuzione del colore Abbinando due giocatori, l'assegnazione del colore terr conto con priorit discendente dei seguenti criteri: - dare a entrambi i giocatori il colore spettante - pareggiare il numero di partite gi giocate con il bianco e con il nero - alternare il colore di entrambi i giocatori basandosi sulla prima differenza della loro sequenza di color, risalendo dall'ultimo turno giocato fino al primo turno - assegnare il bianco al giocatore con il bucholz maggiore 4. Torneo con numero dispari di partecipanti Il giocatore del gruppo di punteggio pi basso con il bucholz minore ricever il bye.

Se ci sono giocatori con lo stesso bucholz in entrambi i sottogruppi di colore, allora il bye sar dato a quello del gruppo di colore dominante. In caso di ulteriore parit si proceder alfabeticamente. 5. Abbinamenti per il primo turno Allinizio del torneo a ciascun giocatore assegnato un numero identificativo progressivo tramite sorteggio. Quindi labbinamento del primo turno avverr facendo giocare il giocatore col numero 1 con quello col numero n/2+1, il giocatore col numero 2 con quello col numero n/2+2, ecc... Il bianco verr assegnato ai primi n/2 giocatori aventi numero dispari (1, 3, 5, ecc). 6. Procedure di abbinamento per i turni successivi 6.1 Prima operazione I giocatori che dovrebbero giocare con il bianco, inclusi i floater da un altro SG, vengono ordinati in base ai punti e a parit di punti in base al bucholz crescente, se il bucholz pari si considera l'ordine alfabetico. I giocatori che dovrebbero giocare con il nero vengono ordinati in base ai punti e a parit di punti in base al bucholz decrescente. Se i bucholz sono uguali si considera l'ordine alfabetico. Vengono scritte due colonne di numeri, quindi vengono abbinate: il primo bianco col primo nero, il secondo bianco col secondo nero, ecc.... Per esempio Bianco Nero 5.00 7.00 7.50 14.50 18.50

15.00 13.50 12.50 11.00 9.00

Vengono poi scritti i nomi dei giocatori e si verifica solo se si sono gi incontrati precedentemente. 6.2 Perfezionamento Se i giocatori si sono gi incontrati allora il giocatore 'Bianco' abbinato con il primo giocatore 'Nero' che non ha ancora incontrato della riga inferiore. Se ci avviene nell'ultima riga di un gruppo di giocatori allora viene modificata la penultima riga. Se ci avviene nella riga n K di un gruppo con lo stesso punteggio e tutti i 'Neri' delle righe inferiori hanno gi giocato con il 'Bianco n' K, allora cambieremo l'abbinamento nella riga n K1, e so ci non basta nella riga n K-2 e cos via. Se il Bianco n K ha gi giocato con tutti i 'Neri' cercheremo un avversario per lui a partire dal giocatore 'Bianco' n K+1 fino a scendere al termine della colonna e di seguito cominciando con il 'Bianco' n K-1 flno a giungere al 'Bianco' n 1. L'assegnazione del colore a ciascuna coppia verr fatta in base alle regole apposite. 6.4 Floater Lo scopo delle procedure di abbinamento di accoppiare tutti i giocatori all'interno di un gruppo di punteggio. Se ci non avvenisse, i restanti giocatori vengono trasferiti nel gruppo di punteggio immediatamente inferiore. 7. Trasposizione dei giocatori per soddisfare le richieste del punto 6 Se non potessero completamente soddisfare i requisiti base dell'abbinamento, si potranno effettuare le trasposizioni nell'ordine qui riportato: 7.1 Se un giocatore ha gi incontrato tutti i giocatori del suo stesso gruppo di punteggio verr trasferito nel gruppo immediatamente inferiore.

7.2 Se il numero di giocatori di un gruppo di punteggio dispari, per pareggiarlo verr trasferito dal gruppo di punteggio pi vicino un giocatore che non abbia gi giocato con almeno uno dei giocatori del gruppo di punteggio superiore e il cui abbinamento sia permesso dalle regole per l'assegnazione dei colori. Questo giocatore che viene trasferito dovrebbe soddisfare i seguenti requisiti con priorit discendente - il colore a lui spettante opposto al colore dominante del gruppo di punteggio superiore. - se c' possibilit di scelta, verr trasferito il giocatore con bucholz maggiore 7.3 Se il numero di giocatori con lo stesso punteggio pari ma il numero di 'Bianchi' supera i 'Neri' di 2n, allora n giocatori 'Bianchi' con bucholz inferiore verranno trasferiti nel gruppo del 'Nero'. Se ci fossero giocatori con bucholz uguale allora la scelta verr fatta ordinando alfabeticamente i giocatori. 7.4 Se il numero di giocatori con lo stesso punteggio pari ma il numero di 'Bianchi' inferiore ai 'Neri' di 2n, allora gli n giocatori 'Neri' con bucholz superiore verranno trasferiti nel gruppo dei 'Bianco'. Se ci fossero giocatori con bucholz uguale allora la scelta verr fatta ordinando alfabeticamente i giocatori. 8. Note conclusive L'arbitro esporr al termine di ciascun turno idonea documentazione per permettere ai giocatori di calcolare essi stessi gli abbinamenti. Nel caso di situazioni che non possono essere risolte con le istruzioni riportate, l'arbitro dovr procedere saggiamente e imparzialmente nello spirito dei principi sopra descritti.

Appendix F: Notes on the USCF Swiss implemented in Vega

Vega implements all the USCF rules (USCF Official Rules - 5 edition 2003). However the user should be aware of the default behaviour of the program. 1. The colors in a series by default are treated by the variation 29E5f1 that states: 29E5f1: Last-round exception. Except for the last round, when it may be necessary to pair the tournament or class leaders, players shall not be assigned the same color in three successive rounds. This case is the default and Vega handles it automatically. This variation is currently included in all FIDE Swiss systems. If the tournament director needs for some reason to permit three colors in a row before than last round then he should press the checkbox Accept WWW/BBB in the pairing page. To remove the variation 29E5f1 the box Accept WWW/BBB should be checked for the entire duration of the tournament. At the end of the natural pairing Vega improve the colors using the Look Ahead method. Vega saves in the text file colorlogN.txt (N is the current round) all the switches made during the application of the look ahead method. The following are typical messages referred to the natural pairing: ... Done Transposition between pairs 1, 4 [1] R80 = 0, R200 = 1: D_trans = 54, D_inter_1 = 442, D_inter_0 = 73 Done Interchange between pairs 2, 8 [4] R80 = 0, R200 = 1: D_trans = 124, D_inter_1 = 59, D_inter_0 = 343 ... The meaning is: R80: is 1 if can be applied the 80 point rule, otherwise is 0; R200: is 1 if can be applied the 200 point rule, otherwise is 0; D_trans: rating difference of the transposition between the pairs; D_inter_1: rating difference of the interchange A<=>D, in the pairs A-B and C-D; D_inter_0: rating difference of the interchange B<=>C, in the pairs A-B and C-D. 2. The unrated players in Vega are the players with rating exactly equal to 0. The unrated are treated differently by the USCF rules with respect to the BYE and the odd player determination. All the players with rating greater than 0 are instead treated in the same way by Vega. Thus, if the Tournament Director prefers to give to the unrated players the highest priority to be the odd player, he simply should assign to them a minimum rating different by zero, for example 1.
th

Appendix G: USCF Rating Report

In a large tournament, there are usually several sections (for example Open, u2000, u1800, u1600). A Vega session can administer only one section of the tournament at a time. This is not a limitation because you can run multiple sessions of the program simultaneously, and keep the user interface very simple. The rating report for USCF needs 2 steps to be performed: 1. generate an auxiliary file from each section containing information to be processed later concerning the current section (file uscfsctn.txt); 2. process all the uscfsctn.txt files and generate the three files needed by USCF for the final report: thexport.dbf, tsexport.dbf, tdexport.dbf. These last files are not covered here (see the USCF Forum for detail). Now well see how to generate them. The first task is performed when the section tournament is finished by selecting the option Report / USCF/ Process current section:

A new window will prompt the user for data relative to the current section. Some of this data is of course the defaults, so the user usually only needs to insert a few of them unknown to Vega (for example ID Chief TD, and so on. Please note that the fields Rounds and Number of Players cannot be edited.)

By pressing the button Done Vega generates the auxiliary file uscfsctn.txt (tab delimited) in the working directory of the current section. This task must be done for each section.

When Vega generates all the uscfsctn.txt files, the user should select the menu item Tournament Report:

Add Section select the working directory of each section. To remove one of them the user should press the button Remove Section. In our example the tournament has two sections and the working directories are those listed in the right side of the previous window. To save the list use Save section list. To load it use Open section list. When finished, press the button Do USCF Report. The following window will appear:

As seen before, some of the data is already known to Vega, some cannot be edited and some needs to be inserted by the user. When all the fields are filled (otherwise Vega will not continue) the user can generate the USCF report by pressing the button Done. The required files in dbf format are in the installation directory.

Appendix H: Danubian variation of the Dubov system

Current version New version

7.2 If the number of players of the score group is odd, a player from the next possible lower score group shall be transferred to the score group to be paired, who has not yet played with at least one of the players of the higher score group and is allowed to be paired according to the color allocation rules. This player to be transferred should fulfil the following requirements with descending order of priority: Their due color is opposite to the dominating due color of the higher score group. If there is a choice, then the player with the highest R is to be transferred.

7.2 (new) If the number of players of the score group is odd, a player from the next possible lower score group shall be transferred. The transferred player should fulfil the following requirements with descending order of priority: The player should have at least one compatible opponent in the higher score group. The players due color is opposite to the dominating due color of the higher score group. If there is a choice, the player with the highest R is to be transferred. If there is more than one player having the same R then the one with the lowest ARO will be transferred.

If there is more than one player with the

same R, the one with the lowest ARO will be transferred.

The opponent of the transferred player should fulfil the following requirements with descending order of priority:

Their due color is that of the dominating due color of the score group. If there is a choice, they have the lowest R. If there is more than one player with the same R, the chosen opponent is the one with the lowest ARO.

Appendix I: ECF report

In order to produce the appropriate rating report, a tournament director representing the English Chess Federation (ECF) should be aware of the following:

must be selected in the federation 1. When creating a new tournament, ENG dropdown. This way the strength of the players is given in ECF grades, otherwise their Elo rating is given instead. 2. The ID NAT field of a player should be filled with the exact code found in the database of the ECF. If the player is not yet graded and they are not present in any database, the ID NAT field must be filled with the club code of the player (it is a 4 characters long). If no data is inserted in the ID NAT then the Checker will flag an error.

3. The report is generated using the menu item ReportECFProcess current section
and filling the following form:

Once complete, clicking on Done will generate a file by the name of ECFResults.txt, which is to be fed to the ECF Checker program.

Appendix L: Adding an external Pairing Engine

Vega permits to add a third-party pairing engine (it can be freely made by anyone). The executable must reside in the plugin folder under the installation folder. To add, select the menu item Extra Add external Pairing engine. Vega will show the following window:

The user should enter the name of the pairing system, the full path of the executable, and then press the Add engine button.

There can be several engines but only one can be used at time. To choose one of interest, the user needs to select one of them, press the button Enable engine (an 'A' will appear on its left side), and then click Done. In order to use the external engine the user should select it during the definition of a new tournament.

What Vega does at each round is just run the executable engine with the following command: $> engine_name.exe tournament_path file_name.kxf

where tournament_path is the path of the folder tournament, and file_name.kxf is the file automatically generated containing the data of the tournament. In this way the engine is correctly addresed where the important tournament files are with appropriate parameters. NOTE: it is recommended that the tournament_path does not contains blank space or unusual characters to prevent the engine to work correctly. NOTE: it is responsibility of the executable engine to retrieve all the relevant tournament data from the VEG file saved by Vega. The engine must save its own auxiliary files in the same tournament folder. Vega expect from the engine a file that at round N should be named as engineN.man containing the pairing at round N in the following format: a first row with the number of the pairs, and for each successive row, the IDs of the player of each pair. This is a typical *.man file containing 5 pairs: 5 5 17 16 8 9 2 10 13 11 3

If this file exists Vega will load it and continues with the insertion of results and making all the ranking lists.

Appendix M: Swiss System with progressive Acceleration

Objective: This variant of the Swiss system aims to better match opponents of approximately equal strength during an open tournament. The goal is to allow international norms during an open tournament where less than half of the players have a FIDE rating. Principles of operation: When pairing at the start of the round, each player has a global score (GS), which is equal to the real score gained by play (RS) plus a fictitious score (FS) between 0 and 2: GS = RS + FS Rather than relying solely on fixed full-point fictitious offsets to separate the groups, this system awards additional half-points based on achievement during the tournament. This allows the groups to merge together more gradually. Calculation of the fictitious score Players are divided in 3 groups A, B, C on the basis of their Elo rating. Each group includes a minimum of 25% and a maximum of 50% of all players. Elo rating is used to limit the groups, which are decided by the arbiter before the start of first round. The groups may be set according to the prizes determined by the organizers. In general, group A includes players having an Elo rating greater or equal to 2000 points and group C includes players with an Elo rating of less than 1600 points. Like the standard accelerated system, at the start of the tournament, players in group A have two fictitious points (FS = 2), group B one fictitious point (FS = 1) and group C no fictitious points (FS = 0). When a player of either group B or C gains at least 1.5 real points (RS 1.5), their fictitious score is increased a further half-point. When a player gains their third real point (RS 3), their fictitious score is increased another half-point. Thus group B players can eventually attain the maximum of number of fictitious points (FS = 2). When a player of group C gains at least 4.5 real points (RS 4.5), their fictitious score is increased by a half-point for the third time. When a player achieves N/2 real points (where N is the number of rounds in the tournament), their fictitious score is brought to 2. Before the penultimate round, all fictitious points are cancelled and the system becomes a usual Swiss system. Summary table Within each cell, the top number represents the real points and the number within brackets is the fictitious amount added in order to achieve the Global Score (GS). The rightmost cells of the table consider cases with more than 11 rounds (they don't include groups A or B). Lower-case n in this case represents the number of rounds.
GS
Grp.A Grp.B Grp.C n=9 Grp.C n>11 0 (0) 0 (0) 0.5 (0) 0.5 (0) 0 (1) 1 (0) 1 (0) 0.5 (1)

0.5

1.5

2
0 (2) 1 (1) 1.5 (0.5) 1.5 (0.5)

2.5
0.5 (2)

3
1 (2) 1.5 (1.5)

3.5
1.5 (2) 2 (1.5)

4
2 (2) 2.5 (1.5) 3 (1) 3 (1)

4.5
2.5 (2)

5
3 (2) 3 (2)

5.5
3.5 (2) 3.5 (2)

6
4 (2) 4 (2)

6.5
4.5 (2) 4.5 (2) 4.5 (2)

7
5 (2) 5 (2) 5 (2) 5.5 (1.5)

2 (0.5) 2 (0.5)

2.5 (0.5) 2.4 (0.5)

3.5 (1) 3.5 (1)

4 (1) 4 (1) 4.5 (1.5)

5 (1.5)

Appendix N: Tournament with independent groups.

In some tournament may be convenient to avoid pairing among determined groups of players. In this way each player faces players of his own group. So we have several independent sections within one big section (I use this system with scholastic tournament were each section is scarcely populated. Round by round it is shown a ranking list for each group). In order to administer such a tournament the user should: 1. at the definition of the tournament select the pairing system swiss GROUP; 2. before to generate the first round assign the players to their group by the option Extra Set groups for multisection tournament. The last option will show the following window.

Are possible up to 10 groups each one connected with a button on the right side of the window. To select a group of players use SHIFT + left click and then press the button (group) to which the players belong. The groups can be renamed filling the field on the right side. To activate the groups press Done. The ranking list at each round must be generated by the option Extra Rank Groups.