Chess tournament management software

Chess tournaments are defined first by their time control. Classical games give each player well over an hour and often run for several hours, rapid games give each player between ten and sixty minutes, and blitz games give each player ten minutes or less, usually with a small increment per move. Many festivals hold all three, with the rapid and blitz events played on the closing days.

The format comes next. In a Swiss system tournament, every player plays every round, and in each round players are paired with opponents on the same or a similar score, never meeting the same opponent twice and with colours balanced as far as possible. Open tournaments with large fields use the Swiss system because a few rounds are enough to separate the leaders.

In a round robin, every player meets every other player, and a double round robin plays each pairing twice with colours reversed. Round robins suit closed championships, invitation events and qualifying groups. On Zeetius, the organiser sets each section's time control, number of rounds and format, so open, closed and team events can share one festival.

• Classical. Long games, usually one or two rounds a day, used for most national and state championships.
• Rapid and blitz. Faster sections, often run as separate events with their own entries and standings.
• Team events. Teams play on a fixed board order, with match points and board points recorded for each team.

Swiss pairings are a format organisers run under the rules of the event, and many chief arbiters make each round's pairings with the pairing software they already use. Zeetius manages the tournament around them: the entries, the starting rank, the round times, the board numbers and the playing halls, and the results published once the arbiters confirm each round.

Round robin sections follow a fixed schedule in which each player's opponents and colours are known before the first round. Zeetius Tournaments generates round robin schedules and publishes each player's games in advance, so players, coaches and parents can see the whole event from the start.

A large festival can fill several halls, with top boards set apart for the leading games and junior sections in rooms of their own. The board and hall layout is configurable on Zeetius, so each section is placed where the venue and the organiser want it. Arbiters and deputy arbiters are nominated and allocated to sections from the same plan.

• Starting rank. Players ordered by rating within each section before the first round.
• Boards and halls. Each section placed in its hall, with board numbers published round by round.
• Round schedule. Round times set for each section, with rapid and blitz rounds fitted around classical play.

Chess academies coach large numbers of children, often in batches by level, from beginners learning how the pieces move to rated juniors preparing for championships. Zeetius Academy manages athletes, batches, training plans, attendance and assessments, so a head coach can see each student's progress and plan the next term's coaching from real records.

Fees, coach payroll and expense claims sit in the same system as the coaching, and academies with several centres or online and in-person batches can manage each one separately. Parents see their own child's attendance, assessments and fees, and nothing else, while coaches record sessions on the mobile app rather than in a spreadsheet afterwards.

Zet AI answers questions about an academy's own data, such as which students have attended most consistently or which batch is due its next assessment. Chess coaches, clubs and academies can also list in the Zeetius Sports Directory, and the Zeetius Sports Forum is open to coaches, arbiters and organisers who want to share what works.