Swiss Perfect is no longer accept by FIDE and their arbiters for the management of tournaments; mostly because of poor management of pairings. FIDE now recommend six (as at 2017) alternative software applications - the current list is available on the FIDE site. Included in this list is Swiss Master - distributed by the Dutch Federation.
We now support data transfer to and from Swiss Master:
- Downloads: rating lists can be downloaded and used to create a players list for a tournament; the lists include player names, UCU id and their current rating
- Uploads: at the conclusion of a tournament, the SMW created by Swiss Manager can be uploaded to the system, automatically create the tournament in the results service, and import player results for rating purposes - amongst other uses.
The rest of the document describes how to download and upload data specifically for Swiss Master
Download Rating Lists
Anyone with access to this site can download a Rating List but you must login first. Follow these steps:
- Log in to this site and navigate to the Ratings Lists page
- Choose a rating list you want to download
- Choose the Download button, complete the form and download the data file.
If you do not see a Download option, you do not have permission to perform this action.
Once you have the file on your computer, if it is not already in the SwissMaster folder (usually under "My Documents"), then move it there; this is where SM will expect to find it
Now start SwissManager and when it is up and running, choose Tools -> Options from the menu bar and choose the Rating Lists tab
To add the new file, choose Add then in turn specify
- File location: browse and select the file you want
- Label: type a label it will show when you select a Rating List to find players; it defaults to the file name
- Type of ratinglist: this should be KNSB List (CSV format) - this is important, SwissMaster will not be able to understand any other selection
and finish by clicking the Add button again; your file should now be in your list of rating lists
You only need to do this once, the system will remember your selections:
- the file will still be available for selecting players each time you start the program
- provided you do not change the file name each time you download a file, your program should automatically pick up data from the newer version of the file if you overwrite the old file with the new
Afterwards when you are adding players to the tournament, choose:
- Stored Player list: Ratinglist: at the foot of the window, choose the file you want to use
- the Load Players tab: choose this tab to pick players from the rating list file
Usually the system will remember your selections but check the active Rating list each time to make sure.
When using data from a downloaded rating list, both UCU player Ids and their UCU rating will be used by Swiss Master to identify players and help manage pairings as the tournament progresses. Indeed this data is also saved into the SMW file that can be uploaded (see below) after the tournament is finished. However, the rating in particular is only important for non-UCU players so it is safe to use an old list for a new Tournament. Both the name and UCU Id are helpful in identifying a player to the Rating Officer but the Id is not essential.
It is always better to have a current rating list for a Tournament though.
Uploading Tournament Data
Data should only be uploaded when the tournament is complete. Generally only senior officers of the Union can perform this task since it requires permission to create competitions and players. If you have a file, please contact the Rating Officer to ask what to do.
To import data from a Swiss Master file (SMW), follow these steps
- Log in to this (Ratings) site and locate the Resources section where tournament files are usually stored.
- In an appropriate location, add an item as an SMFile from the Add new... list
- Browse to the file on your own computer, complete summary information and upload the file
- Attempt to parse the data file: if the file is in the correct format, the process of linking an event, specifying rounds and loading players is the same as for loading other data files.
- And finally, once all data has been linked correctly, import the tournament
That should be it. If the system does not offer a button to import the tournament, it usually means some particular piece of data is missing. Check that all items and steps have a check mark against them.
