Get ready for some major changes and very cool new features on Tornelo. In the last month we’ve made about 30 improvements which are due to be released any day now! Changes are NOT YET LIVE, but they are coming very soon … Please take note of the changes and new features listed below.
Structural Changes
We continue to move features from the Pairing Program into the Tournament Lobby and are now only a couple of months away from the Pairing Program being retired altogether. If you’re looking for a button and it seems to be missing, it’s probably in the Lobby now!
1. Lobby notification message
Messages are now located inside the Page Header and the Design has changed. Messages have been reworded to make them clearer for players. See all the new messages and design here.
2. Game page, call arbiter button
The call arbiter button has moved!
As part of improvements to the layout of the game page, the Arbiter chat is now a popup window.
3. Game page, arbiter controls
As part of improvements to the layout of the game page, the Arbiter chat is now a popup window. All the arbiter controls (pause clock, adjust time, declare draw, log, chat messages) are in the Arbiter controls window.
New Features
1. Feature: Exposed events (privacy setting)
Tornelo allows users to select privacy settings for any player. Some Organizers may wish to make it compulsory for players in their event to have their name displayed publicly.
We now have a setting where you can choose to “Expose” your events. In an exposed event player privacy settings are ignored while the event is in progress. You must warn players their name will be visible to everyone, even Google bots, from the time of entry and during this event.
Remember; arbiters and participants in your event can ALWAYS see all the player names in an event. Privacy settings allows users to control if and when their personal information is shared with spectators, or Google-bots. Once the event is finished, individual player privacy settings return.
2. Feature: Use the same URL for all events in your Series
A series is the linking together of related events.
A National Championships occurs every year. Some events are weekly, or monthly, tournaments. In almost every case the event you are running today will be part of some kind of series.
A series on Tornelo allows you to choose a single, UNCHANGING, link to tournaments within that series.
The Series History page will give you a list of all series events (and some basic statistics). You can edit the order in which the events appear.
Users will be automatically directed to the ACTIVE event, which can either be manually selected or selected by Tornelo.
You can find the Series page from any event that is part of a Series.
When you create a new event you will be prompted to add the event to an existing series. You may also choose to create a new series, or search through existing series’ within your Organization.
Kids Unlimited provides a single URL which automatically directs to a new RJ Shield event every month. Players can view the RJ Shield history to see an overview of all the RJ Shield events.
Once you get the hang of this feature, it’s really powerful!
3. Feature: Game board updates for spectators
The game board layout has been updated. During this page renovation we added buttons for:
- Flip board
- Download PGN (single game)
4. Feature: Spectator mode for streaming or broadcast (arrows and square highlights)
Spectator mode allows you to move pieces on the board, draw arrows and highlight squares with familiar mouse and keyboard shortcuts. This is invaluable for coaches, streamers and broadcasters who can now run an event and commentate at the same time!
5. Feature: Custom arbiter chat message
Tournament settings give you the ability to set a custom message (eg. in your own language) which will be auto-sent to the players when they click Call Arbiter button.
Arbiter Chat is no longer visible to spectators. Only the PLAYERS and the ARBITER can see the chat.
6. Risk mitigation: Reset lobby button
We have added a Force reset lobby button (in the pairings program). This is an emergency fix in case the Lobby doesn’t auto-update when you do the pairings. Please use this sparingly.
7. Feature: New Tournament Settings form (new/edit/clone)
We have been looking forward to this one for a while. Our new Tournament Settings form is much more user friendly!
Select your settings section from the left-side navigation, then Save when you are ready.
8. Feature: Add new player
From the Standings page on the Lobby, arbiters can now enter a single new player into the event. Search from the Tornelo database and if the player doesn’t exist, create them and add their details.
9. Feature: Add player by FIDE ID
First, select which Ratings System you want to use for your event. In your event settings select FIDE. (In future, Federations can upload their rating lists and pre-populate all player IDs, names and ratings in Tornelo – we can even pre-create player accounts. Expect to see more Rating Systems listed here in the near future.).
Once selected, Player names, titles, and federations will display values from their FIDE profile (when available). This data comes from FIDE Rating List and arbiters and players cannot change this information. We have imported >1,001,300 FIDE records to Tornelo.
When you select Add player the search box will now allow you to search by FIDE ID and will return the Profile information from FIDE.
Once a player has their Tornelo profile linked to their FIDE ID, you can search and enter the player by either name, or FIDE ID. All the usual Tornelo functionality, such as email linking, tokens and Privacy settings will still apply!
10. Feature: Player List in Lobby
Screenshot coming soon.
A global Player List is now available in the Lobby, showing you players from every division.
We’ve included some powerful filters and search to help you find and manage players.
11. Updates and improvements
- Users can now choose to pay with ApplePay, GooglePay or credit-card
- Fixed a bug where multiple games could be linked to a single pairing
- Fixed a bug where an out-of-date, duplicate Lobby could be viewed by some players
- Updated player merge history
- N v Q, B v Q and B v R are declared a draw when the player with the Q or R loses on time
- Include timezone in confirmation email to players
- Fixed broken flags of Albania, Chinese Taipei, Israel, Lebanon, Trinidad & Tobago, Singapore and Zimbabwe
WORKING ON
- A Roadmap to give deeper insight to users about our upcoming features
- Moving pairings into the Lobby
- The new data-structures required for managing and pairing Team events
As always, we’re keen to hear your feedback, feature requests or bug reports.
Kind regards,
DAVID CORDOVER
Founder & CEO
Once Again – WOW !!
Looking forward to these features going live and
the Pairings Program Page disappearing before school starts again in the USA.
When you said “arbiters can add a single player” did you literally mean just one or one-at-a-time ?
We still recommend self-registration, but arbiters can add players one-at-a-time now. 🙂
Dear David Sir
Today I facing some problem when One Selection Tournament going on. It is automatically stop torleno server and running all clock and Some Board Player try to Play move but they can’t play move. They Lost on Time. After torleno server resume. We try to reset clock but there is no facility. Sir, As per log I check his last move and time accordingly I try to Adjust Clock but there is no option. Only Reopen Game option and log only show.
Sir, I request you to Pl guide me how to solve this type of problem. Awaiting for your favorable reply.
Thanking you
With Regards
Binoy Shah
Whatsapp No-9898626289
If a player loses on time we cannot restart the finished game.
Arbiters can pause the game any time.
So if you see a problem, you can join the game, pause the clock and wait for players to rejoin.
But after a game is over it cannot be automatically restarted – we will include this feature in the coming months, but now it can’t be resumed.
Hello,
Will ‘Spectator Mode’ allow players to do a pesudo-traditional post-mortem after their game (ie moving pieces around and then returning to the game variation at any point – while they are discussing on Zoom for example)? I thought I saw this on Tornelo many months ago, and then it disappeared (but perhaps I am misremembering). Sincerely, Anthony
Yes, once a game is over players can click “analyse” and move pieces around the board – navigating to the next move will return to the main game. We are working on making this more interactive between players.
Excellent ! We are looking forward to its arrival.
It seems the field for a Zoom link (for example) – has moved – I found it – but unable to get the ‘Save’ button to activate. I had set up the parameters for the tournament a couple of days ago, and was trying to add the ‘Zoom’ link now.
Ah, David has indicated there are some required fields to be entered – in my case it was location/ time zone field.