Smart cheating, private dedicated servers, support for DGT e-boards and pinning players

1. Feature: Fair Play “smart cheating” mode

The Fair Play report is designed to give arbiters real-time feedback about which players are more likely to be getting assistance. The players on the top of the list can be supervised more closely and protected by arbiters from accusations at the end of the event.

If a player is getting assistance with every move it is very obvious. But some players don’t get help with all their moves and this makes it harder to spot. Our ‘smart cheating’ mode now looks for players who are:

• Getting assistance during some games, but not all games
• Getting assitance on some move, but not all moves

Here you can see a player with a Sort Score of 9, which is already a little high for someone with a rating of 1300. When we turn on ‘Smart Cheating’ mode this score jumps up to 19, a score more likely for a player close to 2000 rating.  Had the score remained the same, or dropped, then this would indicate fair play.

As always, be aware that statistics become more accurate with more data. Looking at players with fewer than 100 moves can be unreliable, and with fewer than 30 moves should never be considered.

This feature is still in Beta testing, not all Arbiters have access to it yet.

2. Features: Private dedicated servers

A server is a computer on the internet where players and tournaments connect. We have public servers that host all our tournaments. These are generally fast and stable. But, they can be unpredictable. Because they are open to the public, any number of players can join and if the servers get very busy then they become slow for everyone.

A Private Server is a computer ONLY for events from your Organization. No public events or games are played on this server. This provides you peace of mind that the traffic on the server will be from only your event … and nothing happening on the public server can impact your tournament. It also provides an automatic redundancy – if the server crashes, your games will automatically move to the public servers and continue.

Events running on a Private dedicated server will display a Gold Crown in the Tournament Lobby.

If you are running a high-stakes event and require a Private Dedicated Server to ensure consistent quality and stability, please contact us. This is a Premium Product, fees and charges apply.

3. Feature: Pinning games or players

You can now pin games or players to your navigation menu, making it easier to come back to them later on. Pin your team mates and their games in progress this round to easily check up on them.

4. Feature: Support for DGT e-boards

Players with a DGT board can now make moves on their real boards and have them show up on Tornelo.

1. Player opens the DGT LiveChess application on their computer
2. Player connects DGT Board to the computer and see it on LiveChess
3. Sign-in to Tornelo and go to your game
4. Click More… Connect to e-Board
5. Make your move!

4. Changes: When can players start their games?

For a player to start a game there are 2 conditions which must be fulfilled:

• The arbtier must make the round “Live”
• Both players must be connected

A player cannot start the clocks or make the first move while their opponent is disconnected. Also if they join the game when the Round is still Draft or Published (ie. not live) they also cannot make the first move.

Once a game has started it will always be playable. So if a game starts and the arbiter changes the round back to a Published state, any games already started will continue.

If an arbiter wishes to start the clocks of games with only one connected player they can do so by:

• Clicking Start all clocks button on the round in the lobby
• Go into the individual game and click Start clock button

5. Changes: Editing player names

As part of our ongoing efforts to give players more control of their own private information the following data is now only able to be changed by a user with permission over that player:

• Name
• Gender
• Year of birth

This means arbiters cannot edit player names, unless that player has made a self-entry into the event. The self-entry is implied permission to view and update this information. We strongly reommend allowing players to self-register for all events.

Importing names or adding names through the pairing program will still be permitted, but be aware that if you do this you will not be able to edit the name, gender or birth year of the player you have added.