💾 Archived View for alaskalinuxuser.ddns.net › 2024-03-26.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 09:48:23. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-09-29)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
">
024w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/vegachess-
300x213.png 300w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/
vegachess-768x546.png 768w, https://alaskalinuxuser3.ddns.net/wp-content/
uploads/2024/03/vegachess.png 1100w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw,
1024px" />
If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you will know that I
personally use Linux – exclusively. That said, I recently became a certified
club level Tournament Director (TD) for the US Chess Federation. One problem
that I noticed was that all the software for running tournaments fell into two
categories: Online and Windows.
Of course, I didn’t want to use Windows. Not just because it is so terrible,
but then I would need another computer just for the purpose of being a TD. That
means extra funds for another laptop, or limiting one laptop just for the
purpose of being a TD. It also means extra headaches to keep that laptop up to
date for hardware and software. Further, none of the Windows software for being
a Tournament Director are free, and every time they update their version of the
software, you have to shell out more money for the latest version, or pay
licensing fees. All of them are really expensive! Being a chess TD is a side
hobby, and I’d like to keep the costs down.
Typical Windows TD software would include WinTD and SwissSys. Both of them (at
the time of this post) cost about $100 for the latest version with a $40+
upgrade option if you had a previous version.
Online options seem to have some merit. For one, you don’t have to keep any
software or hardware up to date. They take care of that, and you just have to
log in. Some of them also have really neat features, like the ability to
directly pull player information, and the ability to submit your results for
you. One major problem in Alaska, though, is internet connectivity. Often in
Alaska, you can end up places where there is no viable internet, or it is
inconvenient at best. Not every venue offers free WiFi, and sometimes cell
phones just don’t work.
Another problem with online software are the subscription fees. Some notable
examples are Chessmanager and Caissa. Unfortunately, both of these have a
yearly subscription cost ranging from $60 to $90 per year. I can understand
that, because they need to make money to continue funding their employees and
website. However, this becomes a rather expensive tool when you are running
tournaments for free.
Perhaps these expenses are justifiable if you are a TD who makes money being a
TD. There are some directors who do this full time. For every event they take a
cut of the entry fee, and this pays for their time and toys. It is possible
that I could do something like that someday, but at the moment, being a TD is a
hobby, and I don’t charge money to host events. Even if I did charge money for
my services, it would take a while to build up enough events and players to
cover the costs.
So, I needed a cheaper solution, and I really was hoping for a Linux solution.
Thus entered Vega chess! Vega chess (https://www.vegachess.com) is the only TD
software that I found which was cross platform and works natively on Linux. I
had several questions about using the software, since I wanted to make sure
that it worked properly in regards to the results files that are generated, but
I am happy to report that I was able to use Vega version 10.0 and submit my
rated reports from the program to the USCF!
I would like to note, that the WIndows and Mac version of Vega chess are only
free for limited use, and you need to pay the registration fee for full access
(even then, their prices are much cheaper than WinTD and SwissSys). However,
the Linux version is completely free, with unlimited access, which is really
great! It has the option to create tournaments using the USCF Swiss rules, and
it can generate multi-section USCF rating reports! At this time, the rating
reports are the version 1 rating reports, which are still acceptable for turn
in to the USCF, which takes version 1 or the more modern version 2 reports.
If you are a Linux user who need chess tournament software, then I’d suggest
taking a look at Vega chess, it works great for me.
Linux – keep it simple.