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What’s new

For organizers ·

Tournaments, at every club

Any club on Castle Gambit can run a Swiss, a round robin, quads or a knockout now, straight from New tournament. No waiting list, and no need to email us first.

A long row of tables set for a club night: wooden boards with their pieces on the starting squares, a chess clock and a blank table tent at each board, players seated down both sides.

The short version

  • Every club can run a tournament: New tournament, on your club’s Tournaments page
  • Swiss, round robin and quads, or a single or double knockout
  • House rules, a schedule that fills itself in, and helpers for the door come with it
  • Players enter from the tournament’s gambit or its code, and get their board on their phone

Until now, tournaments were switched on one club at a time, while we watched the first nights closely and fixed whatever creaked. The creaks are fixed, so the velvet rope comes down: every club has them now, including the one you started last night.

Start one tonight

On your club’s organizer screens, open Tournaments and press New tournament. Pick a format (a Swiss, quads or a knockout, each with its clock), the date and the start time, and you get a QR code for the door. Round robins, and Swiss nights spread across weeks, are an event on your schedule away. On the night, the TD console pairs the rounds or runs the bracket, the phones take the results, and the standings or the wall chart keep themselves. Casual games can carry on beside it if you like.

The rest of the toolbox, too

House rules for how a night pairs, a schedule that fills itself in (“every Tuesday at 7”) and helpers (a TD for the knockout, someone on the door) are on for every club as well. Nothing changes for players: they still scan in, play, and tap who won.

It’s still Social Elo, not a federation rating, so keep your federation’s software for rated events. How to run a Swiss and how to run a knockout, step by step.