SwissSys versus WinTD
by Alan Hodge
01-14-01

At the 2000 Pillsbury Memorial I TD'd five events (two were Quick) plus some side games, with different numbers of rounds and time controls. 

I created all the section files by importing players from the USCF database, having to type in only a few new players. 

I had to re-pair sections two or three times, and once had to recreate an entire section's pairings by forced pairings.

All this SS allowed me to do quickly and accurately.

I preset the appropriate profile settings and section titles, etc., and got exactly the printed output I expected.

In all of this I can say that SS caused no problems at all.  Any errors that occurred were clearly the result of my overlooking something or doing something out of sequence. 

Twice the pairings caused discussion about their propriety; in both cases the players and TDs agreed that they were correct after reviewing the wall chart. 

This is my way of saying that I am persuaded that Swiss-Sys is an entirely reliable pairing program that is quite easy to use once a user becomes sufficiently familiar with it.  There should be no (non-human) reason why using SS should cause any of MCC's events or rounds to start late.

I did encounter a minor problem when generating the USCF rating reports, but a very simple and relatively quick work-around was immediately available.

I don't do any web posting type stuff, so I can't comment on its export/html/etc. capabilities, but otherwise I am now persuaded that I would definitely choose SS over WinTD.