Managing Pairings

Currently, it’s not possible to generate pairings directly from Sharly Chess. For now, pairings should continue to be generated in Papi using its pairing engine. However, once the pairings have been generated, they can be fully managed from the Pairings page in the admin interface.

:information_source: An experimental version of Sharly Chess can generate pairings directly using an open-source library called bbpPairings — the same library used by several FIDE-endorsed tournament managers. Official support for integrated pairing generation is coming soon.

The Pairings Interface

The pairing interface is split into two sections:

  • Left side: Unpaired players and those who have been assigned a bye (if there are any such players).
  • Right side: Confirmed pairings for the round.

Navigation controls allow you to switch between tournaments and rounds. You can also toggle between showing all boards or only those still in play.

Manual Pairing

To manually pair players (typically late arrivals), click the pairing button next to a player’s name in the unpaired list (left side).

  • If there is already a player assigned a pairing-allocated bye and ready to play, you can pair the new player as black against them.
  • If not, the player will be assigned a pairing-allocated bye until a suitable opponent is manually paired.

:warning: Manually pairing players will reassign all the board numbers for the round. It is highly recommended to wait for the end of the round before pairing players manually. This is due to a restriction in Papi and will be resolved in a future version once we move to a fully independent database.

Managing Byes

To assign a bye, click the bye button next to a player’s name. You’ll be able to:

  • Give a zero-point bye for the current round.
  • Give a half-point bye (if allowed).
  • Mark the player as withdrawn (which assigns a zero-point bye for all remaining rounds).

:information_source: Depending on tournament settings, you may not be able to assign a half-point bye if the player has already used the maximum allowed, or if the tournament is in its final rounds.

:information_source: Full-point byes are deprecated by FIDE and not available from the pairings interface. If needed, you can still assign one manually via the Players page by viewing the player’s tournament Record.

Entering Results

Each pairing row includes a button to:

  • Enter or edit a result.
  • Permute the colours player (if the player’s played the wrong colours by mistake).
  • Unassign a pairing (if the player’s played the wrong opponent by mistake!).

:point_right: If you have a projector, you can display live results. This allows players to verify that their game was recorded correctly — reducing errors and questions.

Quick Entry Mode

This is ideal for entering many results quickly — especially from a printed list. To use it:

  1. Select Overwrite mode for keyboard shortcuts.
  2. Click on a board row to select it (not the button).
  3. Use the following keyboard shortcuts:
    • 1 – White wins
    • 2 – Black wins
    • 3 – Draw
    • 0 – Clear result

Each time a result is entered, the next board will be selected automatically for fast input.

Quick Verification Mode

After entering all results, you can verify them efficiently:

  1. Switch to Highlight mode.
  2. Click a board row to select it.
  3. Re-enter results using the same keyboard shortcuts.

If the re-entered result matches, the next board is selected. If it doesn’t match, the row is highlighted in red and input is paused until you manually select a new board — helping to catch errors quickly.

Self-entry by Players

Instead of entering results yourself, you can provide a device (tablet or laptop) for players to enter the results themselves. This reduces workload and helps avoid errors. See the Screens section for setup details.

:point_right: You’ll need to refresh your browser occasionally to see changes made from other devices.

Correcting Results

You can correct any result using the edit button on the pairing row.

To avoid accidental changes, Sharly Chess will warn you when editing a past round. You’ll have the option to enter unsafe mode, which suppresses warnings for further changes to the same round.

Navigating to another round will automatically exit this mode.