CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chess Tournament Administration System

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION
We are in the field of Information Technology, with an importance beyond that of providing basis for the use of computer in day-to-day work. Computer is a machine which made by man and now he is trying to give artificial brain to go hand in hand with the human mind. This project is a one small attempt to achieve that objective.

The battle of minds, Chess is the most intellectual game in the world. Presently there is a big battle between the computer and the man mind. As far as I am concerned that should not be happen. Both the human brain and the computer should go in parallel. It would be beneficial if the technology can intermingle with the game of chess. This project helps to organize and administrate chess tournaments and also to improve the quality of a chess tournament, specially under the situation of no such system is been used in the chess field of Sri Lanka.

1.2 PROBLEM DOMAIN AND NEED OF THE PROJECT

Although there are many chess computer games, there are no computerized systems to manage chess tournaments in Sri Lanka. Considering the fact that there are around 3000 chess players in the central province and CPCA is the main organization which conducts chess tournaments in the central province, CPCA faces various kinds of difficulties when organizing tournaments.

CPCA is a well recognized association which has been doing enormous service to all the chess lovers in central province. When organizing a chess tournament CPCA has some objectives such as: The players should enjoy themselves. The event attracts publicity for Chess. Players have the opportunity to improve their playing strength. The organizers enjoy themselves. The event makes a surplus of income over expenditure etc.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chess Tournament Administration System

At present, most of the tournament organizing and managing activities have been done manually. According to the situation of current analysis CPCA faces difficulties when they managing a chess tournament. Some of them are; Tournament registration process is hard and time consuming since all the tournament restrictions have to check against all the participants. Numbering process is difficult since have to check rating list and compare them against all the participants. Preparing a draw of a round is time consuming, can have errors, need more human resources and inefficient cost wise. (Specially when there is large number of players in the tournament). To do tie-breaking calculations are difficult and not efficient. Problems with updating and publishing rating and ranking lists. Keeping all the players, chess clubs and previous tournament details. Communication difficulties.

Therefore with this project I endeavor to improve and maintain the standards, quality and efficiency of the Chess tournament. The system also will be effective in cost wise and human resource wise.

In addition to the CPCA, all the chess players, arbiters, tournament directors, chess clubs and Chess Federation of Sri Lanka will benefit immensely from this system.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

The aim is to build an automated system to manage individual and team chess tournaments. Main objectives of this attempt are described below with there scope.

Facilitate CPCA registration for players, teams, CPCA authorities and arbiters by providing properly generated ID. Then facilitate to add those participants for Chess tournaments, after checking against tournament constraints.

Tournament registered players/teams are numbered and automate the process of making the draw of each round, for Round robin and Knock-out tournament Systems.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chess Tournament Administration System

In Round robin system it is possible to get the complete tournament schedule for all the rounds in this point. For Knock-out tournaments, draw will be prepared for the first round and for other rounds participants are paired according to the previous round results. All of these pairings are scheduled by considering standard processes such as colour alternation of players/teams.

If a tie occurs, depending on the tournament system, break the tie between players or teams using tie-break systems such as Koya, Koya Extended, Sonneborn-Berger, Result between players, Number of won games, Result between teams, etc.. Accordingly precise tournament results are provided.

Automate the process of calculate and update the ratings of all the players based on results of tournaments and rank the players accordingly. Finally, system will generate needed reports and certificates for the tournament.

In addition, online facilities were provided to query for view updated ratings and rankings of the players, view forthcoming events and tournament calendar and to view other related information such as updated news, on going tournaments, history, contacts, etc.

1.4 USER AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION

A personal computer with Pentium IV or equivalent processor, 256 MB RAM and 10GB or more hard disk free space is needed for the system with internet connection. The system operates under Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition and developed using Microsoft Visual Studio 2003. Machine should have Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installed. To develop the system Microsoft Visual C# .NET used as a development language. To deal with database, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 was used. Further to implement web components ASP.NET technology was used and IIS was used as a web server. Crystal Report was used to generate reports and a printer is needed to obtain hardcopies of the reports. For other users, when they access the system via web they need to have a Pentium III or higher machine with 128 MB RAM. They need to have Internet Browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer under the windows platform.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chess Tournament Administration System

All the user requirements are described in Analysis and Design Chapter. Further System and User Requirements are provided in Appendix B and C respectively.

1.5

STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION

Chapters of this dissertation are focused on the work that carried out during the various stages of the project. Each chapter will consist of required details in order to understand the project with the help of appropriate figures, graphs and reports.

This chapter is aiming to provide basic idea and the nature and the scope of this project to the reader.

Second chapter will provide background materials in order to proceed with rest of the documentation. It discusses all the subject areas that is related to the project and will furnish information about other equivalent systems. Also it described the literature review that is related to the project. Third chapter will be based on the requirements analysis and design. It summarizes all the facts gathering techniques that have been used to identify the requirements and introduces all the system requirements in detail. Then the techniques and tools that are used for system design will be introduced. All the structured methodological approaches and object oriented approaches used for system design are outlined. All labeled diagrams are included there with a description. All significant design decisions will be discussed. Database design will be also included in this chapter.

Fourth chapter is based on user interfaces. It will provide main user interfaces with appropriate screen shots. Next the fifth chapter will cover all the issues in implementation. Here some of the important codes are listed and explained. Also implementation environment, and other related issues are summarized. Sixth chapter is based on testing. It provides testing approaches and methods which were used in the project with all the major test cases and test results.

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Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chess Tournament Administration System

Last two chapters deal with evaluation and conclusion. There it will be discussed and assessed all the results of the project. And will outline failures and problems came across during the project and will give suggestions of future work. In addition, Referred materials are properly listed in the References section. In appendices, Design Documentation, System Documentation, User Documentation, Management Reports, Code Listing, Extra Tests and Simulation Results and Client Certificate will be provided.

Finally, glossary of terms and an extensive index is provided.

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