ACA Tournament Procedures
A Tournament Director (TD) must follow the CFC rules and regulations in the CFC Handbook. In addition to the policies outlined in this handbook on tournament directing in general, the ACA has a few extra rules and guidelines. In order to reflect the increased Tournament Director honorarium (as of 2025), the ACA has adopted the following standards for Directors, effective as of January 1, 2026:
1) Where possible, ACA Tournament Directors should be National Arbiters. TDs are encouraged to pursue NA designation, when made possible by the ACA or CFC.
2) TDs are expected to be “present”, and regularly observe games. It is understood that TDs may play in events that they direct, but must recognize that their first responsibility is as the TD.
3) TDs are expected to act with the utmost professionalism, and are encouraged to dress accordingly (for instance, a collared shirt). TDs will be provided with a badge to identify themselves.
4) TDs are expected to post pairings and standings online. Further, results are to be sent to the ACA Secretary and/or President no more than four days following the conclusion of the event, with a clear listing of top finishers. Failure to do so may result in a reduction of the TD honorarium by 20%.
5) It is appreciated when TDs take pictures or videos from the event and post them online.
Further procedures are as follows:
Venue
The venue is booked by the ACA and/or the organizer; the tournament director should contact the ACA at least one month prior to the event date to make sure the venue is booked.
Entry Fees, Prize Fund, Honorariums
Entry fees to ACA tournaments can be set as the organizer deems appropriate, and should be comparable to other tournaments. For general tournaments, we recommend an entry fee of approximately $50, with discounts to juniors (under 20), women/girls, and first-time CFC players. The ACA collects $10 dues from every paid entry. The prize fund consists of total entry fees minus $10 per paid entry. The ACA takes care of 100% of the venue rental costs, the CFC rating fees, and FIDE fees if the tournament is approved to be FIDE rated.
The ACA also pays the TD honorarium of $60/round (minimum $75 per day) for Classical tournaments or $100/day for faster time controls, distributed once the ACA Treasurer receives the dues collected at the tournament. Junior tournaments are allowed one TD honorarium for every 30 players, with honoraria distributed as the organizer sees fit.
Knowledge of Tournament Cycle
The TD should have a working knowledge of the ACA tournament cycle. When directing the Alberta Closed for the ACA, it is of course necessary to be intimately familiar with all rules, and to contact players 1-2 months ahead of time if they may or may not be eligible.
Responsibilities
The TD must send in the results to the CFC for rating purposes — free software facilitating this task is available for download on the CFC website — and is responsible for collecting membership fees from every participant with no or expired membership. The player’s mailing address, e-mail address, and date of birth (for juniors) must also be recorded.
International Arbiter Vlad Rekhson has also developed a useful TD Manual .
TDs wishing to run their tournament in the old fashioned way may download the following:
Pairing Cards
Pairing Sheets
CFC Membership Report Form
CFC Wallchart
CFC Swiss Report Form 6 round
CFC Swiss Report Form 10 round
CFC Round Robin Report Form 6 player
CFC Round Robin Report Form 10 player
See also: