Vega & Lichess

[forlano]

Hello,

during the covid time several arbiters are running tournaments using the Lichess platform https://lichess.org/
I play there too as chessplayers but never used it to run toutnaments. It is my preferite chess server. Many collegues noticed that its pairings are not very good and/or would like to rate their tournament and asked me to interface Vega with Lichess.

This is a hard work for me, my spare time is limited, and I can't afford the task alone although I like the idea very much.
However among you could be programmers willing to collaborate and produce a sort of plugin that can be driven by Vega and deliver commands to the Lichess server to do very basic tasks as:
- ask a couple of players to start a game with a given setting
- retrieve their result (even the forfeit of white if it does not start the game)

Around these two simple commands I think to be able to do the rest within Vega and with the help of the companion site https://www.vegaresult.com/vr/ where pairings and standings will be published.
Are there any volunteers? We will work in our spare time with no deadline but something we should produce in a reasonable time.
This plugin can be even an executable alone and the developer/s can sell it and mantains all their rights (i do not care). I will cooperate in any way I can with ideas/suggestion but not in writing it. The API are here
https://lichess.org/api#section/Introduction

The plugin can be written in any language althoug C++ would be preferible in case the developer want to go native (I would limit the option to Java and Python).

You can answer here or to my private email.
Thanks,
Luigi Forlano

[Patrick Byrom]

I'd like to help, but that's a bit too advanced for me at present.

However, I can reassure juniors that the Qld Junior Rating List is rating (at least some) online events. The rating program can even be downloaded here. The input format is very restricted for now, but I can make it more flexible (if there is a demand for that).

And, if the events are in Swiss Perfect form, they can be uploaded to the 'Chess Results' website on the same page, which will also rate them.

[Old Wolf]

However among you could be programmers willing to collaborate and produce a sort of plugin that can be driven by Vega and deliver commands to the Lichess server to do very basic tasks as:
- ask a couple of players to start a game with a given setting
- retrieve their result (even the forfeit of white if it does not start the game)

I do not see any option in the Lichess API to suggest two players to start a game -- it only allows the logged-in user to challenge another person. Maybe it would have to work by just sending messages that the players have to read? A la the early days of ICC. Unless I am overlooking an API?

[forlano]

Hello Old Wolf,

thanks for reply.
I do not know. I have not inquired them in detail.

However I suspect there should be a way to start a game between two logged in players. This is what must do a tournament manager and lichess offer many tournaments.
Perhaps this require to go deep in the source code at that level. The whole source code is available.
I saw there is a discord channel https://discordapp.com/invite/pw6Efvk . Maybe that is the right place to start with. The developers could address us in the right directions without read too many docs.

Luigi

[Patrick Byrom]

This post by Shaun Press would be relevant here - he appears to be using Vega offline to run an online event.

[forlano]

This post by Shaun Press would be relevant here - he appears to be using Vega offline to run an online event.

Thanks. I was not aware of them. In Italy something similar is being organised.
From what I saw it seems the games are issued manually by the same players. They are well organised and if the players are disciplined and able to start a game every thing is OK with some supplementary work from the arbiters that need to collect the results.
Moreover they use the site chess.com . I do not know if that site offers some API that can be used by an external client.

I would like to make it full automatic as in the normal tournaments. At the given time the white clock starts. The results are collected automatically. The arbiter should only press the pairing button and the one to publish the updated tournament.

Luigi

[Patrick Byrom]

... However, I can reassure juniors that the Qld Junior Rating List is rating (at least some) online events. ...

I have now been told that most (and probably all) online events will not be rated on the QJRL.

[Kevin Bonham]

Posts moved

Posts discussing the ACF and online chess have been moved to Australian chess - obviously not relevant to a technical thread about how to run events.

[Kevin Bonham]

Post deleted

As this thread is pitched at people with an interest in having tournaments that are paired correctly, promotion of Tornelo is not permitted on this thread.

Anyone wishing to discuss this decision may do so in the Help and Feedback section only.

[ChessGuru]

Is JaVaFo no longer FIDE approved?

[Kevin Bonham]

Is JaVaFo no longer FIDE approved?

FIDE lists a number of approved programs that use JaVaFo. However the presence of JaVaFo alone seemingly does not guarantee correct pairings, as seen with an MCC allegro last year ( http://www.chesschat.org/showthread....l=1#post458299 )