How To: Correct Pairings

If you don't like something about the WinTD pairings (maybe it paired relatives), or if no-shows require you to make some changes on the fly, WinTD offers you several ways to alter the pairings. The first question you need to ask yourself is whether or not the pairings can be fixed to your satisfaction with a few switches, or whether the problems are beyond that. If the games haven't started and it would take a lot of work to correct the pairings, see How To: Redo Pairings to let WinTD do the heavy lifting.

Assuming that you've decided to switch the pairings around yourself, you can use either of two methods within the Games Window. Both have their uses.

Drag and Drop Switches

Click on a player and drag him to another position in the Games Window. When you release the mouse button, the player will switch positions with the player you dropped him on. You can use this to change colors in a single game (drop the White player on the Black player or vice versa), change which player receives a bye (drop the bye recipient on one of the other players) or do whatever other pairing swaps you need.

When you are matching up two players whose opponents were no-shows, the drag and drop switch is the easiest way to handle this. The switch will give you one board with two active players and one with two no-shows. By entering the result of the latter game as a double forfeit, you can automatically withdraw both of them from the tournament.

If you want to swap in a player who was not originally paired (a late entry, for instance), you can't use drag and drop unless you give him some type of bye for the round first. The dialog box method is usually better in that situation.

Dialog Box

Select a game which needs to be changed and choose the operation Games>Correct the Players... This pops up the Manual Pairing dialog box initialized with the current pairings. Make the changes you need to this. This is the more convenient method when you are substituting a late registrant for a no-show since the late registrant won't be in your game list. When you substitute out a player, WinTD will ask if you wish to withdraw him.