The ChessManager Story

Maciej and Tom, the founders of ChessManager, knew each other only by sight.

One day, Maciej proposed to grab a beer, and Tom agreed.

While enjoying their beer, Maciej, an arbiter, received a phone call. At that time, he had organized a tournament and had to make a small change to the tournament file.

Tom didn't know chess. He was a tech guy. He couldn't understand why a task as simple as tweaking the tournament file looked so confusing.

After seeing Maciej struggle, Tom jokingly asked, “Are you sending a rocket into space?”

Maciej wittily replied, “If you can, do something better.”

“Ok” was Tom's quick and decisive response.

That's how the idea of ChessManager was born.

An arbiter and a tech guy join hands

Maciej created a list of duties performed by the arbiter and organizer. He looked at the ‘chess' side of things.

Tom took care of the code. His tech background turned out to be a huge advantage.

Instead of copying the competitor's solutions, Tom knew he could do much better. After all, managing chess pairings didn't have to be like sending a rocket into space.

So with fresh ideas and without the burden of competition, Tom developed ChessManager, adding modern features.

The 21st-century features of ChessManager

When Tom saw people crowding and shoving each other to see the printed pairings, he was puzzled - ‘How can this even happen in the 21st century?'

SMS feature

So he created the SMS feature, where the system sends a text message to each player notifying them about their opponent, color, table, and round.

A personalized text message received on the player's phone

It was successfully used in the European Championship in 2021.

Collect entry fees, create pairings at once

If one can book flights with the click of a button, why can't players pay their entry fee online for the event and automatically confirm their participation?

So he created a feature where players could pay an entry fee online and confirm their participation.

It was a win-win for everyone, saving countless hours of manual labor.

• Players no longer had to go back and forth with the organizers to confirm their participation.
• Arbiters no longer needed to add the players manually.
• Organizers could finally stop begging the players to pay their entry fee.

Anybody should be able to manage tournaments.

The founders' vision was clear - even a layman should be able to create pairings for any chess tournament, even a FIDE-rated event.

So everything was mapped out to the fine details.

With Maciej's in-depth expertise, the default settings were chosen carefully. With the least number of clicks, a user should be able to organize a tournament, saving time.

You only need an internet connection to access ChessManager

Chess attracts a global audience.

Some use desktops, some have a phone.
Some use iOS, some use Android.

So creating a one-size-fits-all app might not be a practical idea.

Also, imagine an arbiter creating a tournament on their laptop application, but the laptop gets misplaced.

So Tom and Maciej came up with a simple solution - one should only need the internet to manage chess tournaments.

As a result, everything was put on a cloud. That way, anybody can login into their account and manage their tournaments, whether they're using a desktop or a phone, an Android or an iOS.

All they need is an internet connection.

Supporting a global audience

Being global also means supporting languages spoken in different parts of the world.

So we kept adding languages, making ChessManager easy to use for everyone!

Early success

Once the pairing software was ready, Maciej used it at the Polish Chess Championship.

It was an instant hit! Since then, it's been the preferred software at the subsequent Polish Championships.

Other major events in Poland, like the Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival in Polanica and Poznan Chess Festival, also started adopting ChessManager.

ChessManager goes international and continues to grow

Olexandr Prohorov, an International Arbiter from Ukraine, used it to organize the Ukrainian Championship in 2016 and also one of the biggest rapid tournaments in Lviv.

Left to right: Tom, Oleksandr Prohorov, Maciej

In 2021, ChessManager was used to organize the European Rapid and Blitz Championship in Poland.

And today, ChessManager helps not just the arbiters but also schools and chess clubs to manage their tournaments efficiently.