
SWISS PERFECT 2.4 (DOS) - README file
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DESCRIPTION: 
  Program for running Swiss tournaments

  Main features and limitations:
   - operating system DOS
   - up to 600 players and 15 rounds
   - supports late entries, withdrawals and pauses
   - automatic Swiss draw
   - manual draw with automatic checking
   - fast scores entry
   - instant standings, and ELO rating calculations
   - pairing, standings, cross table etc displays
   - complete set of reports (sent to a printer or an ASCII file)

HISTORY:
  It has been heavily used over the past four years in a few countries. 
  It has been used to run hundreds of tournaments including international 
  grandmaster events, national lightning and rapid championships etc. 
  Some of them you'll find in the SWISSP.ZIP package.
  

DISTRIBUTION STATUS:
  Until recently it had a commercial status.  Currently it is made
  available on a shareware licence (see below).


LICENCE:  
  You are free to test the program for as long as you wish.
  However if you are going to run tournaments using it please
  send a cheque for US$20 to:

  ODRA ELECTRONICS
  7 Beckler Court
  Padbury WA 6025
  AUSTRALIA

  (cheques payable to ODRA ELECTRONICS, please).

  Your name will be registered and you will receive US$20 discount
  should you decide to buy Swiss Perfect for Windows which is
  currently being developed.

  The licence entitles you to use the program in any tournament you
  run or organize or co-organize.

FILE BUNDLE:
  In the SWISSP.ZIP you will find
   SP.EXE               executable
   README.TXT           the file you are currently reading
   SP2MAN.TXT            manual (DOS text)
   *.lop *.res *.tsu    tournament files that you can use to get familiar 
                        with SP
   
BUGS: 
  It has no bugs which would affect a smooth running of
  a tournament (at least no such bugs have been reported for the last couple
  of years).


DEFICIENCIES:
1) It does not support some printers very well.  
   The idea was to have the program as easy to install as possible
   (just one file) eg. avoid having printer drivers.  Swiss Perfect uses
   only few printer cotrol commands like select bold or condensed which
   work fine on Epson compatible dot matrix printers.  
   Unfortunately it is no so good with many other printers. 
   To get around it configure your SP to print to an ASCII file rather than 
   to a printer and then use your word processor to print them out.

2) There have been discussions over some aspects of the
   automatic pairing.  It basically complies with the FIDE 1989 Swiss 
   Pairing rules however the rules were not precise and the author had to 
   interpret them somehow.  

  The bottom line is that pairings are always sensible and consistent.  
  If you run a tournament using Swiss Perfect it is a good
  idea to declare that its pairing is final and "no correspondence
  will be entered into" :-)


COMMENTS:
If you have questions regarding SP e-mail to:
    rozycki@dialix.oz.au
or write to the address given in the LICENCE section.
