Guides
Learn Rook Ready inside out
Short, focused walkthroughs of the workflows your club runs every week.
Getting started
Onboarding
Getting Started with Rook Ready
Create your club, set up your profile, and get ready to add your first member. About 5 minutes.
Roster
Adding Members to Your Club
Three ways to get your roster into Rook Ready — one at a time, bulk CSV, or invitations. About 10 minutes for a typical small club.
Events
Creating Your First Event
Fill out the event form, publish, and your club has its first event on the calendar — about 5 minutes from blank slate to published. Sets you up to record attendance next.
Attendance
Recording Attendance
Mark Present, Absent, Late, or Excused for every member at an event — bulk by default, individual where it matters. About 2 minutes per event.
Running your club
Communication
Sending Announcements
Compose, scope, schedule, and send messages to your club — about 3 minutes for a typical announcement. Keep members in the loop without spinning up an event.
Forms
Building Registration Forms
Build a public sign-up form, share the link, and review submissions — about 5 minutes to publish, then review as they roll in. A Rook plan feature.
Member data
Defining Custom Fields
Capture data specific to your club — USCF ratings, school grades, dietary restrictions, anything default member fields don't cover. About 2 minutes per field. Pawn includes 5 fields; Rook is unlimited.
Billing
Billing & Subscription
Pawn is free for clubs up to 30 members. Rook unlocks unlimited members and the rest of the features. About 5 minutes to set up a paid plan; cancel anytime.
Tournaments
Set up your tournament
Tournament setup
Set Up a Tournament and Its Sections
Go from "I have a club" to a tournament with its sections shaped — the build wizard, the event-wide format defaults, and each section's pairing method, rating system, and eligibility. Pricing and directors have their own guides.
Tournament setup
Pricing, Payments, and Registration Windows
Set your entry fee — tiers with early-bird windows, how players pay (card, offline, or a link), promo codes and refunds — and control when registration opens and closes.
Tournament setup
Assign Tournament Directors
You're the chief TD by default — here's how to add assistant directors who can pair rounds and enter results, scoped to one section or the whole event, without making them club admins.
Tournament setup
Tournament Formats — Swiss, Round Robin, and Knockout
Every pairing method a section can run — Swiss, Double Swiss, Round Robin, Double Round Robin, Quads, and Knockout — what each is good for, and how it plays out round by round.
Run your event
Tournament Director
Run Your Event, Round by Round
The director's playbook for running a rated Swiss — pair, post, score, and advance each round, plus exactly what to do when a result is wrong, a player withdraws, or someone walks in late.
Running an event
Working the Section Workspace
Every section has its own workspace — the round-by-round Overview, the roster, live standings with full tie-breaks, prizes, history, and the player-facing wallchart and cross-table. Here's the whole tour.
Running an event
Adjusting Pairings Mid-Round
When the auto-pairings need a human touch — swap two boards, re-pair around a late arrival, move a bye — with a review step that records what changed and why.
Running an event
Understanding the Audit Log
Every change to your tournament is on the record — who did it, when, and the before-and-after. Here's what the history timeline tracks, how to filter it to one player, and why it's the answer to "what happened to my kid's bye?"
Running an event
Sending Tournament Announcements
Reach your entrants directly — a schedule change, a byes-deadline reminder, an awards-ceremony heads-up — scoped to the right sections, sent now or scheduled, from inside the tournament.
Team events
Tournament Director
Run a Team Event
The team-championship playbook — team sections, the free-agent pool, board order, alternates, and how individual results roll up into team standings.
Team captains
Manage Your Team
For team captains — register your team, save your manage link, invite players to claim their own spots, and fix your roster any time before the event, no account needed.
For players & parents
Players & parents
Enter a Tournament
Sign up for a tournament — as a player, or a parent registering one or more kids, including players who aren't club members yet. Pay by card, link, or at the door.
Players, parents & spectators
Follow the Tournament
Find the pairings, your own games, and the live standings while an event is underway — on web or your phone, no login required.
