Action plan 2026 – Jorian Burssens

As (new) Rating Officer and General IT Manager, partially responsible for the federation’s database, rating systems, and digital infrastructure across the board (as the Interclubs operates under its own dedicated management and IT), I see both immense opportunities and a critical reality check as we head into the end of 2026.

Let us be honest: for years, our federation has been running behind technologically. (One of the recent massive improvements being our new membership affiliation system). Before we can build the future, we have to face the legacy head-on: clear the backlog, clean up historical data, and properly document our systems. The RBCF/KBSB does not employ twenty full-time staff members (like some other bigger federations do); we run on the energy of dedicated volunteers and officials. If we want our chess community to thrive, our technology must carry the burden, not add to it.

Here is what has been achieved so far, and the plan for what this year will bring.

Deliverables First; Rebuilding the Foundation & the Data Platform

Real IT progress is measured by what works in production, not by promises on paper. Over the past period, we have focused on overhauling our core infrastructure and building the new Data Platform:

Faster updated player database: The players and fide data files vital for pairing software (Swar and other pairing software) now regenerate and update automatically every 1 to 4 hours. This used to be done roughly weekly through manual labor. Now, arbiters and organizers no longer have to worry about missing players without ID, or out of date FIDE elo.

Central Database Manager & Private Elo API: Developed the backend database manager alongside a dedicated private Elo API (plausibly public in the future), directly powering the modern player view and real-time rating queries.

Continuous FIDE Integrity Audits: Deployed automated audit pipelines that actively cross-reference our national database with FIDE’s master records. Through this, we have already caught and resolved over 250 historical database discrepancies (conflicting FIDE IDs, name mismatches, and duplicate profiles).

Mostly automated tournament homologations: Accelerated the homologation turnaround through automated validation checks, integrated mailings, and automated notifications to organizers. Turns out computers are remarkably good at doing repetitive math without getting bored, tired, or complaining about weekend hours. So far, 95% of the manual labor has been eliminated.

Preserving Our History (The Elo Archive): A three-week hellhole project to pay respects to the legacy of all those that have been a part of the RBCF over the course of three decades. The data came in all kinds of different formats, including manually created PDFs (because nothing screams ‘reliable database’ quite like storing tabular numbers inside a digital picture of a piece of paper). After fixing numerous errors, we hope to now have a complete and correct picture dating all the way back to 1989. (Someone decades ago apparently decided that recycling ID numbers was a brilliant space-saver, proving once again that people will gladly create three impossible future problems just to avoid solving one simple one today.). Sadly, a few tournament names have been lost along the way because those original PDFs are simply unfindable, but the historical ratings themselves are finally secured.

Better implementation of G-Licenses: Integrated the G-license framework directly into our central database structure, making the onboarding of casual and school/youth members seamless for clubs. (More options, less saved data). They still require manual approval, but this happens on average in less than 48 hours. Often way faster.

The FIDE Tournament Registration Pipeline: Rolled out the new standardized registration form. This is the first major component of an end-to-end workflow for FIDE rated tournament administration, tying directly into my role as Rating Officer.

Theme 2: The Automation Philosophy & Tackling Technical Debt

Why do we need this much automation?

Because volunteer time is our federation’s rarest resource. Every hour an board member spends manually copy-pasting rating data or cross-referencing member lists is an hour lost to organizing tournaments, teaching youth, or doing something productive.

We still need humans: Routine data transformations, synchronization jobs, sanity checks, and format validations belong in automated code. Human intervention should be strictly reserved for what actually requires human judgment: validation, revisions, edge cases, and oversight.

Open Source & Federation Property: Everything being built is fully open source or released under the Elastic 2.0 license. All code and platforms can be used by our community while remaining the full property of the RBCF. No vendor lock-in (at least from my end), no closed black boxes.

Internal Documentation as Long-Term Value: A single person holding all the technical keys is a structural vulnerability for any volunteer organization. Rigorous internal documentation remains an internal matter and will not immediately show visible “progress” on day one, but it is the single most valuable long-term asset we can build. It ensures sustainability, eliminates technical debt, and guarantees that future progress is actually possible.

Theme 3: The Roadmap – Late 2026 & Looking Ahead

With the foundation cleaned up and stabilized, the roadmap for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027 focuses on three key milestones:

Completing the FIDE Workflow: By the end of this year, we plan to finalize this comprehensive FIDE rated tournament workflow. From the initial public tournament registration form to internal validations, FIDE submissions, and final rating homologation, the process will become transparent, traceable, and automated.

Swar Results Server Modernization: By the end of 2026, the aging server currently hosting Swar results will be migrated to a much newer, reliable system. Swar results will, of course, keep existing (in this form or another), backed by modern hosting and stability.

An Open Tournament & Results Ecosystem: Looking forward, we are working toward a new public tournament registration system and results server that can be used by any pairing software. Whether an organizer chooses Swar, Sevilla, Swiss-Manager, or other modern pairing software, our federation platform should be accessible to all.

What is needed?

We don’t need a massive commercial budget. (Fun fact: the total budget spent by this previous list of things, so far, is less than 3 coffees worth. It turns out you don’t actually need expensive consulting committees and five-figure software licenses to fix things; you just need someone who stops talking about the problem and writes the code.) What we now need most is feedback, ideas, and remarks from the community. Anything that gives us a clearer view of what the Belgian chess world really needs helps us prioritize the right tools for organizers, arbiters, and players alike.

Everyone loves talking about the glorious future because looking at the present requires dealing with twenty years of duct tape and wishful thinking. We are playing catch-up, and before we start building castles in the sky, someone actually has to make sure the ground beneath our feet isn’t about to collapse.

-Jorian Burssens

For the RBCF