Rules & Formats
Sections
Open Lower TC
Standard
Blitz
Lightning
Wild FR
Suicide
Losers
Crazyhouse
Atomic
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
U1900
U1800
U1800
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1. To be eligible to qualify for the lower section semifinals a player MUST have a best rating, and this must be at most 1900 for Standard and 1800 for Blitz, and Lightning. If the best is from year 2012 or earlier, and your Best has not exceeded the above stated limits since, exceptions can be made.
15 0
3 0
1 0
5 0
5 0
5 0
5 0
3 0
Qualifiers
No. of Rounds of No. of No. of
Rounds Latejoins Qualifiers Wildcards
Standard
Blitz
Lightning
Wild FR
Suicide
Losers
Crazyhouse
Atomic
4
5
9
5
5
5
5
5
1
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
4
4
2
2
2
2
2
2. Qualifiers will run for a period of time (see the schedule for the individual tournament for further info). These qualifiers will be in Swiss format with latejoins.
3. Qualifiers for the Semifinals will not have tiebreaks, which means the top two players who have not yet qualified, along with all players with the same scores, will qualify for the semifinals.
4. Standard, Atomic, Crazyhouse, Suicide, and Losers qualifiers will use Buchholz to decide tiebreaks.
5. A player from the lower section can also qualify for the open section.
6. A player is allowed to participate in as many qualifiers as he/she wants.
7. Wildcards will be awarded to players with the highest overall scores to also play in the next stage of the tournament.
Semifinals
No. of Rounds of No. of No. of
Rounds Latejoins Qualifiers Wildcards
Blitz
Lightning
​
5
9
​
2
2
​
3
3
​
1
1
​
Finals
8. For Lower sections only: There will be no semifinals, qualifiers will only be held in the first week of the relevant championship and all eligible players who play in these qualifiers will qualify for the finals.
9. There will be a total of 3 (three) semifinals for each Open section.
10. These semifinals will be in Swiss format with latejoins.
11. Buchholz will be used as tiebreaker (the total scores of the opponents excluding the worst of those scores).
12. A player is allowed to participate in as many semifinals as he/she wants.
13. Wildcards will be awarded to the player with the highest overall score to also play in the final.
No. of Format Max. Min. Games
Rounds RD Played
Standard
Blitz
Lightning
Wild FR
Suicide
Losers
Crazyhouse
Atomic
4-5
9
18
9
9
9
9
9
SS
RR
RR
RR
RR
RR
RR
RR
20
100
50
20
10
10
10
10
150
80
80
80
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
14. The Lower Finals will be held on the first Saturday of each championship.
15. In case of a tie for first place the players will play tiebreak games until a winner is decided.
16. Reserves will be selected to fill the absentee spots in order they appear in the overall standings from the semifinals.
17. To play in the Finals, players must be registered on FICS from 2017 or before.
18. There are also maximum RD and minimum games played requirements that the finalists must satisfy Please see the table to the left for details.
Noescape & Lag
Please disable noescape before starting a championship tournament. We cannot force you to do so, but having it on is bad karma. For the Semi Finals and Finals having it off will be especially important as we want every game to be decided fairly. To disable noescape, use the server command "set noescape off".
A certain amount of lag is tolerated in tournaments. As a guide, Standard has no defined limit (TM's discretion will be used), <0.5 sec/move in Lightning and <1 sec/move in all the others. The TM running the tournament reserves the right to forfeit any player with excessive lag without any warning.
Cheating
All Championship games will be scrutinized for any sign of cheating, whether it's computer assistance or any other form of foul play. The minimum sanction imposed on cheaters is: a complete reset of all ratings and stats, followed by a ban on playing rated server games for a period of time, followed by an extensive ban from future participation in any kind of tournament.
Withdrawal
When entering a tournament you are expected to stay for its entire duration. Please make sure to plan accordingly. Leavng a tournament in progress messes with pairings in subsequent rounds, and potentially diminishes the experience for the other players. You can freely withdraw before the tournament starts. If you need to leave a tournament in progress you are expected to ask the manager for permission, and provide a good reason for it.
