Swiss Tournament Rules

Swiss Tournament Rules

Arbiter: Louis Sanchez
Tournament Directors: Benjamin Newbry
Tournament Organizer: Benjamin Newbry

  1. Game length

 

Games are 50 10 Time control

 

  1. Dates, Times and Places

 

Regular Swiss Tournament rounds are played every other Monday during the spring (March to June) and the fall (September to December). Tournaments are usually 7 round, and if participants are unable to play on a normal Monday schedule, the TD will attempt to set up a makeup date for the particular game. Games are scheduled to start at 7:45 pm, with the Arbiter starting the clock of late opponents at 8 pm. Both game time and clock start time is open to adjustment according to the discretion of the Arbiter. Games will take place at Maya, but makeup games could take place at another place according to an agreement of both players.

 

  1. Arbiter and special rules

During the course of play, any illegal move or other such breaking of normal FIDE laws of chess for classic games can be brought to the attention of the arbiter only by the players involved in the game in question. After being brought to the arbiter, he will make a decision according said FIDE laws and his decision will be final. The exceptions to FIDE law are as follows:

  1. You must record all moves of both players until your clock reaches 2 minutes, after which you may stop recording for the rest of the game.
  2. If you make an illegal move, the first instance will receive a warning. For a second instance you will lose the match.

 

Pairings

 

Players will be paired according to Swiss tournament principles. Players will be ranked by the tournament organizer before the tournament starts according to the final results from the previous League Swiss, with new players inserted at the low end of their estimated strength by the TO.

 

Players will be divided into groups based on point totals (half point totals will be moved up or down into the nearest group at the discretion of the TD). Groups of players will then be paired to others within that group according to the following principles:

 

  • First 3 rounds: top of the group pairs with the middle.
  • Rounds 4-5: top of the group pairs with the bottom.
  • Rounds 6-7: adjacent pairings (groups don’t matter)

 

 

Group ordering will be done according to initial ranking list for the first 3 rounds and according to tie-break rules for rounds 4-7. Within groups, micro adjustments are made to avoid color breaks, to not play the same opponent twice, and in case of special circumstances. The process is transparent and if anyone has questions on a particular week about pairing, Benjamin Newbry is more than happy to explain the process that went into that week’s pairing, so please ask instead of privately stewing about it. Seriously – he loves to explain the process, so ask if you have any questions.

 

Pairings will be put out to the Maya Chess Group on WeChat the Thursday before each game date at 11 pm.

 

  1. Flexibility

Players are strongly recommended to play all of their games on the games dates as listed in part 1, however, it is understandable that on occasion players will be unable to make it on the game date. The general principles in place for this are that if a request is made for a change of playing date before pairings are announced (see section 3), the TD will ask potential opponents before pairing until finding one that accepts a change in date. If nobody within the requesting players group is found that agrees to play on an off date, the requesting player will receive a bye with ½ point. Each player has two such byes to use during the season.

  • If a player requests a change of date after pairings are made, it is up to the opponent to accept or reject the change of date. If the opponent rejects it, it counts as a forfeit. If the opponent accepts but then for whatever reason the two players are unable to make up the game, it also counts as a forfeit for the original requester.

 

  1. Byes

Players are allowed to take up to 2 byes (not requests for game changes) in the 7 week regular schedule. In the round after the bye, the player will get ½ point for pairing purposes only, which will remain until either the player makes up the game, or until the end of the tournament. The player can choose to not take this half pairing point if he/she so desires.

 

Players who are forced to take a bye because of an odd number of players will be given a full point for that bye.

 

  1. Standings

Players will earn points for over the board results, for forfeits, for forced byes and for byes in which a game change request was made before pairings were out but no game was played. Standings will be updated weekly on the Shanghai Chess League website. Final standings will be announced after all round 7 games have been played.

 

  1. Tie-breaks

Tie breaks shall be in order as follows:

  1. Head to Head result
  2. Buchholz minus the lowest opponent
  3. Buchholz
  4. Number of wins
  5. Number of blacks
  6. Initial ranking
  • Buchholz is calculated by adding up the tournament score of all your opponents.
  • Number of blacks will not be used in the pairing system for group ordering, but will only be used in final standings.