Announcing the second annual ICC Open!
Official website: http://www.chessclub.com/icc-open-2013
This will be a paying members-only, $4,000 cash-prize class tournament (click here to select a membership), split between an Open, U2200, U2000, U1800 and U1600 rating bands. The time control will be 3 0 throughout the whole tournament. There will be four qualifiers. You can play in as many qualifiers as you like. All qualifiers will have 11 rounds, swiss pairings.
Schedule
There will be four qualifiers. You can play in as many qualifiers as you like. All qualifiers will have 11 rounds, swiss pairings. The games are rated in the Blitz category. Latejoining is possible until round 8, but half point byes are only available for the first five rounds.
- Qualifier 1: Friday, April 12, at 2pm
- Qualifier 2: Friday, April 12, at 7pm
- Qualifier 3: Saturday, April 13, at 2pm
- Qualifier 4: Saturday, April 13, at 7pm
- Finals: Sunday, April 14, at 2pm
All times are server time (EDT, New York Time, UTC/GMT -4 hours). Type “date” on ICC and compare to your local time.
Tournament system
The top two players from each of the four qualifiers will advance to the knockout finals. In case of a tie, the usual tiebreaks of Tomato tournaments will apply. They are described in detail in “tell tomato help tie” (when connected to our server).
Players can take part in all qualifiers if they want to. In case a player who is already qualified reaches the top two in another qualifier, his/her seat will be awarded to the next best player.
Finalists will be sorted by the ICC Blitz rating they had when they played their qualifier. The grid will display the following pairings (top to bottom) and qualifiers who go through to the next round will be paired accordingly: 1-8, 4-5, 2-7, 3-6.
In the knockout finals, “mini-matches” of four games will be played and, if a tie occurs after that, two more games will be played. If still tied, another two games follow, and in case it goes to 4-4 then the tournament director will determine colors in a single, decisive game to follow by tossing a coin. Should that game be drawn, another game with opposite colors will be played. If drawn again, the procedure will be repeated. In the final of the last two, the match will have six games. Again, if the match is tied 3-3, another two games will be played, and if still tied, yet another two games. Should the final be at 5-5 after ten games, a single decisive game will be played, with colors determined by coin toss. See above for the case that single game is drawn.
A match in the finals ends before four (six) games are played, if one player has 2.5 points or more (3.5 or more in the final of the last two).
Prizes in Open
- 1st $ 850
- 2nd $ 550
- 3rd/4th $ 100 each
There will be no match to decide third place, both losing semifinalists receiving $100.
Class Prizes
There will be no final for the classes (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600). Instead, the winners of the cash prizes will be determined by comparing their respective best qualifier. For each class, the prizes are:
- 1st $400
- 2nd $200
- 3rd 1-year free ICC membership
The following tiebreaker will be used to determine the winners:
- Score (in the best qualifier played)
- Average score of opponents played (in that best qualifier)
- Own blitz rating at start of the best qualifier, lower wins.
(1), (2) and (3) will be used as reported by the tournament bot after the qualifier finishes. In the unlikely case that there is still a tie after those tiebreaks, prizes will be split.
How to take part
No preregistration is necessary for this tournament. Show up about 10 minutes before the scheduled start and type “tell pear join” or click on the entry button in your event list. Disconnecting before the start will remove you from the tournament. If you disconnect after the start, you will not be removed automatically, but you need to return as soon as possible, or the manager will forfeit you. You can follow the tournament in channel 227. Participants will automatically be placed in this channel.
During the tournament, the standings and pairings will be available at websites which will be communicated after the start by the tournament manager. Those sites show updated info when the refresh button is pressed.
You need to have a full ICC membership to take part in this tournament. Free trials cannot play. As the real names of the finalists will be made public, players who own free GM/WGM/IM/WIM accounts on ICC are required to use their public handles in this tournament, as opposed to anonymous accounts.
You need to use a recent version of Blitzin, Dasher or ICC for Mac to play in this tournament.
That’s good money.