Pairing, Scoring and Rules

Tournaments played at classical time controls, especially those played online at a rhythm of one game per week, offer a number of challenges that are not present in traditional OTB events. After a few tournaments and several hundred games we have found that the 'quad' tournament formula seems to work best in accommodating players' busy, complicated lives. Since the pairings are known in advance, it becomes easy to schedule a game at a time convenient to both players. The format has solved the problem of no-shows and dividing the groups by rating makes the sections competitive, thus improving the experience for everyone. We aim at, and largely succeed in, reproducing the feel of competitive OTB play at a local chess club.

Pairings

Once registration closes, typically several days before the start of the tournament, players are divided into groups of four to nine by rating and paired using the FIDE tables for round-robin tournaments (player numbers are drawn randomly). Depending on the number of players in the section we play single or double round-robins, ideally with an even number of games to ensure colour balance for everyone. You can see an example of what the pairings and sections might look like on the pairing sheet from our March 2023 event.

Rankings for pairing purposes are based on lichess classical ratings as of the day registration closes. For players with fewer than twenty classical games and whose rating is provisional, the average of the player's rapid and classical ratings is used. A rapid rating will be used for a player without a classical rating and the lichess starting rating of 1500 will serve for those without either classical or rapid ratings unless some better estimate can be made based on OTB ratings, ratings at other speeds, results against known players, etc.

Game play

Games use a time control of 60+30, and are rated. We began by playing all games on Thursday evenings beginning at 7pm Eastern time but this has become less common as we include players from more and more parts of the world. For those that can we typically meet up in the HCC Club Room a little before 7pm to chat (and sometimes even to indulge in a little 'trash talk') and to connect with our opponents. It is the responsibility of the player of the white pieces (by convention, the first named player) to get the game started by challenging their opponent.

Once your game is underway, if you can find a minute to post a link to your game in the HCC Club Room chat, please do so. This allows others to follow your game and discuss it live. For many of us, this part of the experience is as interesting as playing our own games.

Once a game is completed, the winner, or White in the case of a draw, reports the result to the tournament director by messaging @datasmith. Results are posted on the pairing sheet as they are received.

Please ensure that you are a member of the HCC team in order to receive all the communications about the tournament as well as round reports, announcements of future events, etc.

Scheduling alternate dates & times

A game not played on Thursday may be scheduled for another time agreed upon by the players. A player wanting to make the change should message their opponent at least 48 hours (and ideally sooner) before the scheduled start of the round and propose three possible alternative days and ranges of start times, ranked in order of preference.

Here is an example of a message you might send your opponent :

I offer the following dates and range of starting times:
April 17, 17:00 to 20:00 EDT (UTC: 21:00 to 0:00 UTC)
April 18, 11:00 to 13:00 EDT (15:00 to 17:00 UTC)
April 19, 13:00 to 16:00 EDT (17:00 to 20:00 UTC)

Note that it is important to indicate your time zone and to give times in UTC as we don't all live in the same part of the world. An online UTC conversion tool makes this easy. The proposed dates should ideally be within a week before or after the scheduled date of the round. The opponent should then accept one of the proposed dates or offer alternate dates of their own. With good faith on both sides, it should be possible to find a mutually acceptable time to play. If your opponent does not respond to your request within 48 hours you may claim a win by forfeit by contacting the tournament director. Once a new time is agreed, the player of the white pieces should notify the tournament director.

For all of this to work, players need to consult their lichess inbox daily for messages (or alternatively confirm their opponent's Thursday availability in advance). You will also need to ensure your account privacy settings allow others to message you.

Ideally, games should take place within a week of the beginning of the round but the real goal is of course to play interesting chess and so we are not too rigid about this rule if and only if, you let the tournament director know when the game has been scheduled for. A week after the beginning of the round all games that have not been either played or scheduled will be marked as forfeited by both players.

In order to give everyone the best experience possible and to keep the burden of managing the events sustainable, these rules will be rigorously enforced. If you do not communicate with your opponent to make arrangements for your games or do not respond to your opponent's messages your game will be forfeited. A second similar incident and you will be expelled from the tournament and not allowed to participate in future events. You may ask your opponent to accommodate you if you need some extra flexibility but they are free to refuse your request.

Having read all of these dire warnings, please don't get the impression that our events are full of conflicts and controversy requiring an iron hand on the part of the tournament director. We are rarely obliged to intervene in this way and virtually all games are arranged and played without difficulty. Clear rules are part of what makes things go smoothly.

Things that should not need saying

We play for fun, to learn, and to enjoy interacting with people from around the world. The use of engines, books or moving pieces around on a second board is not allowed. A player found to have cheated in this way, that ghosts an opponent, behaves in an unsportsmanlike way or commits some other egregious infraction is simply removed from the tournament table and banned from future participation.

This whole experience is very much a work in progress so if you have any objections to the way we do anything, or better yet have constructive suggestions, please don't hesitate to share them.

Swiss Event Rules

It is always possible that we will organize future Swiss events and when we do, a few modifications to the rules become necessary:

To determine the tournament standings used to pair each round:

• 1 for a win, 0 for a loss, 1⁄2 for a draw.
• 1⁄2 for a first notified absence, 0 for subsequent absences.
• 0 for a non-notified absence.
• 0 for an absence in the last round, notified or not.
• 1 for a bye imposed by TD (the case of an odd number of players) - only a single bye per person per event.
• Late joiners are welcome at any stage of an event and are treated as if they had notified absences for the previous rounds (i.e. 1⁄2 point for the first and 0 for subsequent rounds).
• Players are only included in the final standings if they play in at least half the rounds.

We use the online platform Tornelo to do the pairings. The platform implements the FIDE Dutch System using the JaVaFo pairing engine. Accelerated pairings prevent too many lopsided early round games where the rating differential between the strongest and weakest players is large.