Entries

The final date for entries is changed to 5th September. The start of the tournament will be a little delayed to allow the Summer Swiss to be substantially completed beforehand, although the tournaments will overlap. Late entries will be accommodated if possible, but their acceptance cannot be guaranteed.

It is emphasised that the tournament is not intended only for the stronger players in the Club. Newcomers (including those who have not yet joined but who intend doing so) and weaker players, from whom at present very few entries have been received, are especially encouraged to enter and should note the section below about prizes.

Entries can be sent via email to championship@cambridgechess.org.uk.

Prizes

The winner of the tournament will hold the Club Championship Cup for a year and have his or her name engraved upon it.

At least one, and probably two, grading prizes will be awarded. Each grading prize will be for the best score achieved by a player whose (new) grade or estimated grade is not greater than the grade set for that particular grading prize. The number of grading prizes and the grades set for the prizes will be determined when all entries are known but the intention is to offer an incentive to average and weaker players. As a guide, if two grading prizes are awarded, then the grade set for one might be expected to be a little above the median grade of all who enter whilst the grade set for the other might be expected to be at a level below which about one-quarter to one-third of the entrants' grades fall (but no entrant may win more than one grading prize). Thus, weaker and average players may reasonably hope to win one of the grading prizes.

Tournament Form

Following a perusal of literature on variants of the Swiss System and communications with a selection of Club members, it has been decided that the form of the tournament will be slightly different from the conventional Swiss that the Club has used in the past. The changed procedure affects the way in which the pairings will be made for Rounds 1, 2, 3 & 4 (though the principles of the Swiss System will still apply), after which the tournament will proceed on the normal Swiss System. It has been chosen to help address the practical problems of running the tournament and completing seven rounds in the time available: up to Round 4, it enables games in each of rounds 2, 3 & 4 to be played before all of the games in the previous rounds have been completed. The procedure is as follows.

• Players will initially be ranked by new grades or estimated new grades.

• In Round 1, the top third (approximately) of the players by rank will be paired against the second third (approximately) by rank and the lowest third (approximately) of players will be paired amongst themselves.

• In Round 2, the top third (approximately) of the players by rank will be paired against each other whilst the second third (approximately) by rank will be paired against the lowest third of players.

• Round 1 and Round 2 pairings will be announced at the beginning of the tournament. Players will be expected to arrange their Round 1 games before their Round 2 games but where this is not possible or would lead to delays, Round 2 games may be played before Round 1 games.

• Round 3 pairings will be based on the results of Round 1, but otherwise as in a normal Swiss System.

• Round 4 pairings will be based on the results of Rounds 1 and 2, but otherwise as in a normal Swiss System.

• Round 5 pairings will be based on the results of Rounds 1, 2, 3 & 4, as in a normal Swiss System. From this point on, the tournament will operate as a normal Swiss.

• Round 6 pairings will be based on the results of Rounds 1 - 5, as in a normal Swiss System.

• Round 7 pairings will be based on the results of Rounds 1 - 6, as in a normal Swiss System.

Although the procedure is likely to be slightly less efficient at sorting players than a conventional Swiss, it has the particular advantage of allowing the tournament to continue up to and including Round 4 even in cases where certain individuals cannot complete their games in a round within a reasonable period. (And the slight loss of efficiency is more than offset by the fact that this tournament will have 7 rounds against the 5 rounds that we have had previously.) The problem with the conventional Swiss is that the draw for each round cannot be made until all games have been completed (or, rather unsatisfactorily, have been assigned a result when they have not been played). In the system that we shall use, this problem should not arise until at least Round 5.

For those unfamiliar with how the Swiss System works, here is a brief explanation. In the form in which it is usually practised, players are paired either at random or according to rank in the first round. At the end of the first round, some players have 1 point (for a win), some ½ point (for a draw) and some 0 points (for a loss). Players with 1 point are then paired together, players with ½ point are paired, and players with 0 points are paired. At the end of Round 2, players may have 2, 1½, 1, ½, or 0 points. For Round 3, players whose total points are the same are paired (so that players with 2 points are paired, players with 1½ points are paired, and so on). At the end of Round 3, players with the same number of points are once again paired together, and this process continues for each of the remaining rounds of the tournament. No player is permitted to play any other player more than once. In practice, it is not always possible to pair players with the same number of points because the number of these players may be odd (so that there is one over), or because players have already played each other in previous rounds. In such cases, pairings are made amongst players whose total scores are minimally different. It is also a principle that, as far as possible, each player should have approximately the same number of games with the white pieces as with black (which in practice means that players' colours are changed from round to round, as far as possible). However, this principle is subsidiary to pairing players on the basis of their total points. It should be emphasised that there are many variants of the Swiss System and some further subtleties as to how pairings may be made.

Timetable

Target dates are the latest dates by which games should be played, if at all possible.

Final dates are the latest dates by which must be played with the results reported no later than two days afterwards.

Dates for later rounds will be announced later.