PaChess Cup Rules
and Regulations
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The following Rules are based on IECG Rules and Regulations, Version 5.
RULES OF PLAY
All play shall be in accordance with:
a. The Official Rules of Chess, as set forth in Laws of
chess,
as adopted by the 1996 F.I.D.E. Congress (Yerevan, Armenia)
b. Email Playing rules as adopted by the ICCF Congress in
Buenos Aires
1997.
If there is a conflict between those rules and these, the Playing
Rules take precedence.
In the following the words 'he', 'him' and 'his' include 'she' and 'her'.
The Rules of Play cannot cover all possible situations that may arise
during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions.
Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Rules, it
should be possible to reach a correct decision by studying analogous
situations which are discussed in the Rules.
The Rules assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound
judgment and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprive
the arbiter of his freedom of judgment and thus prevent him from
finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and
special factors.
PLAYING RULES
1 Play and control
A Games shall be played in accordance with the FIDE Laws of
Chess where
applicable.
B A Tournament Director shall be appointed who shall be
responsible for
the conduct of the tournament and the progress of the games.
C Games shall be played by email. If a player should lose
email access
and is unable, for whatever reason, to re-establish email access
within 30 days, he will be considered having withdrawn from the
tournament.
2 Transmissions
A Moves shall be numbered and sent in English algebraic
notation
(preferably in PGN format) or mutually agreed notation
by email messages bearing the name and
email address of the sender and a continuous record of all moves
made and the confirmation of the date on which the opponent's latest
message was sent.
B The sender shall record on the message the date on which
the opponent's
latest message was received and the anticipated date of the reply.
C Failing this, reasonable dates shall be assumed by the
recipient and
notified with the reply move.
D When the anticipated reply date does not agree with the
anticipated
mailing date, this shall be corrected by the recipient and the sender
informed with the reply move.
E The time used for the move (see 6D) and accumulated time
for the
game shall also be recorded.
F The normal accepted time of the email transmission is one
day.
If a longer transmission time is declared, it may be referred to the
Tournament Director for a ruling.
3 Failure to reply
A A player who wishes to take more than 12 days for a move
must send
a notice to his opponent, with carbon copy to the TD (Tournament
Director) once every 12 days. If not, his time is doubled from the
12th day, or from the 24th day, etc.
B Should there be no reply to any move within 14 days, the
full
details shall be repeated with copy to the TD.
C If no reply is received after a further 14 days, the player
shall
inform the TD immediately and wait for his decision.
D Games in which no move has been sent for 40 days may be
scored as
lost to players who have not informed the TD about the delay.
4 Moves and continuations
A No legal move shall be retracted after mailing - clerical
errors are
binding if they are legal moves. A correct repetition of the latest
move is necessary for the sender's reply move to be valid.
B Illegible or illegal moves shall be referred back to the
sender for
immediate correction but without any obligation to move the piece in
question.
C A message mailed without a reply move shall be treated as
an
illegible move.
D The omission or addition of chess indications (such as:
check,
captures, en passant) is without significance.
E Proposals of conditional continuations are binding until
the
recipient makes a different move from that proposed.
F Any accepted continuation move shall be correctly repeated
with the
reply.
G When no reply is made to an accepted conditional
continuation it
shall be treated as an illegible move.
5 Records and reports
A All transmissions from the opponent concerning the game and
a record of
the moves and dates shall be kept until the end of the tournament and
sent to the Tournament Director upon request
B If a player does not answer inquiries from the Tournament
Director,
that player may be deemed to have withdrawn from the tournament.
C Changes of email address shall be notified to the
Tournament Director
and opponents.
D The Tournament Director must be notified immediately of any
disagreement between competitors about the game.
E The Tournament Director and opponents must be notified
immediately
if any substantial failure of hardware or software occurs.
6 Time allowed and penalties
A Each competitor is allowed 40 days for every 10 moves.
B The time limit may be exceeded once.
C Time saved shall be carried forward.
D The time used for each move is the difference in days
between the
date on which the opponent's latest move was received and the
mailing date of the reply.
E Exceeding the time limit can neither be prevented nor
caused by
conditional moves. The time of reflection is added at the sender's
first move in a sequence of conditional moves and at the recipient's
answering move to the last conditional move accepted.
F A penalty of five days shall be added to the time of a
player who
sends an illegible or illegal move, or incorrectly repeats the
opponent's latest move.
7 Time exceeding
A Claims that the time limit has been exceeded shall be sent
to the
Tournament Director with full details at the latest when replying to
the 10th, 20th, etc. move.
B At the same time, the opponent shall be informed by an
email message
with copy to the Tournament Director.
C Any protest shall be sent to the Tournament Director within
7 days
of receiving the message, otherwise the claim shall be deemed to be
conceded.
D The Tournament Director shall inform both players of the
decision.
If the Tournament Director upholds a first claim, a new count of the
opponent's time shall begin on the date the time limit was elapsed.
The next time controls for players who made a first time limit violation
are reduced to 10 moves/20 days.
E A competitor who has exceeded the time allowed for the
second time
shall forfeit the game.
F If the Tournament Director dismisses a claim as being
unfounded, he
may rule that no further claim by that player during the current
period of 40 days for 10 moves shall be accepted.
8 Leave
A Each competitor may claim up to a total of 30 days leave
during
each calendar year.
B Players taking leave must inform their opponents and the
Tournament
Director in advance.
C In addition, the Tournament Director may grant up to 30
days
additional leave per annum which in exceptional circumstances may he
back-dated and/or extended.
D If a player answers a move during his leave, the remaining
leave
for that game is canceled and normal time shall be counted.
9 Withdrawal
In the event of withdrawal or death, the Tournament Director shall
decide whether all the games shall be annulled or the remaining games
adjudicated or scored as losses.
10 Adjudication
A If no result has been agreed by the date set for the close
of play,
both competitors shall submit to the Tournament Director within 14
days a record of the moves played, the position reached and a
statement claiming either a win or a draw which may be supported
by analysis.
B Competitors not wishing to submit analysis forfeit the
right to
appeal.
C The Tournament Director shall notify the adjudicator's
decision to
both competitors indicating whether it is subject to appeal.
11 Adjudication appeals
A Any appeal against the adjudicator's decision must be
mailed to the
Tournament Director within 14 days of receiving the notification,
whereupon the Tournament Director shall obtain a ruling from another
adjudicator and notify the result to both competitors.
The ruling is final and no further appeal shall be accepted from
either player.
B Additional analysis may be submitted with an appeal.
12 Reporting results
A As soon as possible after ending a game, the result and an
accurate
record of the moves played in PGN - Portable Game Notation - format
shall be mailed to the Tournament Director by both players.
B The result is officially recorded only after receipt of
this record.
C Should no record be received from either player, the result
may be
scored as lost by both.
13 Decisions and appeals
A The Tournament Director may penalize or disqualify
competitors who
break these rules.
B Any matter not covered in the rules shall be decided by the
Tournament
Director.
C Any competitor may appeal within 14 days of receiving a
decision of
the Tournament Director to the PaChess Appeals Instance,
whose ruling shall be final.
Appendix A: Tiebreaks
To break ties, the following procedure applies:
a) better Sonneborn-Berger system
b) individual game result
c) better rating performance
(taking the initial ratings at the start of the tournament).
The Sonneborn-Berger system is a tie-breck system well known in the
chess world. This is how it works: each "tied" player scores his
"SB points" adding up as follows:
A = 100% of his opponent's points if he won the individual game
B = 50% of his opponent's points if he draw the individual game
C = 0% of his opponent's points if he lost the individual game
The "Sonneborn-Berger" value is A+B+C
Appendix B: Withdrawals: (silent or announced)
In the event of a player withdrawing, the Tournament Director shall
decide whether all games are lost or annulled or the unfinished games
adjudicated. The same rule shall apply in the event of death.
As a guideline:
Silent withdrawal and unaccepted withdrawal should result in the loss
of the unfinished games. Health or business reasons (or death) can be
grounds for an accepted withdrawal. Loss of email connection can be
grounds *only* if the player contacts the Tournament Secretary using
fax or another email account (for example: a friend's email account).
In the case of accepted withdrawal, the player shall be deleted
(games annulled for cross table) if less than 50% of his games are
finished. Should 50% of the games be finished, then the unfinished
games shall be adjudicated provided they can all be adjudicated (according
to the Tournament Director's criteria).
Unfinished games shall be submitted to the official in charge of
the tournament. Details about the whole adjudication procedure
shall be included in the start list.
Penalties for withdrawals:
1 Announced withdrawal: the player is not allowed to enter
PaChess
competitions for up to six months, depending on whether valid reasons
for the withdrawal are given or not.
2 Silent withdrawal: the player is suspended for two years.
3 Repeated withdrawal (to happen at different times):
cancellation of
membership.
NETIQUETTE
a.1 No abuse of other players will be tolerated. Players will
not abuse
other players by sending vulgar, foul or insulting messages.
Abuse of other players on the basis of character, physical
characteristics, religion, gender, sexual orientation, intelligence
quotient, or ethnicity is not allowed. Messages and statements meant
to harass or bully other players are not allowed.
a.2 A player may request a "silent" game, whereupon
the opponent must
not include any comments other than those necessary for the
progress of the game such as "if" moves and draw offers.
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