Saturday 4/27 8:30 to 8:50am sign in.

5815 Falls of Neuse Road • Raleigh, NC 27609

http://tinyurl.com/SRCSviaTCsignup

Please fill out as follows:

Event Date: 04/27/24

Location: [X]  Other And enter in the location box “SRCS” as the location.

Event: [X]  K-12 Individual, Team vs Team per Player, Blitz/Quick, Adults and Seniors Points Only, $20

· Round #1 9am

· Round #2 10am

· Round #3 11am

· Lunch 11:50am to 12:20pm

· Round #4 12:30pm

· Round #5 1:30pm

· If needed, tiebreakers 2:30pm blitz 5 min each with 5 sec delay

· Awards

Corrected 4-22-24 : Provisional Rating (p-rating): Players that are new and have no rating will receive a provisional rating as follows:

p-rating = (100 * grade level).

K grade p-rating = 100 1^st grade p-rating = 100 2^nd grade p-rating = 200

3^rd grade p-rating = 300 4^th grade p-rating = 400 5^th grade p-rating = 500

6^th grade p-rating = 600 7^th grade p-rating = 700 8^th grade p-rating = 800

Additional Info and Tips and Rules

TriangleChess.com (919) 272-8017

· Open to all K to 8^th grade students who are able to make a checkmate.

· Rated Tournament: 5 rounds with tiebreakers if needed, 25 minutes each, 5 second delay.

· 4 rating classes (see below for new players):

(D) below 550, (C) below 750, (B) below 1150, (A) open - These class levels may be adjusted

to accommodate the best tournament player distributions.

· Swiss pairings prioritized to avoid students from the same School being paired.

· Awards for 1^st place and 2^nd place in each class and School 1^st and 2^nd Place Trophies!

· New Tournament Players Receive 1 Year USCF Membership!

· The 1st and 2nd place prizes in each class are more than mere trophies

– they're timeless companions for a lifetime of chess enjoyment and excellence!

Tournament Information

players registration

Students interested in registering should sign up for the tournament by April 26^th for $20 online rate here: http://tinyurl.com/SRCSviaTCsignup Please fill out as follows: Event Date: 04/27/24 Location: [X]  Other And enter in the location box “SRCS” as the location. Event: [X]  K-12 Individual, Team vs Team per Player, Blitz/Quick, Adults and Seniors Points Only, $20 Onsite registration will be $30. New to USCF will receive one year USCF membership.

Guidelines:

Players should wear a uniform top, chess club shirt or PE shirt with their school name. All players will play 5 games (rounds). For players that tie for first or second in their class there will be a tie-breaker game to decide. Parents, or a designated chaperone, are responsible for their children at all times. The games will take place in the gym (Saint Ignatius Hall), while parents can relax in the nearby cafeteria (Saint Raphael Hall). Both halls are adjacent, making it easy for students to move between playing and reuniting with their parents. Students will play their games independently without parents present. After each game, they'll return to the cafeteria to report their results. And when it is time for lunch Saint Raphael Hall (our cafeteria) is perfect. There are plenty of tables and chairs in Saint Raphael Hall (cafeteria). Parent Tip: Bring a book, newspaper, knitting, etc to have while you are waiting for your child. Parents are not permitted in Saint Ignatius Hall (gym) while there are any ongoing games.

Address and sign-in time:

Saturday 4/27 8:30am to 8:50am sign in. Saint Raphael Catholic School Saint Ignatius Hall 5815 Falls of Neuse Road • Raleigh, NC 27609

Awards

Awards include: · Cool 1^st place award in each class A, B, C, D · Cool 2^nd place award in each class A, B, C, D · Presentation of the Team Trophy for 1^st place and 2^nd place teams.

Eligibility

All players must be able to play independently, without any help. The playing room is open ONLY to designated Proctors and students engaged in a game. Young players must be able to play on their own, without any help. Proctors will be on hand to help with rules, checkmate, and illegal moves but the children should have a working knowledge of the game. If you are not sure if your child is ready for his or her first tournament, ask your Chess Club Director for a recommendation. Tournaments are a great experience for children but losing can sometimes be devastating, especially to a five-year-old. Use this opportunity to work with your child and prepare them to be good winners and gracious losers. We expect to see handshakes and “good game” at the end of a game.

Chess tips and tournament rules.

These hints will help you to remember the proper board setup: − Opposing Kings and Queens go directly opposite each other − The square in the lower right hand corner is a light one ("light on right"). − The White Queen goes on a light square, the Black Queen on a dark square ("Queen on color"). White always moves first, and then the players take turns moving. Only one piece can move at each turn (except for "castling," a special move that is explained later). The Knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. All other pieces move only along unblocked lines. Touch Move • If you touch a chessman, you must move it (if possible). If you touch one of your opponent's men, you must take it (if possible). When you release a chessman on a square, you cannot change your move. Please DO NOT move a chessman to a square, and then keep your finger on the man for 10 or 20 seconds while you look round to see if the move is safe - this is disturbing to the opponent. Do all your thinking first, and then make the move quickly and firmly. If you wish to adjust a chessman on a square, announce so BEFORE touching the man. You may not move to a square already occupied by one of your own pieces. You can capture an enemy piece that stands on a square where one of your pieces can move. Simply remove the enemy piece from the board and put your own piece in its place.

Special Moves

Castling Each player may "castle" only once during a game and when conditions are met. Castling is a special move that lets a player move two pieces at once — the King and one Rook. In castling, the player moves his King two squares to its left or right toward one of his Rooks. At the same time, the Rook involved goes to the square beside the King and toward the center of the board. In order to castle, neither the King nor the Rook involved may have moved before. Also, the King may not castle out of check, into check, or through check. Further, there may not be pieces of either color between the King and the Rook involved in castling. Castling is often a very important move because it allows you to place your King in a safe location and allows the Rook to become more active. When the move is legal, each player has the choice of castling Kingside or Queenside or not at all, no matter what the other player chooses to do. Example video: How_to_Castle En Passant This French phrase is a special pawn capture. It means "in passing”, and it occurs when one player moves a pawn two squares forward to try to avoid capture by the opponent's pawn. The capture is made exactly as if the player had moved the pawn only one square forward. This capture is only allowed on the next turn of the player who’s pawn was denied the chance to capture the pawn that moved two squares. See here for an example: En_Passant

Draws

A game of chess is drawn if neither player has enough pieces left to force checkmate. Furthermore, the game may be drawn if each player has made at least the last 50 consecutive (25 each) moves without the movement of any pawn and without capture. Agreeing to a draw: if you wish to offer a draw, do so when it is YOUR turn to move. Make your move, offer the draw, and then let your opponent think about it. Do Not offer several draws in a row - this is disturbing to your opponent. The normal convention is if you offer a draw and your opponent rejects it, wait until your opponent offers you a draw back before you make another offer. Note: Proctors have the final say on calling a draw.

Pairings

We are using the Swiss System for pairings. In the Swiss system, after the first round, players are placed in groups according to their score (winners in the 1 group, those who drew go in the 1/2 group, and those who lose go in the 0 group). This allows each player to compete against someone with a similar score. Since the number of perfect scores is cut in half each round, it doesn't take long until there is only one player remaining with a perfect score. Colors will be alternated if possible. A player might be paired the same color twice in a row if necessary, but is usually not paired the same color three times in a row, unless absolutely necessary (for example, both players have played the same color twice in a row, and there is no other logical pairing). After each round, players are placed in scoring groups, or "packs", according to their score. Then the above process is repeated within each score pack. If a scoring pack has an odd number of players, the lowest pairing number within the pack plays the highest pairing number in the next pack down (for example, if there were an odd number of 1's after the first round, the lowest rated 1 would play the highest rated 0.5, if there were any players who drew the first round, or the highest rated 0 if there were no draws the first round). The first round pairings are done completely at random using a computer program. Importantly: Parings are made to avoid, as much as possible, two players from the same school being paired to play each other. This may possibly be made an absolute restriction based on total tournament players competing in each class.

Final Rankings

Points are awarded after each match as follows: 1 point win ½ point draw 0 point loss · The players with the highest 5 scores are awarded 1^st place in each class. · The players with the second highest 5 scores are awarded 2^nd place in each class. · Tie-Breakers: In the event a class’s two highest scoring players have the same point total they will play a 5 minute blitz games with 5 second delay to determine first and second place. If there are more than two players with the same highest point score the two players selected for the tie breaker game will be chosen by our Modified Median System. · The same tie-breaking methodology will be used for ties for 2^nd place within a class. · Our Modified Median System (MMS) works by summing the points of each player’s opponents he/she won or drew against and then divides this sum by this player count. In this example the tie-breaker game would be between player-C and player-D. players ‘A‘ through ‘N’ A:4 B:4 C:4 D:4 E:3.5 F:3.5 G:3 H:3 I:3 J:2.5 K:2.5 L:2 M:2 N:1.5 player-A won/drew vs B, E, H, G == 3.375 MMS = (4 + 3.5 + 3 + 3) / 4 player-B won/drew vs C, F, G, L == 3.125 MMS = (4 + 3.5 + 3 + 2) / 4 player-C won/drew vs D, A, E, G == 3.625 MMS = (4 + 4 + 3.5 + 3) / 4 player-D won/drew vs A, B, C, K == 3.625 MMS = (4 + 4 + 4 + 2.5) / 4

Team Scoring update 4-24-24

The team score consists of the totals from the top players from each school. Depending on turnout it will be the top 2 to top 5 players. This allows each team member to also compete individually for a prize. A possible consideration for school teams with fewer than the needed team size will have 1 phantom player included that will contribute 75% of the average of their player’s score. An example: The team size is chosen to be 5 and team XYZ is only a size of 4 players, their four players have an average score of 3.75 so their 5^th phantom player will contribute (3.75 * 0.75) = 2.8125 points to their team total.

Clocks

For each of the 5 rounds the clocks will be reset so that each player will start with 25 min on their clock. If a player runs out of time before getting their opponent in checkmate, they lose the game. The clocks will be configured to have a 5 second delay count down on each turn by each player. This delay adds a bit more time to record their games and to think a bit more as time runs out. Here is an example on how to use a chess clock: Chess_Clock_Demo