8th Internet Chess Tournament

“Ciudad de Dos Hermanas”

 

I      HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The tournament will be held on-line at the Internet Chess Club (ICC), www.chessclub.com Internet’s virtual chess club. Registration is free.

Use of computer chess engines and databases while playing is strictly prohibited.  Assistance from other players is also prohibited. Players can have only one account enrolled in the whole tournament.

a)        Free membership in ICC

You can get a 7 days free membership on ICC while using Blitzin 2.5x, Dasher 1.01 or later versions. In addition, if you are signed up for the Dos Hermanas tournament, you are allowed a free trial for the duration of the tournament, even if you are not eligible to free trials on ICC.  In that case, after registering, log in as a guest to ICC and ask an administrator to give the free trial to the account you registered with. We strongly recommend that you try playing on ICC and perhaps play in one of ICC's many informal tournaments to familiarize yourself with the software.

Please connect to the ICC at least a few minutes in advance of the tournament, and watch for instructions on how to participate in the tournament.  You will be prompted with a pop-up box when it is time to start each game. Each round will take roughly 20 minutes, so you can expect a 12-round qualifying tournament to take about 4 hours. ICC management reserves the right to hold a break, up to 30 minutes duration, after a certain round, if deemed necessary. Show up on time. The tournament director may allow late joining after the start, but there will be no half bye points for missed rounds.

The procedure to become a member of ICC is simple, and only requires a few minutes. To play at the ICC, special software is required (Blitzin 2.7 or Dasher 1.01); to obtain it, go to the following link and follow the instructions:

 http://www.chessclub.com

Once you have downloaded and installed the software, you must register yourself in ICC, following the instructions that you will find in the program.

If you already own a permanently free GM/IM account on ICC, you have to use that account and not make a new free trial.

b)        Registrations

Once you have become an ICC member, you must fill in the registration form at the official tournament page: http://www.doshermanas.net/  You should be registered at least one hour before the first qualifier you intend to play starts. After that, you can still register, but only play in later qualifiers. The registration form will be closed one hour before each qualifier starts, and will be opened again as soon as the qualifier starts. Only one registration is necessary. Once registered, a player can take part in as many qualifiers as he wishes until he is qualified.

II     TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

The tournament will run from the 16th to the 24th of March, 2007. 

Tournament table / time schedules

Note: Times are ICC server time,  that is New York Time. By March 11, the U.S. will switch to daylight savings time, while Europe switches on March 26 only. That means that the time difference between Central European Time and server time will be five hours. The starts of qualifiers will be thus 20:00 and 01:00 Central European Time, respectively, on every day.

You can check current ICC server time and compare to your local time by typing “date” while on ICC.

III   PLAYING SYSTEM

a)        Tournament system:

In the qualifying stages, a twelve round Swiss system will be used. The final will be a K.O. between the 32 qualifiers. Qualifiers will be sorted by the January 1^st 2007 FIDE rating list, and paired 1-32, 31-2, 3-30, etc… Those players that do not have a FIDE rating will be placed after all others and sorted by their ICC Blitz rating they had when they played their first qualifier. The grid will display the following pairings (top to bottom) and qualifies who go through to the next round will be paired accordingly: 1-32, 16-17, 8-25, 9-24, 4-29, 13-20, 5-28, 12-21, 2-31, 15-18, 7-26, 10-23, 3-30, 17-19, 6-27, 11-22.

b)        Game rate:

The playing rate will be 4/1 “Fischer System” (four minutes initially plus one second added for each move played). In the Final stages, using K.O. system,  "mini-matches" of four games will be played (also using 4/1 “Fischer System”), and if a tie occurs, a fifth game will be played: White with five minutes and Black with four minutes, without time increments, with White obliged to win (“Sudden Death”). The tournament director will determine colors in the Sudden Death game by tossing a coin. In the final of the last two, the match will have six games plus the Sudden Death game, if tied. Any 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).

c)        Tournament development:

Twelve Swiss tournaments are played in six days. The following weekend the Finals are played, with the 12 winners of the Swiss qualifying tournaments, and the 20 best players (non-winners).

 Tie-breaks:

 1)         In the qualifiers, the tie-breaks will be (in this order):

a) Sum of scores of opponents, adjusted such that if an opponent does not play a round   for whatever reason, 0.5 is added to the sum b) Average rating of opponents c) Draw lots

 2)         When calculating which of the non-winners should advance to the 32-player KO            based on their performance in the qualifying tournaments, the criteria will be:

(a)    Best score (b) Average rating of opponents in the respective qualifier  c) Draw lots

 The rating used in those tiebreakers is the ICC Blitz rating at the start of the qualifier.

These criteria will also be used to award all special prizes.

IV    PRIZES

1º         1.800 Euros

2º            900 Euros

3º-4º        600 Euros

5º-8º        250 Euros

9º-16º      150 Euros

17º-32º     100 Euros

 Total prize fund: 7.700 Euros (Legal tax from the first four prizes will be deducted).

 Other special prizes:

6-months subscription to ICC.

V     TECHNICALITIES

a)        Game rules

Play is according to the rules and features of the ICC. Blitzin 2.7, Dasher 1.01 or a higher version must be used in this event. Some features of which you should be aware include:

 (1) The ICC timestamp mechanism, which stops both player's clocks while a move is in transit over the internet.

(2) If a player gets disconnected the game is typically adjourned and should be resumed as soon as that player returns.

(3) Draw offers and draw claims may be made by clicking the Draw button prior to making a move.

The ICC tournament directors may at their discretion make a ruling on a particular game, eject a player from a tournament, refuse to allow a player to join a tournament, or end a free trial granted for the tournament, for any reason including but not limited to:  failure to show up on time or to start a game on time, concern that the player's internet connection is not reliable enough for the game to finish in a timely manner, suspicion of chess computer use, suspicion that a player is receiving assistance, suspicion that a player has used multiple accounts during the tournament, or the fact that this player has been caught violating ICC rules in the past. 

Their reasoning need not be given, and there is no appeals process.  We appreciate the cooperation of all participants in keeping this contest friendly, honorable, and running smoothly.

Participants must use the same computer during the whole tournament, unless they are observed by an approved proctor.

Players who are found to have given a false real name or other false information at registration can be ejected from the tournament.

ICC may request, at any time during the event, that an approved proctor observes the tournament games of any participant at the location given in the registration. If a participant cannot, either because of his remote location, or any other reason, have an approved proctor attest his/her play, ICC reserves the right to disqualify that player.

In case a player is disqualified from the tournament, the ICC tournament directors can, at their discretion, rule that the game of that player in the running round is lost for him, and won for his opponent. However, results by that player in prior rounds will not be reverted.

Qualifier winners will not be able to participate in any other qualifiers, as they are already qualified directly to the finals.

            b)        Registration form   

All information provided via the registration form may be used for publicity purposes by the Patronato Municipal de Deportes, EDAMI and ICC. Your address and telephone number will just be collected by ICC for the purpose of proctoring, and not be used for other purposes.