Chess Tournament Guide Congratulations! Welcome to the 2021 WVCEA Fine Arts Chess Competition. Registering for the Tournament – due by March 22 1) Registration will take place here: https://form.jotform.com/210274215862047. This link will be available on our website as well (https://www.wvcea.org) 2) The Tournament Director will assign you a “Username” for the Tournament, so that your opponent will be able to find you at chess.org Your username will be your school name, then your name, with variations depending upon other entries. Typically: “VictoryBen” or “HeritageEmily”, etc…

Logistics for the Tournament Rounds The First Round will be at 5pm on Tuesday, March 23. LORD willing, you will receive your Opponents information earlier that day via email (or text, if preferred). The White Player will find his opponents Username and instigate the game. Upon conclusion, please take a screenshot and forward it on to the Tournament Director. Upon the conclusion of all of the First Round Games, the Tournament Director will use the Results to pair the Second Round, with winners playing winners and losers playing losers. Note that a Player could lose their first game, yet still come back to win the tournament, due to pairings and potential losses by other players. Realizing that times may need to be adjusted, if at any point in time a particular player, or perhaps both, would need to play at a different time of day, that can be coordinated with the Tournament Director. We can schedule make-up games as necessary for legitimate reasons.

The Second Round will be at 5pm on Thursday, March 25. The Third Round will be at 5pm on Tuesday, March 30. The Fourth (and potentially Final) Round will be at 5pm on Thursday, April 1. If a Fifth Round is necessary to determine a Champion, it will be at 5pm on Tuesday, April 6.

A Swiss-System Tournament Our chess tournaments are known as “Swiss-System” events. This means that players are paired against others with similar scores. The pairing system is quite complicated, ensuring among other things that ‘teammates’ from the same school do not meet until the final round, if possible. At the WVCEA Fine Arts Chess Tournament the ‘Tournament Director’ will be responsible for the pairings each round. In short, the Swiss-System operates by ordering the players by rating, and pairing the top player with the player just under the half-way mark. The second player is paired against the next player under the opponent of the top player, and so forth. In unrated tournaments, the first round will be by draw and will as best is able, allot consecutive rounds according to results, boards and piece colors. Players earn one point for winning, a half point for drawing. In each round after the first round, the players compete with others who have the same numbers of points. Players never compete against the same opponent twice in a tournament, and efforts are made to alternate the color of the pieces the player uses each round. Pairings for the next round will be posted within established time parameters of the conclusion of the last game, each round. Nobody is eliminated in a Swiss-System tournament. All players are expected to compete all the way through the tournament. When a tournament has an odd number of players, the bottom player does not play one round. Instead, that player is awarded a “full-point bye”, meaning that the player receives a point, as if they won a game. Tie-breaks In the WVCEA Fine Arts Chess Tournament, a pre-determined number of top prizes (usually plaques or trophies) are awarded at the end. In a four-round tournament (which is most common) there will sometimes be ties. Head-to-head will be the determining factor in a two-way tie only. With more than two tied for a particular placement, we use a tie-break system that determines the strength of the players’ competition by counting the number of points the opponents earned. (Ratings are irrelevant to tie-breaks.) The Awards Ceremony Awards will be allocated for the top three spots in each section (Grades 4-6, 7-9 and 10-12). Any player that wishes to ‘play up’ a section for better competition will be allowed to do so, but MUST inform the Tournament Director BEFORE registration at the tournament. 9th Graders in particular will have the option to play in the high school portion of the tournament. The Tournament Director The Tournament Director (TD) makes the pairings each round and settles any sort of dispute that arises during a game. TDs rule on claims of time forfeiture and claims of draw. TDs have the authority to punish bad behavior or other rule violations by adding or subtracting time from a player, or by forfeiting a game. Parents In general, parents and coaches are required to stay out of the room where the children are playing. However, parents may offer encouragement and consolation between rounds, and provide help analyzing the games their kids played. Online Chess at Chess.org We are playing the 2021 Chess Fine Arts via the server platform of Chess.org. All participants will have to be familiar with this website, so they are encouraged, immediately upon signing up for the Tournament, to go online and Register and acquire a “Username” and become familiar with creating games, responding to game invitations and particularly, playing online with a computer layout, rather than the physical boards and pieces that they are used to. Navigating the Chess.Org Website Using your assigned Username and your own private password, Login to the website and familiarize yourself with the options. On the setup “Filter” page, we will be playing the “Standard” Game Variant and the “Standard” Game time, which you will have to save on your settings at 30 minutes. Also set your Game Moves meter to “At least” 0. Game ratings in the tournament will be “Rated”, but you are free to play unrated or rated games as you practice and your Online Rating will change as you win and lose Rated Games with other Rated Players. Games played “unrated” or with “guests” will not affect your Online Rating.

Playing a Tournament Game Online Each player will be assigned an opponent and given their pieces color (White or Black). The White Player will be responsible for starting the game and sending an invitation to their Opponent (via their Username). The clock will start upon the first move and both players will have a maximum of 30 minutes to make their moves, which is plenty enough time for most chess matches. For the finals, the clock will be set to 60 minutes. During a game, the only options are to 1) make a move; 2) offer a draw; 3) resign. You cannot “undo” moves or “ask for more time”. Those are practice options that are not available in Rated Tournament Games.

Sportsmanship and Integrity Actually there are options for other folks to watch these games being played from the Gallery, so other teammates and SuperFans (parents, etc) can “watch virtually”. As in all virtual schooling, there are opportunities to follow the Devil and “cheat”. Please do not succumb to those vile temptations and please keep the Game and your Testimony before the LORD Jesus Christ- Holy and Pure. Do not accept help or suggestions from Coaches, Friends or Family either in person or online, while the Tournament Game is being played. DO ACCEPT help and suggestions before and after the game! May God bless each of us and receive Honor and Glory from the fierce competition, as we hone our skills and learn the lessons of Logic, Foresight, Sportsmanship and Integrity via the Chessboard.