The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers
of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are pleased to
present the 2nd Chess 960 Internet Championship! After the big success
of last years tourney (see below), we will have a separate human section
and a computer section this year.
The time control will be 3 1 in the Human Section, and 5 5 in the
Computer Section. All qualifiers will have 9 rounds, swiss pairings.
The games are rated in the Wild category. Latejoining is possible until
round 6, but half point byes are only available for the first three rounds.
Playing Schedule Human Section
There will be four qualifiers to the knockout finals. You can play in as
many qualifiers as you like.
- Qualifier 1: Tuesday, June 17, 6pm
- Qualifier 2: Wednesday, June 18, 3pm
- Qualifier 3: Thursday, June 19, 2pm
- Qualifier 4: Friday, June 20, 4pm
- Finals: Sunday, June 22, 3pm
Playing Schedule Computer Section
There will be one qualifier on Friday, June 27, 1pm. The finals will take
place on Saturday, June 28, 3pm.
Prizes
HUMAN SECTION:
- 1st prize: 700 Euro + Free entry to FiNet and Ordix + Hotel
and breakfast at Mainz
- 2nd prize: 350 Euro + Free entry to FiNet and Ordix + Hotel
and breakfast at Mainz
- 3rd/4th prize: 125 Euro + Free entry to FiNet and Ordix
- 5th-8th prize: 1 year ICC membership extension
- 9th-16th prize: 3 months ICC membership extension
Should GM/IMs win membership extensions, they can donate those extensions
to other players of their choice. Should the winner be unable to accept
the invitation to the Mainz tournament, it will be awarded to the next
best player.
Moreover, in EACH qualifier, three 3-month ICC memberships and three
$25-vouchers for the ICC store will be raffled amongst all players who
finish that qualifier orderly.
Although trial members to ICC can play in the Chess960 Mainz Qualifiers,
anyone winning a prize will only be able to claim it after signing-up to ICC
for a full membership.
COMPUTER SECTION:
- 1st prize: 300 Euro + a place in the Livingston Chess960 Computer World
Championship + Hotel and breakfast at Mainz
- 2nd prize: 200 Euro + a place the in Livingston Chess960 Computer World
Championship + Hotel and breakfast at Mainz
Note that the first and second prizes in both sections will only be paid on
arrival at the tournament in Mainz. Moreover, the two prizewinners of the
computer section must be represented by the programmer of the engine during
the tournament in Mainz.
Dates of Mainz tournaments:
FiNet Chess960 Open: July 31 - August 1 (2 days)
Ordix Open: August 2 - August 3 (2 days)
Livingston Chess960 Computer World Champs: July 30 - August 1 (3 days)
How to join the tournaments
No preregistration is necessary for this tournament. This event is only open
to ICC members and to those who sign up for a free trial 7-day membership
of the ICC - so don't delay, sign-up at www.chessclub.com today!
Show up about 10 minutes before the scheduled start and type "tell pear join"
(human section) or "tell automato join" (computer section) or click on the
entry button in your event list. Disconnecting before the start will remove
you from the tournament. If you disconnect after the start, you will not be
removed automatically, but you need to return as soon as possible, or the
manager will forfeit you. You can follow the tournament in channel 227 (or
226 for the computer section). Participants will automatically be placed in
those channels.
You need to have an ICC membership to take part in this tournament,
or a free trial. You need to use the most recent version of Blitzin
or Dasher to play in the human section of this tournament.
You may use any interface in the computer section of this tournament. You
need a (C)omputer user name on ICC in order to take part in the computer
section of this tournament.
Tournament System
The time control will be 3 1 in the human section, and 5 5 in the computer
section. In the human section, the top four players from each of the four
qualifiers will advance to the knockout finals. In the computer section, the
top eight players in the qualifier will advance to the knockout finals.
In case of ties in the qualifiers, the Tomato tiebreak-system will be employed.
To learn about this, type "tell tomato help tie" on ICC.
In the knockout finals, "mini-matches" of four games will be played and if a
tie occurs after that, two more games will be played. If still tied, another
two games will be played, but at the reduced time control of 2 0.
If still tied after that, another two games will be played at a time control of
1 0. This continues until a decision is reached. In the final of the last two,
the match will have six games. In the case of a 3-3 tie, the procedure will be
as above. 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).
Finalists will be sorted by the ICC Blitz rating they had when they played
their qualifier. The grid will display the following pairings (top to bottom)
and qualifiers who go through to the next round will be paired accordingly:
1-16, 8-9, 5-12, 4-13, 3-14, 6-11, 7-10, 2-15 and similar for the computer section.
How to play Chess960 on the ICC
Chess960 is a name for Bobby Fischer's new and improved
version of "Randomized Chess".
Chess960 uses algebraic notation exclusively
At the start of every game of a Chess960 game, both players
Pawns are set up exactly as they are
at the start of every game of Classical Chess.
In Chess960 just before the start of every game, both players
pieces on their respective back rows receive an identical
random shuffle decided by the ICC server, which is
programmed to set up the pieces in any combination, with the
provisos that one Rook has to be to the left and one Rook
has to be to the right of the King, and one Bishop has to be
on a lightcolored square and one Bishop has to be on a
dark-colored square. White and Black have identical positions.
From behind their respective Pawns the opponents pieces are facing
each other directly, symmetrically. Thus for example,
if the server places White's back row pieces in the following
position: Ra1, Bb1, Kc1, Nd1, Be1, Nf1, Rg1, Qh1, it will
place Black's back row Pieces in the following position, Ra8, Bb8,
Kc8, Nd8, Be8, Nf8, Rg8, Qh8, etc.
To play a game of Chess960 on the ICC,
type "seek w22" to issue a seek, or "match Fred w22" to offer a game
to a specific player (Fred for example).
Castling is basically the same as in regular chess, except the
king and rook may start on different squares from regular chess.
The king and rook end up on the same squares as in regular chess,
for example, c1 and d1, or g1 and f1 for White. All the other
usual castling rules apply (you cannot castle out of or into check,
squares the king passes over or onto cannot be attacked by the opponent
or occupied by pieces, squares the rook passes over or onto cannot be
occupied, and you can't have moved the king or rook previously).
A strange example of castling is that if your king and rook start
out on b1 and a1, you can castle "queenside" resulting in the king
moving to c1 and the rook to d1! But you can't make the move just
by moving your king from b1 to c1, because that will be interpretted
as a king move.
If your king is moving fewer than two squares when it castles, you
can make the move by typing "OO" (or "oo" or "O-O") for kingside
castling or "OOO" (or "ooo" or"O-O-O") for queenside castling. If
you are using BlitzIn 2.6+ or Dasher 1.1.2+ you can also castle by
dragging the king on top of the rook you are castling with. These
methods work for any castling situation. If your king is moving two
squares or more, you can just move the king and it will be understood
that you intend to castle.
Miscellaneous Rules
During the human section tournament, the most recent version of Blitzin
or Dasher must be used. A player must not enter a section on more than one
account, or risk being forfeited on both accounts.
The ICC tournament directors may at their discretion make a ruling on a
particular game, eject a player from a tournament, or refuse to allow a
player to join a 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 (human section), 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.
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.
Results from previous year -- Chess960 Internet Championship 2007
The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers
of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are pleased to
announce a stunning success to their Chess960 online qualifiers!
All of last week, qualifiers were held on the ICC (and on our new service
of World Chess Live), where 959 unique players (1546 in total over 10 events)
battled it out for the coveted spots in the 32-player KO final,
to be staged 14-15 July on the ICC.
Prize winners
Place ICC Username Real Name Div Prize
===== ================== ===================== === =====
1st TIGRANO GM Tigran L. Petrosyan EUR 600 (*)
2nd Talion GM Gata Kamsky EUR 400
3rd/4th AlexanderMagnus GM Georg Meier EUR 150
3rd/4th K-Georgiev GM Kiril Georgiev EUR 150
(*) Round trip ticket to Mainz + 600 Euros cash + room and breakfast
at Hilton Mainz Hotel from August 15-20 and allowed to play BOTH
tournaments for free: 6th FiNet Chess960 Open and 14th ORDIX Open.
- FINAL results
N RTG TI REAL NAME RES REAL NAME TI RTG N
== === == ==================== ======= ==================== == === ==
8 3109 GM Gata Kamsky 2.0-4.0 Tigran L. Petrosyan GM 3378 2
- 1/2 Final results
N RTG TI REAL NAME RES REAL NAME TI RTG N
== === == ==================== ======= ==================== == === ==
8 3109 GM Gata Kamsky 2.5-1.5 Georg Meier GM 3230 5
2 3378 GM Tigran L. Petrosyan 3.0-0.0 Kiril Georgiev GM 3359 3
- 1/4 Final results
N RTG TI REAL NAME RES REAL NAME TI RTG N
== === == ==================== ======= ==================== == === ==
8 3109 GM Gata Kamsky 3.0-0.0 Jake Kleiman FM 2819 16
4 3333 GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili 1.0-3.0 Georg Meier GM 3230 5
2 3378 GM Tigran L. Petrosyan 3.0-0.0 Ivan Sokolov GM 3186 7
3 3359 GM Kiril Georgiev 2.5-1.5 Marek Stryjecki IM 2968 11
- 1/8 Final results
N RTG TI REAL NAME RES REAL NAME TI RTG N
== === == ==================== ======= ==================== == === ==
16 2819 FM Jake Kleiman 3.0-0.0 Roland Levrand -- 1718 32
8 3109 GM Gata Kamsky 2.5-1.5 Krishnan Sasikiran GM 3078 9
4 3333 GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili 3.0-1.0 Gaby Livshitz IM 2751 20
5 3230 GM Georg Meier 3.0-1.0 Yuri Vovk IM 2936 12
2 3378 GM Tigran L. Petrosyan 3.0-0.0 Yuri Solodovnichenko GM 2820 15
7 3186 GM Ivan Sokolov 2.5-0.5 Gawain Jones GM 3055 10
3 3359 GM Kiril Georgiev 3.0-0.0 Meelis Kanep GM 2845 14
11 2968 IM Marek Stryjecki 3.0-1.0 Thaise B. da Silva -- 2609 27
- 1/16 Final results
N RTG TI REAL NAME RES REAL NAME TI RTG N
== === == ==================== ======= ==================== == === ==
1 3415 GM Dmitry Andreikin 0.0-3.0 Roland Levrand -- 1718 32
2 3378 GM Tigran L. Petrosyan 3.0-0.0 K. Rathnakaran IM 2125 31
3 3359 GM Kiril Georgiev 3.0-0.0 Claude Landenbergue IM 2444 30
4 3333 GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili 2.5-0.5 Tomasz Navinsek FM 2484 29
5 3230 GM Georg Meier 3.0-0.0 Luis Galego IM 2602 28
6 3200 IM Safarli Eltaj 0.5-2.5 Thaise B. da Silva -- 2609 27
7 3186 GM Ivan Sokolov 2.5-0.5 Davor Rogic GM 2613 26
8 3109 GM Gata Kamsky 2.5-0.5 Renato A.T. Lujan -- 2627 25
9 3078 GM Krishnan Sasikiran 4.0-2.0 Daniel T. Rodriguez FM 2635 24
10 3055 GM Gawain Jones 3.0-0.0 Miodrag Perunovic IM 2667 23
11 2968 IM Marek Stryjecki 2.5-0.5 Julio Sadorra FM 2713 22
12 2936 IM Yuri Vovk 4.5-3.5 Vitaly Kunin GM 2749 21
13 2875 IM Dan Zoler 2.0-4.0 Gaby Livshitz IM 2751 20
14 2845 GM Meelis Kanep 4.0-2.0 Salvijus Bercys IM 2765 19
15 2820 GM Yuri Solodovnichenko 5.0-3.0 Lars Stark FM 2802 18
16 2819 FM Jake Kleiman 2.5-0.5 Krikor S. Mekhitarian IM 2814 17
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ICC Help: Chess960