Chess Tournaments on Skype - Rules

1. Our chess tournaments are free and open to everyone. They are played on Skype. Therefore participants must have a Skype account and a microphone, or even better, a headset, or use a smartphone.

2. The tournaments are swiss system events in 9 rounds. Time control is one hour and forty-five minutes for each player for the whole game. A round lasts four weeks. Tie breaks are progressive and performance. The benchmark rating is the FIDE Elo. Players without a FIDE Elo receive a Skype Elo.

3. The players are divided in 2 groups : the A tournament (the stronger one) and the B tournament (the weaker one). Players who scored at least 7/9 in the B tournament are promoted to the next A tournament. Players who scored less than 2.5/9 in the A tournament are relegated to the next B tournament.

4. All necessary information (players' data, standings and pairings) is sent to the participants through a mailing list. As soon as pairings are known, players must contact each other as soon as possible in order to schedule the game. When both players have come to an agreement on the date and time of their game, one of the players transmits this information to the tournament director, who announces it on the mailing list, so that other participants are able to follow the game. The times are always written in UTC.

5. It is allowed to play on freechess.org. The time control would then be 105 0. Players must type the command set noescape 0 before starting the game, which allows to resume the game if the connection is lost. The disconnection time of a player should not exceed 20 minutes. A player loses the game if he shows up more than 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the game.

6. It is alse allowed to play on lichess.org. The waiting time is 20 minutes.

7. If the game is played on Skype, the organizers provide a conference link. An arbiter, chosen either beforehand, or amongst the spectators, takes care of the game. He follows the game on his own chessboard, checks whether moves played are legal moves, writes the moves, and keeps a record of the time using a chess clock or any other tool. If a player loses the connection to the conference, the arbiter stops the clock until the player is able to come back. The waiting time should not exceed 20 minutes. On the other hand, the arbiter must not stop the clock if a player has a phone call or a visitor. Players are not required to write the moves.

8. Moves must be announced using either the system recommended by FIDE (Anna, Bella, Cesar, David, Eva, Felix, Gustav, Hector), or the international alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel). Thus, e4 is announced Eva 4 or Echo 4.

9. As soon as a player announces his move, the arbiter starts the opponent's clock. The player may, however, take his move back if the opponent, the translator or the arbiter has not yet repeated it. Correctly repeating the opponent's move is mandatory. If the two players don't speak the same language, the translator makes sure that both players have understood the announced move and have correctly repeated it. No penalty is applied in case of illegal move. In case of a dispute on the announced move or any other fact of the game, the players continue the game following the arbiter's instructions. Then, they can make a complaint to the organizers, who make a final decision. The two players must have their microphone permanently open. The spectators, meanwhile, are required to shut down their microphone during the game. In any case, they must not intervene on the progress of the game, or try to influence the arbiter's decisions.

10. The organizers may require the activation of the video for certain games if they deem it necessary.

11. Whether the players are present or not, the arbiter starts white's clock from the scheduled start of the game. If one of the two players does not show up 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the game, he loses by forfeit. If neither player shows up 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the game, they both lose by forfeit. Depending on the circumstances, the players may still reschedule the game.

12. At the end of the game, the arbiter transmits the result and the moves of the game to the tournament director. At the end of the round, the tournament director takes a decision about the games that were not played. According to the facts that were brought to him, he decides to give a win by forfeit to one of the players, and a loss by forfeit to his opponent, or to give both players a loss by forfeit, or to set the result of the game as a draw. A player who, 14 days after the start of a round, has not contacted his opponent, or who has not responded to the messages of the organizers, is withdrawn from the tournament, unless his silence was due to a case of force majeure. A player who forfeits two games is withdrawn from the tournament as well.

13. Out of respect for their opponent and the arbiter, players must strive to play their games in a quiet environment. Every player is obliged to respect his opponent and the arbiter. The arbiter of the game may issue a warning to the player who does not comply with this rule. If the player persists, the arbiter may give him a loss.

14. It is absolutely forbidden to use any external help (chess software, human third party) in order to play. Anyone caught cheating is immediately excluded from the tournament. His conduct may be the subject of a report to his sports federation, and his name will be published on the tournament website.

15. All players undertake on their honor to respect these regulations.