Verdon College Chess Tournament Rules

All games that are played in the Chess Championship are to be played under the following guidelines.

Supervision

Any game that is to be classified as a Championship Game must be played under the supervision of the Officials, Mr Hartley (the arbiter) or Mrs Thwaites. No results from games that are unsupervised will be included in the Championship. As a consequence, games must be played in the Library, although not necessarily during Chess Club time.

Normal Tournament Rules

Games will follow normal tournament rules, which include:

• The touch-move rule. If you touch your own piece, and it is legal to move it, you must move that piece. Similarly, if you touch your opponent's piece, and it is legal to capture it, you must capture that piece. In other words, think before you touch.
• Games will be timed at 15 minutes for each colour. Black starts the clock for White's first move. If a player runs out of time, that is counted as a loss if the opposing player has enough material to make checkmate. If they don't, the game is classified as a draw. It is the arbiter's final decision as to whether a timed-out game is a loss or a draw. If the arbiter is unavailable at the time the game is played, a photo will be taken of the state of the game and a decision will be made on the outcome at a later date. If a chess clock is unavailable for any game, the arbiter can recommend a suitable app for your phone to use instead.
• If there is any dispute regarding the legality of a move, the clock is to be paused pending the decision of the arbiter.

In addition, if a championship game is unable to be completed in any one session for any reason, the state of the game is to be recorded so that it can be resumed at a later date. It is the responsibility of both players to ensure that a record is made of:

• The state of the board (a photo will suffice)
• The state of the clock (again, a photo will suffice)
• The colour to move next

Recording of Results

The draw for the current round will be displayed on the Chess Notice Board outside the Library. It is the responsibility of all players to check who their opponent is and to arrange a time to play their game (during Chess Club would be best). In the case of a win, it is the winner's responsibility to communicate the result of their game to the Officials. In the case of a draw, both players must communicate their result to the Officials.

Once all results from the round have been recorded, the draw for the next round will be produced and can be started at any time.

Forfeiting a Game

A game is forfeit whenever one player has made every effort to organise the scheduled match but their opponent has not made themselves available. Unless there are valid reasons for their absence, a player who has not made arrangements to play their opponent within a week of the games being posted will forfeit (lose) their match if their opponent has been turning up regularly to play. This also applies to any matches that have had to be recorded and resumed at a later date. In this instance, the week will start from the date the last move in the match was played .

The results of any game where both players have abandonded their match will be at the discretion of the arbiter.

Tornelo

The tournament results will be entered into both the Verdon Chess Club database, and in Tornelo. Students are encouraged to track their progress online.