CHESS TOURNAMENT RULES AND PROCEDURES

Tournament Date: May 6th, 2011

Normal chess rules will be followed without a chess clock. The board committee will endeavour to continue to unify chess rules to national standards every year. This year's tournament will follow these rules:

The beginning of a chess round will start with a pawn swap. The two number 1 positions (seated closest to the table judge) from each school will be involved in a pawn swap from which the winning side will chose a hand and what is in that hand is the entire teams colour.

Students are not allowed to time their games. If a student is caught timing a game they will be given a warning first by the table judge. The next warning will come from a convenor or a floor judge from which that floor judge will watch the game to its conclusion. If the student does this a third time, they will forfeit the game to the opponent’s team.

A pawn attacking a square crossed by an opponent’s pawn which has advanced two squares in one move from its original square may capture this opponent’s pawn as though the latter had been moved only one square. This capture is only legal on the move following this advance and is called an `en passant` capture.

If a player touches one of their pieces on the chessboard, he must move that piece unless he / she has given prior warning that he is only adjusting the piece on its square. (The customary warning is “J’ adoube” but they can just say I’m adjusting this “BEFORE” touching it).

If a player touches an enemy piece that can be taken, the touched piece must be captured unless the player has given the warning as above (or the move is illegal).

If a player takes longer than 30 seconds to make a move, a warning from the table judge will be given. If the problem persists, a warning from the convener will be given, then subsequently followed by a recorded loss.

Whenever a pawn reaches the opposite end of the board, it may be exchanged for a queen, rook, bishop or knight. The choice of piece is made by the player promoting the pawn and is made without consideration of the pieces already on the board. Theoretically, therefore, a player could have nine queens on the board. The promoted piece effects play immediately.

The game is drawn when the player to move has no legal move and his king is not in check. The game is said to end in 'stalemate'. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the stalemate position was legal.

Each game will be played to its conclusion whenever possible. In the case of a stalemate the value of only the captured piece(s) will be calculated. No consideration will be given to a multiple queen scenario. The player capturing the greatest value of captured pieces will be declared the winner. The value of the pieces is as follows:

Pawn 1 Bishop 3 Knight 3 Rook 5 Queen 9

The team point allotment is as follows:

1 point - game won before time period (CHECKMATE).
1 point - game won at time period (POINT TOTALS).
1 point - stalemate for the winner chosen by total points taken from the opponent. (In the case of a tiebreaker to determine advancement due to a tie in stalemate, a 3-minute playoff game with a 10 second per move rule will be played by the two competitors. The overtime game must be supervised by a convener). To win the match, the winner of 3 games of the 5 will be deemed the winner of the match. Total points will be recorded to assist in choosing a wildcard placement. In the case of a 2 team or multi-team tie for the wildcard position, a 10-minute match will be created to determine a winner for placement.

If a student claims that he has won by checkmate and it is found that it is not a checkmate, the game will continue play and no recourse will be taken.

Talking in the gymnasium is strictly prohibited. Each match will be administered by a student referee who will be seated at the top of the table. If the talking is deemed disruptive to the other players, the referee will give the student a warning. If the talking persists, the referee will call on a tournament official to give a verbal warning. If the talking still persists, the tournament official will end that particular game, and deem that particular player's game as a loss for his team.