ICC Help: WinnerTakesAll

Starting November 5, ICC and the Tomato team will hold a biweekly tournament with a USD 500 cash prize! The tournament will take place in the pear bot on each second Saturday, starting at 14:00 server time. 11 rounds at a time control of 3 0, rated, will be played.

The tournament will use Swiss pairings. In case two or more players finish the tournament with the same score, a playoff tournament shall be held immediately afterwards. The specific rules for this are described below.

The winner receives the whole cash prize of USD 500 from ICC!

However, it is not quite true that the "winner takes all", as ICC will give out various prizes which will be raffled randomly between all participants who orderly finish the tournament. Those prizes could be extensions of membership, gift certificates, chess items, chess magazines, and thelike. Current prizes will be published in finger WinnerTakesAll.

Even if you think you have no chance at the first prize, you should definitely test your abilities against masters in a real CASH PRIZE event!

Previous winners of the tournament will be found in finger Winnertakesall.

Note: The tournament will proceed until the end of 2005. There is no series, every tournament is independent and each offers another chance on winning the cash prize. If successful, we might continue in 2006!

Note: Raffle prizes (Game Over DVDs) were donated by www.thinkfilmcompany.com for the November 19 tournament!

JOINING:

No preregistration is necessary! Simply show on a given tournament day, shortly before the starting time (14:00 New York Time) and type:

tell pear join

or use the link in the event list. This will be possible from approximately 20 minutes before the start. Latejoining is allowed until round 8, but the later you show, the more difficult it will be to win!

RULES:

The main tournament will use Swiss pairings and Tomato tiebreaks. Please read "tell Tomato help Swiss" and "tell Tomato help tie" for information.

However, tie points will not be used to determine the ultimate winner. Instead, in case two or more players have the same score, a playoff tournament will be held immediately after the Swiss tournament. The time control for this will also be 3 0.

The playoff tournament will proceed as follows:

In case the number of top finishers is TWO, FOUR or EIGHT, they will be paired according to their placement in the prior tournament, accounting for tiebreak points, e.g. with four top finishers, 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3. Those mini-matches have at least two rounds, with alternating colors, where the tournament director decides colors in the first game by tossing a coin. If after two rounds, a player in one match has scored at least 1.5 points, he advances to the next round, or is the ultimate winner, if this was the match of the last two. If the score is 1.0 - 1.0, the respective mini-match continues with another two games, and so on, until a decision is reached.

In case there is another number of top finishers, the player(s) with the highest tiebreak points in the Swiss tournament receive bye in the first round of the playoff tournament. This is done in such a way that the number of remaining players in the playoff tournament after round 1 allows to proceed as above (two, four or eight players remaining).

Should this rule or other rules be unclear or leave room for interpretation, the tournament director in charge will decide any disputes at his discretion.

Blitzin 2.31 or higher must be used in the event. All general rules on ICC apply. Specifically, use of computer chess engines and databases while playing is strictly prohibited. Assistance from other players is also prohibited. Free trials are not allowed.

The tournament is run using the automated tournament bot "pear". If you are not familiar with Tomato-type tournaments on ICC, please read help Tomato.

During the tournament, please pay attention to the tells you receive from the tournament bot pear and the manager.

The ICC tournament directors may at their discretion make a ruling on a particular game, eject a player from a tournament, 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, or the fact that this player has been caught violating ICC rules in the past.

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.

# 2005-10-26 Kiebitz edited via web form