KATRINARELIEF

ICC Holds Tournament for Disaster Relief!

The Internet Chess Club and the Tomato team of managers
will hold a 5 2 TC Blitz Rated 9 round Swiss tournament
in an effort to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina Disaster
victims.

The tournament will start on Sunday, September 11, at 12:30 PM
server time, right after the 24-hours tournament marathon.

To achieve our goal, we ask that you make a Chekel donation.
No sum is too small or too large. You can do this with the
"c-offer" command. Examples:

c-offer KatrinaRelief 5 Tourney Entry

c-offer KatrinaRelief 10 Donation, I cannot play in tourney.

The first offers 5 chekels (equals 5 USD) and requests entry
to the tournament, while the second just donates 10 chekels --
even if you cannot play or do not want to, any donation for the
good cause is appreciated.

If you do not own chekels (ICC's currency), you can purchase them
using the "c-buy" command online. See "help chekels" for more info.

ICC will match donations totaling up to $1,000 and offer one free
year membership to the winner with six months and four months to
second and third respectively. In addition, best u2000 and u1500 will
be awarded 6 months each. 

All donations and matching funds will be donated to the American Red
Cross (http://www.redcross.org/).

Tournament Rules:

9 Rounds, Swiss Pairings, time control 5 2, rated, run on the "pear"-bot.
Latejoin available until round 6, but 1/2 bye points only until round 3.
If you arrive on time, you do not need to type "tell pear join" as people
who donated will be autojoined. However, if you arrive late, you will 
need to type "tell pear latejoin" to be counted in. Note that you can
always leave the tournament with "tell pear leave !"

Prizes are one year membership to the winner, six month to second and
four month to third place finisher according to the tournament bots
tiebreak system (see "tell pear help tie"). The best players with blitz
ratings below 2000 and below 1500 will be awarded 6 months each. In order
to be eligible for those class prizes, you need to have an established
Blitz rating as well as a Blitz best rating below 2200 and 1700, 
respectively. Free trials cannot win prizes.

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". To learn about Swiss pairings and the tiebreak
system used, type "tell Tomato help Swiss".

During the tournament, please pay attention to the tells you receive
from the tournament bot pear and the manager. The usual rules for
tournaments on ICC apply; in particular, computer assistance and
human assistance are prohibited.

The ICC tournament directors may at their discretion make a ruling on
a particular game, eject a player from the 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.

See also: Tomato, chekels