Join

Announcing the 2021 Club Championship

Sunday 27 June, 2021

We are pleased to announce that our 2021 Club Championship will take place online over the summer. Go here and click the blue Play button to enter!

From our recent member survey, we know that many members are looking forward to the resumption of over-the-board chess events, and were hoping for an in-person Club Championship this year.

However, we have unfortunately found it infeasible to plan such an event this summer (at least in a form that we think would be widely attractive to members), because of the UK government’s decision to delay the transition to “Step 4” of the roadmap out of lockdown until 19th July, coupled with stringent rules continuing to be imposed by our venue requiring mask-wearing and social distancing.

Therefore, the 2021 Club Championship will be an online event, similar to the one in 2020. The details are as follows:

  • Venue: Tornelo. Go here and click the blue Play button to enter!
  • Format: Single-section 6-round Swiss event, with one round per evening.
  • Prizes: Trophies will be awarded for the winner (Open champion) and the top player rated less than 1675 ECF (the David Jones trophy).
  • Tie-break: In the event of a tie for a prize, the sum of opponents’ scores for each player will be used as a tie-break (highest wins). If there are still multiple players tied for the prize, the honours will be shared.
  • Eligibility: Open to all 2020-21 club members (click here to join if you are not already a member).
  • Dates: Thursdays July 8th, July 22nd, July 29th, August 5th, August 12th, August 26th.
  • Start time: Clocks will start at 7:30pm UK time. The default time will be 8pm; any players whose opponents have not logged in and played their first move by then will be re-paired.
  • Time limit: 60 minutes per player, plus an increment of 15 seconds per move.
  • Byes: A player may request up to two half-point byes with at least 24 hours notice. A bye can be in any round. However, byes in the final round have to be agreed with the organiser before the start of the tournament, and cannot be rescinded.
  • Fair play: Players are expected to play without any form of external assistance, just as in over-the-board chess. All games will be analysed by Tornelo’s fair-play enforcement algorithms.

This schedule means there are several weeks with both a LOCL Season 3 match and a Championship round. (We have avoided our AGM on 15th July.) See our full calendar for details. Please bear this in mind when deciding whether to enter.

We regret this overlap, but felt it was unavoidable: LOCL matches are every week, and even if we wait until Season 3 finishes on 18th August, history suggests there may not be time to complete a Championship before Season 4 starts.

If you have any questions, please email Adam Raoof, our Championship Director.

We look forward to seeing you in the Championship! You can find a list of stories about this tournament here.