Irish Blitz Championship 2013

Sparks

From the ICU website:

Irish Blitz Championship before AGM 2013
The FIDE rated Irish Blitz championship will be held before the AGM on 29th September 2013 at the Alexander Hotel, Dublin 2. Details are here

Irish Blitz Championship
Date|Sep 29, 2013
Location|Alexander Hotel, Dublin 2
Prize Fund|€300
Contact|Peter Morriss
Web Site|http://icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=388
Note|First round starts at 11:30. Held before AGM

Irish Blitz Rules 2013
by Pete Morriss (September 2013)

Rate of play

Each player will have 3 minutes for the game, plus an increment of 2 seconds per move from move 1.

Eligibility

Entry is open to all paid-up members of the ICU. However, the title of Irish Blitz Champion can only be won by a player registered with FIDE as Irish, or, if not registered at all with FIDE, Irish by nationality or birth.

Entry Procedure

There are two methods of entry; method (a) is strongly preferred, and therefore will attract a reduced entry fee. They are

1. By email to the arbiter, at connaught@icu.ie; entry fee is €10 if received before midday on Thursday 26 September; €15 thereafter. Entries by this method will close at midday on Saturday 28 September. (Emails will not be checked after that.) All email entries received on or before Thursday 26th will be acknowledged within 24 hours of receipt; if you enter before then and do not receive an acknowledgement, you should assume that the entry has not been received. Entries sent from Thursday to Saturday will be acknowledged if time permits.
2. In person at the venue on Sunday 29 September; entry fee is €20. Entries before 11.30 a.m. will be included in the draw for round 1; entries after that time will not be included in round 1. Late entrants will receive a half-point bye (or byes) for a maximum of two rounds.

Payment

Payment can only be made in person at the venue. Entrants who have not paid before 11.40 a.m. will not be included in the draw for round 1.

Prizes

€200: First Prize
€100: Second Prize
There will also be Grading prize(s) and a Best Junior prize (under 16 on 01.01.2013); the number and amount of these prizes will depend on the number of entries.

Timetable

Round 1 will start at 11.45 a.m. prompt.

Subsequent rounds will start 90 seconds after the draw for that round has been released; the draw will be released as soon as possible after the completion of the previous round.

It is each player’s responsibility to ensure that he or she is at their board at the time their game commences.

Default

There will be no separate default procedure, but any player who arrives at their board 3 minutes late will have lost on time (unless he is black and his opponent is also late). In the event that neither player has arrived at the board within 3 minutes, the game will be scored as a loss for both players.

Any player who loses on time without have played a move will be deemed to have withdrawn from the tournament. Such a player can be reinstated at the discretion of the arbiter, but no player will be reinstated twice.

Playing Rules

The FIDE rules for blitz tournaments with inadequate supervision will apply (see the FIDE Laws of Chess, Appendix . These are the normal rules of chess (including touch-move) with the following two alterations.

1. Illegal moves. If player A makes an illegal move, player B can claim the game before making his own move. (The procedure is to stop the clock and summon the arbiter.) If player B makes a move in response to the illegal move, he permanently loses the opportunity to make such a claim; in effect, the illegal move is made retrospectively legal.
   
   In no circumstances can a player be given extra time on his clock.
   
   The rules do not seem to allow for player B to point out to A that the move was illegal and invite him to try again; but if the players do this, by agreement between them, then the arbiter will not intervene.
2. Exceeding the time limit. If player A exceeds the time limit, player B has to claim the win. (The procedure is to stop the clock and summon the arbiter.) If B does not claim the win before exceeding the time limit himself, the game is drawn, even if the clocks show which player exceeded the time limit first.

A note to spectators. If you are watching a game and see that an illegal move has been made or that a player has exceeded the time limit, you must not point this out to the players (or to anybody else): you must at all times remain perfectly quiet and hide your excitement (or disgust).

Claiming Draws. Note that Allegro rules do not apply; that is, you cannot claim a draw because you believe your opponent is not attempting to win. The circumstances in which you can claim a draw (in addition to the players agreeing a draw, which can be done at any time) are as follows:

1. Stalemate.
2. By repetition or under the 50-move rule. However, it is very difficult to establish either of these when the moves of the game are not being recorded. If the arbiter is aware that 50 moves have been made without a capture or pawn move he will inform the players and invite either one to claim a draw.
3. If your opponent has insufficient mating material. However, note that this is interpreted strictly: you can only claim a draw if there is no sequence of legal moves that can lead to your being mated. Thus you can claim a draw with K v. KN, but not with KN v. KN. (I would request that players try to be sensible, and, for instance, agree a draw when faced with KN v. KN, unless their opponent seems to be flirting with one of the mating positions.)

The arbiter will intervene and declare a game drawn if in his opinion neither side is playing for a win, and if the tournament schedule would be disrupted by allowing the game to continue; this will only be done if the game has already lasted at least 14 minutes (i.e., at least 120 moves).

Resolving Ties

If there is a tie on game points, prize money will be divided equally between the tied players.

If there is a tie for the title of Irish Blitz Champion, then the players so tied will be ranked by the procedure shown in the paragraph below, and the top two players will play off for the title. The play-off game will be an Armageddon game, with white having five minutes and black having four (with no increments); the winner will be the Champion, whilst if the game is drawn the player with the black pieces will be the Champion. The player ranked higher in the procedure below will have the choice of colours.

The ranking procedure will be: first, Median-Buchholz; second, Buchholz; third, greater number of games with black; fourth, progressive scores; fifth, average ICU rating of opponents [will not apply if any player has played two or more unrated players]; sixth, toss of a coin.

Appeals

Given the very restricted time-frame for this tournament, it is not possible to have an appeals procedure; therefore, all decisions of the arbiter will be final. Please remember that the arbiter is human(ish), and has a lot of things to do simultaneously; it is therefore possible that he will make a mistake (or mistakes). In such circumstances, please be considerate and accept the error with good grace.

Okay, granted it's on the same day as the AGM (which looks like it's to be about as much fun as watching the crazy hobo at the bus stop screaming abuse about the timetable at the bus driver), but still, who's going?

Pete Morriss

Thanks for putting this up. Just a note that entries should be emailed to me, at connaught@icu.ie - preferably on or before Thursday 26th.

And apologies for the short notice about this: the ICU were not exactly in a great hurry to agree on the prize money and other details.

Hope to see many of you there.

Pete Morriss

Just a reminder that this is taking place next weekend (29th September). There are only a handful of entries so far, so presumably you are all waiting until the last minute in order to pay the higher entry fees:D.

Also to mention that the information about the prize fund on the main ICU site, and reproduced in the table here, is not quite right: the prize fund is, in fact, more generous than shown, as the ICU edited my longer entry. The €300 mentioned is for the first and second place prizes. But there will also be grading prize(s) and a junior prize if entry numbers warrant. The method is that all the entry fees over €300 will go to these prizes, up to €450. After €450 some of the entry fees will go to buy the arbiter a cup of coffee. The ICU does not see this tournament as a money-making venture, but equally it does not want to lose a lot of money on it. Hence, whilst the top prizes are guaranteed, the subsidiary prizes have not been specified in advance. Also, the arbiter (me) is very kindly donating his time for free - unless (as I said) entry income exceeds €450.

All the above in the interests of full disclosure.

Still hoping to see lots of you there.

Sparks

Bit of a writeup of the championships on the Benildus website here:

Irish Blitz Championships

Pawel Madynski was the best of Benildus at the Irish Blitz Championships, though a second-half collapse meant the title went elsewhere.

After four rounds, Pawel was on 4/4, but he then fell back to end the tournament on 5/9, just about in the top ten. Pawel was involved in one of many Benildus derbies on the day, beating Mihailo in round 2. Mihailo later finally beat sister Anastasija after being on the wrong end of a couple of defeats in the past 12 months, before losing to me, who beat both Mark Dennehy and Ross Beatty (a particularly satisfactory win over my new team-mate on the eve of the new Heidenfeld season!), who beat Mark, who lost to Anastasija. The nett result of all that was that myself, Ross, Mihailo and Anastasija all finished in the pack – Mihailo on 4½ (including a bye!), myself and Ross on 4, Anastasija on 3 (I think!) and Mark on 1. Losing my final-round game against Bekim Davitt cost me a share of a grading prize.
...continues

cdeb

In less important news, Killian Delaney was a clear winner on 8/9.

Very efficient tournament - well done Pete! And a bloody tough time control.

Sparks

Killian came first, Jonathon O'Connor came third, but I can't remember who came second?

Pete Morriss

David Murray came second. The full results, names of prize winners, and crosstable should be up on the ICU website in a few hours.

I apologize for not getting that done earlier, but the subsequent AGM rather drained me of energy.

Sparks

Pete Morriss wrote: »

David Murray came second.

Thank you, that's been bugging me all day!

RQ_ennis_chess

Well done to Killian, David and Jonathon...with all the talk of the antics at the AGM, there was hardly any talk of the blitz results!

Sparks

Pete got the results and report up on the ICU website here.

RQ_ennis_chess

Always nice to win an Irish title, surprised some more higher rated players werent playing, especially as the tournament was on in Dublin!