A State Championship Event with Open and Scholastic Sections
Location: Jackson Preparatory School, 3100 Lakeland Dr, Flowood, MS 39232
Date: Saturday, July 20th
Check In: No later than 8:30 AM
The Swiss System tournament will consist of 3 sections: Open, Reserve (U1300), and K-5. All teams are eligible to play in the Open section. The Reserve section is open to teams who have a team rating under 1300. The K-5 section is a scholastic section based on the most recently finished grade and pre-K players are welcome.
Schedule: 3 Rounds no elimination. All rounds will be played 60 minutes for each player with a 15 second increment.
Saturday: 9:00 AM, 12:30 PM, 3:30 PM, may accelerate as possible. Players will be allowed a minimum 10 minute rest break between rounds.
Awards Ceremony to follow last round or tiebreaks. Plaques or trophies will be given for the top 2 team finishers in each section.
General Rules
- Each team will play a 4-board match against a different team each round. Two players on each team will play the white pieces and two will play the black pieces. Color will alternate, with boards 1 and 3 having one color while boards 2 and 4 have the other color. Each team will score 1 point, ½ point or 0 points each round. A combined game score of 2 points for each team is a draw and each team will receive ½ point. More than 2 game points per round wins the match for the team, while less than 2 points loses. All teams will play 3 rounds unless the number of rounds in a section is changed because there are less than 4 teams.
- K-5 TEAMS. While school or homeschool organization teams are recommended, K-5 teams are not required to attend the same school.
- SECTIONS: We do not intend to merge sections even if there are as little as 2 teams in a section. We will look for alternatives to merging such as finishing early and/or voluntary extra rated games.
- TEAM RATING. Calculated by setting all unrated players to a fixed value based on section - Open is 1300, Reserve is 500, K-5 is 300; then taking the highest rating up to 4, and dividing by 4, regardless of the number of players on the team.
- SUBSTITUTES. Up to 2 substitutes are allowed per team. All substitutes must be registered (in board order) with their team by the end of registration.
- BOARD ORDER. Board order is determined by rating. The highest rated player on a team must play first board, the second highest player plays second board, and so forth. The team must play in the same board order each round. A team with only 3 players must forfeit Board 4 each round. If a board is to forfeit any round, all remaining players must close ranks to Board 1 for that round.
- TIE BREAKS. If two or more teams tie for 1st place, a 10 minute playoff match will be held to determine the champion. Otherwise, tie-break Systems used to break ties will be (1) US Team (see Rule 34G2 of the US Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess, 7th Edition for details); (2) Team Median; (3) team Solkoff; (4) Team Cumulative; and (5) coin toss.
- BYES: Only zero point byes are available by request for any round.
- DUES. No MCA dues required to play in the State Team Championships. All players in all sections must be current US Chess members.
- EQUIPMENT. Sets and notation sheets will be provided by the organizer.
- MISCELLANEOUS. Unusual situations not covered by these rules will be dealt with by the Tournament Director at the site.