Version 2005
1) Play and Control
A. Games shall be played in accordance with the
FIDE Laws of Chess where applicable.
B. A Tournament Director shall be appointed who
shall be responsible for the conduct of the tournament and the
progress of the games.
C. Games shall be played by email. If a player
should lose email access and is unable, for whatever reason, to
re-establish email access within 40 days, he will be considered
having withdrawn from the tournament.
2) Transmissions
A. Moves shall be numbered and sent
B. in PGN or in another mutually agreed notation
C. by email messages.
D. Should there be no mutual agreement upon the
used notation, the PGN notation with English abbreviations of piece
names must be used.
E. The transmission of moves should bear the complete
name and email address of the sender and a continous record of all
moves and confirmation of the date on which the opponent's latest
message was sent.
F. The sender shall record on the message the
date on which the opponent's latest message was received and the
anticipated date of the reply.
G. Failing this, reasonable dates shall be
assumed by the recipient and notified with the reply move.
H. When the anticipated date does not match the
anticipated mailing date, this shall be corrected by the recipient
and the sender has to be informed with the reply move.
I. The time used for the move (see 6D) and
accumulated time for the game shall also be recorded.
J. Normally a email is delivered to the receiver
in just a few seconds or because of the different time zones no
later than the next day. If a longer transmission time is declared,
it may be referred to the Tournament Director for a ruling.
3) Failure to Reply
A. Should there be no reply to any move within
14 days, the full details
shall be repeated with copy to the Tournament Director.
B. If no reply is received after a further 14
days, the player shall
inform the Tournament Director immediately and wait for his decision.
C. Games in which no move has been sent for 40
days may be scored as lost
to players who have not informed the Tournament Director about the
delay.
4) Moves and Continuations
A. No legal move shall be retracted after
mailing - clerical errors are binding if they are legal moves. A
correct repetition of the latest move is necessary for the sender's
reply move to be valid.
B. Illegible or illegal moves shall be referred
back to the sender for immediate correction but without any
obligation to move the piece in question.
C. A message mailed without a reply move shall be
treated as an illegible move.
D. The omission or addition of chess indications
(such as "check", "captures", "en passant") is without significance.
E. Proposals of conditional continuations are
binding until the recipient makes a different move from that
proposed.
F. Any accepted continuation move shall be
correctly repeated with the reply.
G. When no reply is made to an accepted
conditional continuation it shall be treated as an illegible move.
H. When the conditional continuation contains an
illegal move, then beginning from this move, this conditional
continuation shall be treated as illegal.
5) Records and Reports
A. Continual record of the game shall be kept
until the end of the
tournament and sent to the Tournament Director upon request.
B. If a player does not answer enquiries from the
Tournament Director,
that player may be deemed to have withdrawn from the tournament.
C. Changes of permanent email address shall be
notified to
the Tournament Director and opponents.
D. The Tournament Director must be notified
immediately of any
disagreement between competitors about the game.
E. The Tournament Director must be notified
immediately by fax or letter and phone if possible if any
substantial failure of hardware or software occurs.
6) Time Allowed and Penalties
A. Each competitor is allowed 40 days for
every 10 moves.
B. The time limit may be exceeded once.
C. Time saved shall NOT be carried forward.
D. The time used for each move is the difference
in days between the date on which the opponent's latest move was
received by the recipient's mail server and the mailing date of the
reply.
E. Accepted continuation moves are included in
the time taken for the reply move.
F. A penalty of five days shall be added to the
time of a player who sends
an illegible or illegal move, or incorrectly repeats the opponent's
latest move.
7) Time Exceeding
A. Claims that the time limit has been
exceeded (14 days for a single move or 40 days for 10 continuous
moves) shall be sent to the Tournament Director immediately with all
necessary information (copy of the moves played so far and details
of time exceeding).
B. At the same time, the opponent shall be
informed by an email message with copy to the Tournament Director.
C. Any protest shall be sent to the Tournament
Director within 14 days of receiving the message, otherwise the
claim will be deemed to be conceded.
D. The Tournament Director shall inform both
players of the decision. If the Tournament Director upholds a first
claim, a new count of the opponent's time shall begin on the date
the message about the claim was received.
E. A competitor who has exceeded the time allowed
for the second time shall forfeit the game.
F. If the Tournament Director dismisses a claim
as being unfounded, he may rule that no further claim by that player
during the current period of 40 days for 10 moves shall be accepted.
8) Leave
A. Each competitor may claim up to a total of 30
day's leave during each calendar year.
B. Players taking leave must inform their
opponents and the Tournament Director in advance.
C. In addition, the Tournament Director may grant
up to 30 day's additional leave per annum which in exceptional
circumstances may be back-dated and/or extended.
D. If a player answers a move during his leave,
the remaining leave for that game is cancelled and normal time shall
be counted.
9) Reporting Results
A. As soon as possible after ending a game,
the results and a clear record
of the moves played shall be mailed to the Tournament Director by
both players.
B. The result is officially recorded only after
receipt of this record.
C. Should no record be received from either
player, the result may be
scored as lost by both.
10) Withdrawal
In the event of withdrawal or death, the Tournament Director
shall decide whether all the games shall be annulled or the
remaining games adjudicated or scored as losses.
11) Silent Withdrawal
A. A player who does not respond to claims and
enquiries of the Tournament Director shall be dismissed from the
tournament. All remaining games will be annulled.
B. If the same player has other tournaments,
these games will be lost too.
C. The missing player shall be marked with a game
stop for 6 months.
D. The relevant director informs the missing
player about this penalty. All section leaders, email tournament
leaders and the treasurer receives a copy of this prohibition
message.
E. The penalized player has the right to apply to
the directors or his section leader within six months and explain
the reasons of his silent withdrawal.
F. If there is a reasonable excuse the director
may cancel the prohibition without waiting until the announced date.
The board will be informed and the CiF database revised so that the
player may start playing new games.
G. If the player does not appear during the six
months stopping period the director has to inform the board and the
player shall be expelled.
12) Decisions and Appeals
A. The Tournament Director may penalize or
disqualify competitors who break these rules.
B. Any competitor may appeal to the Tournament
Director within 14 days of receiving a decision. The Tournament
Director shall forward this appeal with his point of view to a
Tournament Committee, appointed by the General Tournament Director.
The ruling of the Tournament Committee shall be final. Should the
General Tournament Director himself be involved, the Tournament
Committee will be appointed by the CiF Ombudsman. The Tournament
Director who decided in the matter cannot be a member of the
Tournament Committee.