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CiF E-Mail Rules


  gbr  

 
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access and is unable, for whatever reason, to re-establish email access within 40 days, he will be considered having withdrawn from the tournament.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.