Welcome to the 2nd Annual Red Sox Fans Post-Season Tournament. The defending champion is yours truly, stats_man. Last year’s finale was tied 3.5 - 3.5 after 7 games and was won on a sudden death match here:

http://www.chess.com/echess/game.html?id=31150525

Now for this year.

We have 8 players who are seeded 1-8 based on our final standings in the regular season tournament. The match-ups will be 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7...etc.

I will create a separate topic for each pairing and post the game. Feel free to ask questions or banter with your opponent there.

Please find your opening round match-ups below. The player listed on the left is the higher seed for purposes of what follows:

(1) stats_man vs. (8) plasterdust

(2) criminole vs. (7) corrijean

(3) Yankee1 vs. (6) azulRonin

(4) Tennmen vs. (5) Dan_V

The first round is best of 5, and is played as follows:

1. Games are 3 days/move with vacation allowed.

2. Games can be rated or unrated at the discretion of the players.

3. Each pairing will play 2 simultaneous games versus one another, one as black and one as white. The first player to reach 3 points (4 in later rounds) will win the series.

4. If game 5 ( 7 in later rounds) is necessary, then the higher seed will be white for that game.

5. If still tied after 5 games (7 in later rounds), then there will be a sudden death chess match with the higher seed getting white in first sudden death game. For each subsequent draw, players will switch colors until a winner is determined.

6. Make sure to label your games as follows, depending on which round it is:

Round #1, Game X (where X is the game #)

Semifinal Round, Game X

Championship Series, Game X

See example on my profile once my first round opponent accepts my invitation.

Good luck everyone. Look for a season 3 invite which, as usual, will begin at the first pitch of first regular season Red Sox game.

stats_man