🪓 2023 Original Solo (FFA) World 4 Player Chess Championships, 🏆 Season 5 ⚔️

The 2023 Original Solo World 4 Player Chess Championship (W4PCC) is the fifth online Rapid Free-For-All (FFA) world championship of four player chess (4PC). Players compete for a $1,000 prize and a Solo World Champion title.

Requirements for participation:
An account registered before 1st May 2023 (Exception: Titled Players)
No recent severe infractions on Chess.com, before or during the championship
You must play on your main account if you have multiple staff-approved accounts
Rating requirements: Depending on the Qualification Format, a player may need to be rated 2200+ or be part of the Active 4 Player Rapid Leaderboard

The championship is currently under proposal for how players are going to qualify: a) Defending champion + Arenas (last year's format) or b) Defending champion + 15 handpicked participants
The championship is currently under proposal for the starting position: a) Old Setup (last year's format) or b) New Setup
The championship is currently under proposal for the following: a) unrated (last year's format) or b) rated
Voting: April 8 00:00 UTC-April 15 00:00 UTC The votes will take place on the Variants Server under the Variants Poll.

Players with 2200+ FFA rating will be eligible to vote on the above three topics. A 2/3 vote (more than 66.66%) will be required for the option b) to be chosen.

The following are also under proposal but will be voted on under a Straw Poll made in a 4 Player Chess Club Forum:
Time Control: Last year's format: 1 minute time bank with 7 seconds of added increment per move (1|7).

a) Arenas: If the Arenas option is selected, the championship will feature a series of Qualifier Arenas, with the first arena starting on May 20. The Arenas take place at 00:00 12:00 16:00 and 20:00 UTC every Saturday and Sunday from May 20 through May 28*. Qualifier Arenas would be followed by a Preliminary Round, Best-of-5 Matches (First to 1.25) during the weekend of June 3, which brings 16 players down to the Final Four. The Final Four players will compete during the weekend of June 24-25 in Best-of-9 Matches (First to 2.25) starting at 18:00 UTC each day.

*One of the Sunday May 28 Arenas would be deleted depending on the return of the Defending World Champion, @icystun .

Players who qualify:
1) The Defending World Champion, @icystun
2) 15 winners of the Qualifier Arenas

Rating Requirements: If a) Arenas is selected, a Straw Poll will be made in a 4 Player Chess Club Forum to determine the minimum rating range in order to play in the Qualifier Arenas at the time one is in progress.

Arena Scoring: 2-0-0-0 with tie first being equally divided.
NOTE: Arenas are not joinable until after the start time of each Arena; Arenas do not finish midgame unlike Play. If there is a few minutes left on the clock, it is still highly encouraged to click Join; Join is unclickable only after the clock expires, active games playing when the clock expires continue, and the arena doesn't end until all games finish.

b) Handpicked: If the Arenas option is NOT selected, the Defending Champion will be met by 15 other hand-selected individuals including but not limited to the following methods of qualification:
1. Leaderboard
2. Performance
3. Knockout Qualifiers: non-Arena style qualifier first come-first serve tournaments organized in the 4 Player Chess Club Forums.
4. At the discretion of a tournament director/multiple tournament admins, especially if a rule change takes place.

See the 2020 Solo/FFA W4PCC forum for discussion of the above methods.

Player names will be hidden (Anonymous or Semi-Anonymous) until the end of each game, pawns will promote on the 8th rank relative to the color's back row to a 1-point queen, and the games will be unrated.

Preliminaries

Preliminaries are in a Best-of-5 (first to 1.25) semi-anonymous, 1 point Queen, Dead-King-Walk, En Passant, FFA Winner-Takes-All (Solo) match. The winner of each game will receive 1 whole point; the rest will receive zero. First place ties will be split amongst game-winning players. Here is the overview of when these preliminaries will take place:

Bracket 1: *00:00 UTC Winners: Saturday, 06/03 at 00:00 UTC.
Bracket 2: *12:00 UTC Winners: Saturday, 06/03 at 12:00 UTC.
Bracket 3: *16:00 UTC Winners: Saturday, 06/03 at 16:00 UTC.
Bracket 4: *20:00 UTC Winners: Saturday, 06/03 at 20:00 UTC.

*if a) arenas is the chosen option, one of the Sunday May 28 Arenas will be deleted depending on the choice of the Defending World Champion, @icystun . @icystun will compete against the three winners of the time of his choice. if b) handpicked is the chosen option and @icystun does not participate, the next player in the Leaderboard category will be chosen as the replacement.

• Players may be allowed to declare a short break at the discretion of the Tournament Director in addition to the 5 minutes between games. Players must hit Rematch.
• Players will have to hit rematch within 5 minutes of the games ending. If the players fail to hit rematch, an administrator will reinvite them all and request that they accept. If they fail to accept within 3 minutes (or if they abort a started game) they will be Disqualified and a replacement player will be selected within 5 minutes.
• In the event of a tiebreak for advancement to the final, the player who won the most recent game will win. In the rare event that all five (5) games are tied, the player who last moved right before the Draw is declared will be declared a Finalist.
• Upon qualifying for the Preliminaries, players must meet and agree with Championship / Prize Money Eligibility Terms & Conditions more than 24 hours prior to the Preliminary match. A reminder if a) arenas is chosen, playing in arenas further after already qualifying WILL result in disqualification (unless joined once on accident, in which case, please let the W4PCC director know immediately). In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a final, the next ranked online player in the player's qualification category will be selected, and then the highest rating online if no one in said category is available. This means that all eligible players may have a chance of playing in the Preliminaries if they are online at the time of the Preliminaries, and players prioritized above them are not selected. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match.

The Final
 
The 2023 Original Solo W4PCC World Champion will earn a Prize! This will be a first-to-2.25 (best of 9) semi-anonymous, 1 point Queen, Dead-King-Walk, En Passant, FFA Winner-Takes-All (Solo) match in which first-place ties of a game split amongst winners of that game. Please note that the following times are SET:

• Day 1 will start at 18:00 UTC Saturday, June 10. (5 game Cap)
• Day 2 will start at 18:00 UTC Sunday, June 11. (Games 6-9 if necessary)
• Players will be allowed to declare one (1) 10-minute-extra break (Timeout) in this entire final each in addition to the 5 minutes between games.
• Players will have to hit rematch within 5 minutes of the games ending. If the players fail to hit rematch, an administrator will reinvite them all and request that they accept. If they fail to accept within 3 minutes (or if they abort a started game) they will go through the following penalty process: 1. Timeout deducted 2. Disqualification and a replacement player will be selected within 5 minutes.
  In the event of a tiebreak, the player who won the most recent game will win. In the rare event that all nine (9) games are tied, the player who last moved right before the Draw is declared will be declared the Champion.
• Upon qualifying for the Final, players must meet and agree with Championship / Prize Money Eligibility Terms & Conditions within a week of qualifying/being selected.
• In the event that a qualifying player does not want to, or cannot play in a final, the next ranked online player in the Bracket/Category this Withdrawn player came from will be selected. This means that the all eligible players may have a chance of playing in the final if they are online at the time of the final, and players prioritized above them are not selected. Replacements will have their scores set to match the withdrawing player's score in the event that a player withdraws mid-match.
• The first player to equal or exceed 2.25 will be the 2023 Original Solo W4PCC Champion and will earn $1000.

Prize Money: The 2023 Original Solo W4PCC World Champion will provisionally be awarded $1000 from chess.com. Please understand this may take days, weeks, or a month or two to process. The tournament director may refer questions regarding prize money to staff/support. Only one player will be awarded prize money, and that player must agree to use the email directly linked to his/her chess.com account to find the link to the Prize Money when Awarded. Please note that the link may appear in your junk/trash/spam folder, so be sure to check those soon after you win the Championship!

Preliminaries and Finals will be broadcasted on https://www.twitch.tv/fourplayerchess .
We look forward to seeing you play in the championship! Best of luck to all players trying out! If there are any questions or errors or concerns or useful feedback, do not hesitate to message me or discuss in the Discussion Forum.

Luke Romanko, W4PCC Director

Discussion Forum
Last Year's Format