I'm back and so is the DHLC Tourney - time to register for Tourney #7

Hello all, my apologies on the delay in getting the next tourney started. Got sidetracked with too may work trips and other obligations. But we are back and ready to go. So Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your kids, your parents, your aunts and uncles, tell everyone you can. It is time to sign up for the 7th DHLC Tourney (60+30s).

We will be offering a month of Gold membership again to the winners of each ratings division. 

First, the results of the poll I sent out at the end of Tourney #6:

1. Most players were returning players in the last tournament. I would like to get some new blood in, if anyone has some ideas on doing that, please contact me. 
2. On the question of time control, keeping it at the 60min+30s was preferred by a 2-1 margin. 
3. For trying a new 2 games in 2 weeks with color swap the votes were split evenly. I may try that next tournament once I think of how much extra work that will be. Stay tuned. 
4. By a 7-1 margin you all wanted to implement a 3 month minimum account age and a 20 rapid game minimum for participation in the tournament. That will go into effect this tourney. 
5. By a 4-1 margin you all are tournament gluttons - the DHLC club is NOT running too many tournaments. Way to go ... 
6. And a 6-2 margin voted for us to change the name next tournament. I will run another poll with some ideas (I got two from the survey). If you have an idea for a new name, contact me directly. 

Now, on to the rules:

****NOTE - New this tournament - in order to participate you must have been a member of chess.com for at least 3 months and have 20 rapid games played prior to signing up. 

Registration will run two weeks, starting 3-July, 2023 and ending on 17-July, 2023 @ 18:00 ET. 

For those of you new to the tourney, the general rules will be below. To sign up please post your name and current chess.com Rapid rating in the comments of this announcement and whether or not you would be willing to "play up" to the next rating level if needed to even out the divisions. An example sign up will be below.

Please do not message me directly to sign up. it can easily be overlooked. 

We will sort everything out, divide everyone into playing groups based on ratings and number of people in each group - attempting to keep the same number of players in each group - then play 6 weeks of negotiated games, 1 game a week.  The time control is 60 min + 30 sec. 

And please, do not forget about the other tournaments that are being organized for everyone in the DHLC club. 

A few details - 

- Time control for this tourney will be 60 minutes plus 30 sec increment.
- Scheduling byes will be a full point.  All requested byes will be a ½ point. Only one requested bye permitted per tournament. 
- Failure to attempt to negotiate a playing time in good faith may results in removal from the tournament. 
- Tournament #7 will start Monday, 17-July and run for 6 rounds, through 28-Aug (1 week per round). 
- The format will be negotiated playing time, rated games  at 60 minutes +30 second increment. This means you will negotiate a time that is agreeable to both sides. Negotiations must take place in the messaging system here at chess.com unless both players agree to another method, and the agreed upon time must be posted in the comments of the announcement for that week's pairings. The player not posting the scheduled time can confirm by giving a thumbs up to the comment. VERY IMPORTANT – if an agreeable time cannot be reached you can settle on a scheduling draw. However, both sides must make a good faith effort to reach a playable time. 
- Signups will end @ 6:00 PM ET on 17-July, the first-round pairings will be posted by 10:00 PM ET on 17-July. 
- Late signups will be accepted up through round 3 (to start playing in round 4), but you will not score any points for the rounds you missed. You will not be eligible to win the section if you sign up after round 2.
- I will again be using the SwissSystem.org website to help me track and pair players. 

To sign up, leave a Comment below with the following information:
chess.com username, current chess.com Rapid Rating, if you would like to "play up" a level (see an example below)
******************EXAMPLE SIGN UP*********************************
rsava, 1197, no play up
**************************************************************************
I will be checking regularly on the signups and will contact you via DM that you are registered or if I have any questions. 
Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your enemies, and tell your pets to come sign up! Let's get more people involved! Hope to see lots of previous players as well as new members join our DHLC Classical Tourney #7 (60/30)!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send me a message.