2017 Knock out cup

Hi all,

The new season is fast approaching. Below is the format for then knock out cup in 2017. It is assumed all 20 registered teams will enter, please contact me or comment here if your team doesn't want to take part. The new competition will start once round 2 in 2016 is complete.

1)Teams who reach the semi finals in 2016 will start in round 3, so those still involved in the 2016 competition don't have too many fixtures. These teams are:

Sussex, Yorks, Gloucestershire, Bucks or Cumbria.

2). The remaining 16 teams will start in round 1. The draw will be made using a random generator.

3) Round 2 will start once all the round 1 games have completed ie a team in each match has achieved a winning margin. The teams will be drawn randomly again.

4)Round 3: The winning teams from round 2 will be joined by the teams who reached the semi finals in 2016. Another random draw will take place.

Round 4 - Semi Final

Round 5 - Final.

Thanks for organising this by the way

Yes, many thanks Matt.

Now we have 21 teams, there will be a preliminary round. Two of the new teams for 2017 will be chosen at random to play in this round. The winner will qualify for round 1. The preliminary round will start as soon as possible, hopefully in December 2016 or early Jan. Thanks

Preliminary Round

Two of the new teams have been chosen at random to play in the Preliminary Round, the winner will progress to round 1:

Birmingham v London Knights.

Please start as soon as possible.   Please can admins of both teams let me know when the match has started and post a link in this forum thanks.  Matt

Team Birmingham have issued the challenge to London Knights with the start date set as 7th December.  I'll post a link as soon as this challenge has been accepted. 

UKCC Knockout Cup R0: Team Birmingham v London Knights

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/736906

Following  matches in 2016 taking a long time to finish I am going to suggest a 4 month rule for the remaining matches in the 2016 and 2017 cup, eg 4 months after the start date, any remaining games will be judged on position if the match isn't already decided.  Please let me know if this is acceptable. Thanks

I would wait until all the matches have one team past the halfway point. A lot of the games should be done in a month or two. You cannot say cut it off after x months, because there might be a match where most of the games are drawn, so it goes 3-3, 3½-3½, 4-4 etc. It also might encourage those in a losing position to hold off from resigning until after those 4 months.

Also, what will happen if a match is drawn, including each board 1-1? Will there be a tie-break match in Live chess?

Maybe the time should be shortened to 2 days for the knockout cup? (Unless it is already 2 days)

Thanks for your comments Thomas.    Any more views?  Do we wait until one teams passes the half way mark - however long it takes?    Or have the 4 month deadline so we can schedule each round?

Good point about the match being drawn, with 1-1 on each board.  I am not sure how a live chess tie break would work it would be hard to get all team members to arrange live matches.  Maybe we have to say the teams couldn't be separated and we just draw lots eg choose randomly who goes through. 

I can see the point in shortening to 2 days but this may cause confusion.  I wouldn't want to introduce this until 2018.

Please reply with thoughts on all the above. 

Well you can do a bracket draw beforehand, so that as soon as two teams have reached the half way mark, they can start their games. Maybe wait at least a couple of months from the match start date to allow some time for cheat detection from Chess.com (I presume adjustments will be made for accounts closed for cheating?).

I would be against having a random draw to decide the team to go through. It's possible that each board could be drawn 1-1, so I would propose the following format to be played:

• A Live match, held at 15|10 against teams of 5 players
• Board order to be decided by team admins in strength order (rapid strength is different from correspondence strength)
• Only one game per board; the home team gets white on boards 2 & 4, away gets white on boards 1, 3 & 5
• Players must organise their games between themselves (say within a 2 week window)
• If tied at 2½-2½, then tie-breaks as follows:

1. Board count (the board numbers of the wins for a team are totalled, lowest wins e.g. a team winning on boards 2 & 3 will win against a team winning on 1 & 5)
2. Board elimination (eliminate bottom board until one team is the winner, e.g. a team winning on boards 1 & 5 will win against a team winning on 2 & 3)
3. If all games are drawn, the home team is declared the winner (as they had 3 blacks to 2 whites)

This is unlikely to be needed but still possible, so it's nice to have something in place in the event. But I would suggest having a poll of sorts from other team admins, to get a format that everyone is happy with.

I agree, if we find this year drags on (I think some of last year's matches are still ongoing?), then a change to a shorter format for the cup would be a good idea imo. In a lot of leagues in the UK, cup matches are often played at a shorter time control than league matches, and usually with a forced quickplay finish.

The draw for the 1st Round is as follows;

Lancashire vs Devon

Suffolk vs Staffordshire

Cumbria vs Leinster

Essex vs Connacht

Renfrewshire vs Birmingham

Dorset vs Norfolk

Marches vs Somerset

Hampshire vs Worcestershire

Please post your link in this forum.  Thank You 

When should these matches start, Taurus ?

Should we send the challenges immediately ?

Yes please start asap definitely no later than end of March

Team Birmingham have just passed the winning post in the preliminary round against London Knights.

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/736906

Sir_Chjaka your 1st round tie is waiting against Renfrewshire

Quick question, what are the minimum player numbers for the knockout cup matches?

Somerset Wyvern v Marches up for registration. Link https://www.chess.com/club/matches/somerset-wyvern/765207

R1: Team Birmingham vs Renfrewshire Rooks

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-birmingham/765909

R1 Team Hampshire vs Team Worcestershire

https://www.chess.com/club/matches/team-hampshire/765319