WCoCO - Rules

World Cup of Chess Openings - Official Rules

(Taken from the FIFA World Cup format)

The current tournament features 32 teams, representing different openings, competing in Vote Chess games at 2-days per turn. There are two stages: the group stage followed by the knockout stage.

In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each.   Each group plays a round-robin tournament, guaranteeing that every team will play at least three matches.  A match will consist of 2 games, one from each team's prefered starting position.  The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage.  Points are used to rank the teams within a group.  Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a loss.  If two or more teams end up with the same number of points, tiebreakers are used: first is goal difference, then total goals scored (this will be the in-game score found on the details tab), then head-to-head results, and finally drawing of lots (i.e., determining team positions at random). 

The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra games used to decide the winner if necessary.  It begins with the "round of 16" (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final.

Is each team playing their preferred opening from their preferred colour? If so, doesn't that disadvantage Black openings?

For example, King's Gambit vs Benko. Would the KG team play both games as White?

I am going to do everything I can to make sure that the initial groups of 4 are all paired with openings of the same color.  For example, one group is almost assuredly going to be (1.e4, 1.d4, 1.c4, 1.Nf3).  Each group would play one game as white from their starting position, and one game as black from their opponents starting position.

I can't guarantee that the situation you mentioned above won't happen (especially once we enter the knockout stage).  It would still be 1 game from a familiar position and one from an unfamiliar position.  The only alternative I can see would be to make everyone play 4 games against each other (2 white and 2 black - both sides from both positions). 

Now, I'm pretty flexible when it comes to the will of the people (the rules in the Fortnight Speed Vote League have changed many times due to popular opinion).  After all, we're all here to have fun.  So whatever most people would enjoy the most is what we'll do.  However, my guess is that 2 games per match will be preferred as this tournament is already going to last a VERY LONG time.

I'm always open to suggestions. 

We'll have to play extra games.  I don't see any other way around it.  Again, I'm open to suggestions.

My initial thoughts are: rather than make the 2 teams that drew against each other play another 2 games from the exact same positions, make them play against other teams who also drew.  That way everyone who needs to play 2 more games, can do so against a new opponent.  If there's only 2 teams that drew in that round, then they would have to play against each other again.

Any other ideas?

A complete rule revision is underway.  Stay tuned...