World Cities Open Swiss - Rules

A. Participation

To participate a team should meet the folllowing criteria:

a) Its name or Location field in the Settings should clearly state which city it represents.

b) Meet the requirements to the minimum number of players per match.

B. Tournament Format

The tournament is played by the Swiss system in 9 rounds.

C. Schedule

The Swiss rounds are anounced based on the current standings from February till October at the last Friday of each month. The challenges should be accepted iimediately and  matches started within 10 days. 

Swiss pairing principles

1. The pairing for the new round takes place at the scheduled date. The Swiss pairing is provided AUTOMATICALLY by the program stChess 2.20. The following provisions are inidicated ONLY in case it will fail for some reason and manual pairing will be necessary.

The following criteria are taken into account for pairing:

a) Provisional team score for the date of pairing. Recalculation for the closed accounts is applied. If the score difference is 2 points and less, and the match is not won mathematically (>50% points), it is considered drawn.

b) Provisional Buchholz coefficient (sum of team scores of all opponent teams)

c) Power (nb of players + average rating)

The procedure of pairing is transparent. The provisional team scores and additional criteria (if needed) are published together with the schedule

2.  In general, teams are paired to others with the same team score.

3. Pairing for the first round
The Team's list is arranged by Power and divided into two equal parts: The teams from the upper part of the list are placed on the left and those from the lower part, on the right.

The first player from the left-hand list plays the first player from the right-hand list, the second plays the second, etc.

4. Pairing procedure for the remaining rounds.

Teams are divided into groups based on their provisional team score from highest to lowest. Each group including an even number of teams.

Within the score group teams are arranged by Buchholtz and Power and their pairing proceeds as above (#3).

5. If the number of teams of the score group is odd, a team from the next possible lower score group shall be transferred to the score group to be paired, who has not yet played with at least one of the players of the higher score group.

If there is a choice, then the team with the highest Power is to be transferred.

6. Any two participating teams scheduled to play in WCL playoffs or CWC Participation round can be forced-paired to play each other in WCOS to avoid excess match load if: 

a) Their match by CWC/WCL schedule is set close to WSOS schedule;

b) There is no more than 1 point difference between their current standings; 

c) Admins of both teams do not object to such suggestion. 

The player eligibility issues in these matches will be ruled by the provisions of WCL or CWC correspondingly.
The recalculations and final results for the purposes of WCOS will be defined by the rules of WCOS.

D. Matches.

 Match name: Open Cities Swiss 2015 R(n): Team 1 vs Team 2

 Starting Position: Standard

 Days per move: 3

 Rating range: Open

 Min Players: 5

 Concurrent games per opponent: 2

 Auto Start: No (Match start date)

 Rated: Yes

All challenges should be sent and accepted within 48 hours from the Challenge date of the round.

If a team has issued a challenge, but it was not accepted on time the team admin should

 a) try to contact the admin of the opposite team, and if unanswered;

 b) post a link to the challenge or the match in the dedicated Match Problems topic.

 The matter will be adressed by the TD to establish the reason of the delay and to start the match as soon as possible to the interest of the league and both teams. If a team cannot play temporarily for an excusable reason, the match can be rescheduled.

Any teams that have forfeited their matches in a round (through no-show or low participation) will be forced-paired in the next round to minimize negative impact on active teams.

Any team that forfeits two matches in WSOS is suspended from the competition and thus not included in the pairings for the next round.

G. Fairplay

If a player account is closed, all of his matches will be declared lost. 

Each player can play only for one team in the league during the same season. If he plays for several teams by mistake, he can declare, which team is his "home team". By default, the team whose team match with his participation was opened earler is considered "home team". All wins and draws scored by him for other teams are deducted from match scores.

In any league match it is not allowed to have more than 1 foreign flag (mercenary) in the first 10 tables and 2 mercenaries for every following 10 tables in the match.  If such case occurs in a match, all wins and draws of extra mercenaries will be subtracted from match score.

The following flags are not considered mutually foreign: all flags on the British Isles; all flags of the former Yugoslavian republics and Albania; all flags of Spain and its provinces; Swedish and Danish; Azeri and Iranian; Canadian and Martinicain; Russian and Ukrainian (for team Sevastopol only); Greek and Cyprus - the list can be expanded whenever it is well-founded and concerns many players.

It is presumed that a player flag is constant during the season. No manipulations with flags and locations to bypass the rules are allowed. All players involved in such manipulations will be treated as mercenaries if their manipulations are reported.

Under no circumstaces shall admins discourage low rated players to join their Team or remove any players, especially low rated, from their roster - unless they are mercenaries, multiteamers, or have above 25% of timeouts. 

The team admins shall inform their teammates about the rules content, especially in what concerns the fairplay rules.

H. Disputes and claims

Any disputes and claims connected to the above rules, their application, match results, player eligibility, any decisions of the TD, and other issues in connection with this tournament should be ruled by the Referee Committee basing on the rules above, best practices and common sence. Its ruling shall be final and definite both for the TD and the participants.

In season 2016 the Referee Committee consists personally of:

adriano81

bobi184

chesvik

esmaralda82

KOJER

NOVERIO_PRATAMA

Concerning the following:

"A. Participation

To participate a team should meet the folllowing criteria:

a) Its name of location field in the profile should clearly state which city it represents."

Hastings is not a city, "merely a seaside town" (as the SA of WCL put it)... will we be allowed to play, if we so choose?

Thanks for correction. It should read

a) Its name or Location field in the profile should clearly state which city it represents."

I've added the possibility to keep the Regional designation and let the City name be present as a location only to avoid useless discussions if this or that team representing an aglomeration or region with a definite city center can play. Of course it can. 

And of course, there is no difference between a "city" and a "town". In many languages it is the same word. 

Well, we do not meet the criteria, especially the foreign flags. Why such a location constraint in a dematerialised world?

Why don't you meet the criteria? These are basically the same regulations as exist now in the current WCL and CWC and Team Bordeaux plays successfully in them.

Why so strict? Because without them some admins might have the temptation to fill their leading boards with legionnaires, other admins would feel abused and there will be tons of quarrels, like in the Champions League. 

And of course, there is no difference between a "city" and a "town". In many languages it is the same word.

I asked because in UK English there's a huge difference, and the title of "city" is awarded only under strict conditions.

Anyway, I'm polling Hastings members right now, and so far it looks like we'll be joining the WCT, next year. I'll let you know as soon as I know for sure.

We do not meet the foreign flags criteria for instance. This rule make sense for big cities in big nations but is not neutral for other places. Small cities welcome foreign players located in the area. Small countries are also disadvantaged because they can t recruit players of the same citizenship living in other cities (they are too few overall) while big cities do.

Team Bordeaux meets all criteria. If you have any "foreign players located in the area", they can indicate Bordeaux as their Location and not be counted as foreign. That's my smart novelty. :)

The thing that bigger cities have more players is quite natural.

If you wish to win by inviting anyone in the group, there are TMCL, TOC Champions League and other leagues without flag requirements.

Nice addition. Actually, I don t speak in the name of Bordeaux but anyway, I am talking too much. Let s see how other teams react to your more than welcome initiative.

I have been messaged privately that 10 players requirement might be a limitation for teams under development. I agree. Let it be 5 players.

I can't understand completely this sentence, please clarify what exactly does it mean

The Swiss competition does not mean to create difficulties to the teams also playing in WCL playoffs and CWC 6, so if both teams paricipate in our competition and in WCL playoffs and CWC 6, these teams will be forced-paired in the Swiss tournjament and the match scheduled in this events will also count for our Swiss

Does it mean that city naming is the only requirement, and all players without city indication should be removed from the roster?

As I understand flag of the player has no sense, only city naming valid, correct?

1st question.

I give an example: Team Kiev plays 3rd div WCL promotion playoff match in June.

The 3rd round of our Swiss is also played in June.

If you and your opponent both sign up for the Swiss, your 3rd div WCL promotion playoff match will also count 3rd round of our Swiss.

It is done to avoid excess match load that many teams complained of.

2nd question:

It refers to the team, not players. Your team can be called Team Kiev, which is OK, or it can be called "Maidan Brotherhood" and if Kiev is indicated as its Location in the profile, it is also OK.

About players:  In Team Kiev 9 of 10 players on 1st 10 boards and 8 of 10 players on each next 10 boards should have Ukrainian flags or even have any other flag, but have Kiev indicated as Location in their profiles. Basically, it is the same rule, which exists in WCL now, only with a small relaxation for multicultural megapolices.

as far as I know the main principle of swiss system is that Teams with same number of wins should play each other, it could be that Team we facing in WCL will have 0 wins comparing to ours 2 victories, how could we be paired if we are Teams with completely different quantity of wins and strength

about question №2 - what if player having foreign flag playing both for his country flag Team and for his city naming Team - it could lead us for complication to recognize such cheating behaviour of such players

1st statement - yes, it is against Swiss rules, but such diversions in early rounds (1-3) will not have any real impact on the outcome.

I don't understand your 2nd statement. Each player can play for only 1 team in the competition.

Two different teams from the same city are not allowed.

so this only possible for first 3 rounds, right?

I meant that it would be harder to catch up multi players - rule is in place but having city naming allowed now you need to check every player for every Team even holding the same flag city belongs to

Seems there are some teams currently listed that don't really represent current cities. Two immediately come to my attention: Equipe Quebec that draws from an entire province and Babylon which seems to draw from across Iraq. Are we okay with this?

Yes, I'm OK. This is a smaller scale compared to national teams, anyway. 

In team Moscow 30%-50% players are not actually from Moscow, however, we are just one of ~10 Russian regional teams playing in Open Russian Team Championship  http://www.chess.com/groups/view/-eurasian-league.

Hello!

I should say that I have found a free software tool for swissing that supports all I need for this competition: ability to pay zero attention to colour issues and to force-pair some players.

So this means that the competition can be managed using the appropriate software for swiss pairings, for publishing of standings, etc.

Here is the current starting list:

World Cities Open Swiss

So I am absolutely positive about bringing the team competitions among cities at this site to absolutely new level in everything, including communication, transparency and punctuality.

Dear city admins, don't miss your chance to play at the best conditions and vs the best opposition. Sign-up for the World Cities Open Swiss http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/world-cities-open-swiss---sign-up.

Point 1: Pairings Points (posts 22 and 30 answer)

Provisional team score for the date of pairing. Recalculation for the closed accounts is applied. If the score difference is 2 points and less, the match is considered drawn.

What is the reason for a win being reduced to a draw?

What problem is being addressed and how does it overcome it?