Who is allowed to join a tournament?

Anyone can join a tournament as long as they meet the criteria for the specific tournament (usually related to ratings). Tournament Directors (TDs) have the ability to change the requirements on a per-tournament basis.

Can you explain the tournament format. What does 5(2)->2+ mean?

()->[+ = No Tie Breaks]

Example 1: 5(2)->2+ means 5 players per group, playing both games per opponent at the same time, 2 players advance from each group, and no tie breaks.

Example 2: 8(1)->1 means 8 players per group, playing one game per opponent at a time, 1 player advances from each group, and use tie breaks.

No-Vacation Tournaments

If the "No-Vacation" option is added to the tournament, all games WILL time out if you take longer than required to move. The Auto-Vacation protection for premium members will NOT activate for these games. All games MUST be played in the expected time controls - no exceptions!

How is seeding and group placement determined in multi-group tournaments?

For multi-group tournaments, players are placed into groups starting with the highest rated player sequentially down to the lowest rated player. For example, in a 25-player tournament with 5 groups and 5 players in each group, the top rated player goes into Group #1, 2nd highest rated player into Group #2, 3rd highest rated player into Group #3, and so on. After all groups have one player, it starts all over again at Group #1. So, in this example Group #1 would have the following seeds: #1, #6, #11, #16, and #21. This is done to try and ensure that in the final round, the best players will be left playing for the tournament win.

When do tournament games start? What if my opponent doesn't move?

As soon as the tournament starts and the pairings are generated all players clocks start immediately. If no move is made before the time control is up then the game will be auto-resigned as a "timeout" or loss on time. This affects both players tournament and Online Chess records but does NOT affect ratings.

What are thematic tournaments?

Thematic tournaments require all games to start from a pre-defined starting position (such as the first 3 moves of the King's Gambit, for example). This allows players to play similar games and test each other in certain openings. Thematic tournaments are indicated with a special icon and also show the starting position of the games.

What are timeouts? Why can't I join tournaments because of them?

Timeouts occur when you lose an Online Chess game by running out of time. Members who have timed out in more than 10% of their online games over the last 90 days are barred from joining some tournaments.

How do membership levels (free vs premium) affect access to tournaments?

Different membership levels allow members to play in and join different kinds and numbers of tournaments. Look for more

How many winners are there for a single tournament?

Tournaments with twelve or fewer players have a single winner. Tournaments with thirteen or more have awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers.

How do I withdraw from a tournament?

You are allowed to withdraw from a tournament at any time using the Withdraw link located on the right hand side of any tournament homepage. However, withdrawing from a tournament while you have games in progress will automatically cause you to forfeit all of the tournament games on time which will negatively affect your timeout % ratio and your rating, even if no moves have been made.

What happens when there is a tied score? And what is the Tie Break?

If 2 players in a group have the same score then both will advance. Tournament Directors can choose to use an additional tie-break method (Chess.com uses the Neustadtl score) which factors in the strength of the opponents. If two players have the same score and the same Tie Break score, both will advance.

Below is an example of how the tie breaking system works:

Group #--	1	2	3	Points	Tie Break
1. Bob	X	0 1	1 1	3	4.5
2. Mary	0 1	X	0 0.5	1.5	3.75
3. John	0 0	0.5 1	X	1.5	2.25

A player's tiebreak score is calculated by adding the sum of the player's points they have defeated to half the sum of the player's points they have drawn against.

Bob won one game against Mary and two games against John. So Bob gets 1x1.5 points from Mary and 2 x 1.5 points from John, which sums up to 4.5 tiebreak points.

Mary won one game against Bob and drew one game against John. So Mary gets 1x3.0 points from Bob and 0.5x1.5 points from John, which sums up to 3.75 tiebreak points.

John won one game and drew one game against Mary. So John gets 1.5x1.5 points from Mary, which sums up to 2.25 tiebreak points.

What are Tournament Points?

Tournament Points are accumulated by competing in Chess.com tournaments. There are four factors we look at that affect how many points a player gets in a tournament:

A multiplier based on your final place finish (P)
Projected number of rounds (R)
Maximum group size (G)
Average rating of all the players in the tournament (S)

The Formula: 10 * (P * (1.5R) * G * (S / 1000))

How to calculate "P"

PLACE FINISH	"P" VALUE
1	.5
2	.25
3	.15
4+	.1 * ((((T / 2) - 2) - (p - 3)) / ((T / 2) - 2))

T = Total Players
p = Place Finish (p must be less than or equal to 1/2 of T to earn points)

"R" is calculated as (G/A)^X = T, solve for X. (A = number of players who advance per group)

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