Overview of the 2016 Final 4 of College Chess
Where and When is the Tournament? The tournament is being held at the prestigious and historic Marshall Chess Club in New York City on Saturday and SUnday, April 2nd and 3rd, 2016. You can watch Live Coverage of the tournament, with commentary by Grandmasters Irina Krush and Maxim Dlugy, at www.chesssupersite.com
How were the Teams selected for this Tournament? Actually, they weren't "selected" ... each team QUALIFIED to play in the tournament by their performance in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Tournament played Dec 26-29, 2016. The teams in the Final 4 are the Top 4 teams from that tournament.
What is the Tournament Format? In chess-speak, the tournament is "4-board Round-Robin Team Tournament." In other words, each round the teams put forth their 4 chosen players as a "team." Team A is seated across from Team B, etc. The player on "Board 1" for Team A plays his/her Board 1 counterpart from Team B. Each round there are 2 "matches" that involve 4 players from each of the 4 teams. Each team plays the other three during the course of 3 rounds held during two days of play as follows:
Round 1, 10 AM Saturday April 2nd: Team 1 vs. Team 4, and Team 2 vs. Team 3
Round 2: 5 PM Saturday April 2nd: Team 1 vs. Team 3, and Team 2 vs. Team 4
Round 3: 9 AM Sunday April 3rd: m 1 vs. Team 2, and Team 3 vs. Team 4
How do teams score
points?
The President’s Cup is a Team Round Robin scored by total individual points.
In other words, if all of Team A's players
win their first game, the team gets 4 points. In this example, Team A also
gets 1 "Team Match win" (see below). At the end of the event and in
the event of a tie, tied teams are
declared Co-champions. The following
tie-breaking systems are for sole possession of the President’s Cup and will be
applied in this order:
Total
team match wins.
Head-to-head
outcome.
Armageddon (5-4 minute “shootout”). White must win with 5 minutes, and Black must win or draw with 4 minutes. There is no delay or increment time. Winner of a coin toss chooses color. Each team selects one team member to represent them. This team member can be any Player or Alternate from your Official Team Roster for the tournament, it does not have to be your "Board 1" player.
How does each Team
decide who is playing each Round?
Each team's Official Roster must be
presented to the Chief TD no later than Friday at the Team Captains' Meeting.
Rosters will identify which team member is the Team Captain. If a Team's
roster is not in Board Order for Round 1, the Team Captain must ensure the Chief
TD is aware of your team's Round 1 lineup. Round 1 Lineups will be posted
by the Chief TD one hour before the start of the round. After Round 1,
Team Lineups for Rounds 2 and 3 must be submitted to the Chief TD at least one
hour prior to the beginning of the next round. Otherwise,
if the Chief TD does not receive a Lineup change, he will assume the previous
round's lineup is being used for the next round.
How long can one game last? Each player has 90 minutes to make their moves, plus an additional 30 seconds of time incremented move-by-move. In other words, it is theoretically possible for a game to last as long as 3.5 hours!!
Question for the Webmaster? Click on my name ... Mike Hoffpauir