English Chess Forum

Scottish Elite Armageddon Championships

Friday 29th – Sunday 31st March at Edinburgh Chess Club

The twenty-four top rated players that enter will be accepted to play in the Scottish Elite Armageddon Championships at Edinburgh Chess Club (1 Alva St Edinburgh, City of Edinburgh, EH2 4PH). The strict entry deadline is Saturday the 23rd of March at 10pm. After which, a published list of participants will be publicised. The ratings will be based on CS published ratings or national equivalent.

Friday

Round One: 19:00 – 22:30

90 minutes for 34 moves plus 15 mins quickplay

Saturday

Round Two: 10:00 – 13:30
Round Three: 14:15 – 17:45

90 minutes for 34 moves plus 15 mins quickplay

Sunday

Round Four: 9:30 – 13:00

90 minutes for 34 moves plus 15 mins quickplay

After four Swiss rounds there will be a split in the field. The players that finish in the bottom 16 will continue to play in a Swiss for the final round.

Round Five (Consolation Cup for bottom 16): 13:45 – 17:15

The finale will involve the top 8 in Armageddon Sunday. The top 4 will compete for the Championship and 5th to 8th will fight it out for the Plate.

The top ranked player (based on the positions after four Swiss rounds) will play the 4th ranked in the Championship semi-final and 2nd will play 3rd. Similarly, 5th will play 8th and 6th, 7th in the Plate semi-final.

Semi-Finals: 13:45 – 15:15

Third/Fourth Playoffs and Finals: 15:45 – 17:15

Prizegiving as soon as possible after games finish

Armageddon Matches

Players to secretly submit the lowest amount of time they would take to be Black and have draw-odds. That is a draw is equal to a win with Black. The player who submits the lowest amount of time will start with the Black pieces. White will start with 45 minutes and the Black player will start with the amount of time he/she submitted.

Tie-Breaks (for Swiss Standings)

1 – A win is worth more than two draws.
2 – Black wins beat White wins.
3 – The player that has played the least amount of moves in his/her previous wins, wins on tie break. Hopefully this will encourage players to try win in an exciting and quick manner.
4- In the event both players have the same number of moves, a five minute Armageddon match will take place.

Entry:
GM, IM - Free
FM - £10
CS Member - £30
Non CS Member - £32

Prizes:
Championship:
1st - £150
Runner up - £75
Third - £30

Plate:
1st - £50
Runner up - £30

Consolation Cup:
1st – Free Entry to SEAC 2014

Half-Point Byes:
Are permitted in any round as long as you alert the organiser before the tournament begins.

Grading:
All Swiss matches to be CS graded. The Armageddon matches will not be graded.

Participation:
If you are interested, please indicate your aspiration to play by emailing:

[email protected]

The top rated 24 players will have their entry accepted, with the list being published by Sunday the 24th of March.
For more information see:
http://chessscotland.com/tournament.php ... 5313030216
First ten players that have expressed aspirations to play:

Calum MacQueen 2272
Andrew Burnett 2249
Gabriel Petesch 2248
FM Neil Berry 2216
Adam Bremner 2194
Andrew Green 2159
David Oswald 2048
Hamish Olson 2047
Graeme Kafka 2027
Jonathan Edwards 1987

Matthew Lunn wrote: 90 minutes for 34 moves plus 15 mins quickplay

To English eyes, that's a most unusual move rate. Is it a Scottish speciality?

Roger de Coverly wrote:

Matthew Lunn wrote: 90 minutes for 34 moves plus 15 mins quickplay

To English eyes, that's a most unusual move rate. Is it a Scottish speciality?

I don't think there is such a thing as a "Scottish" time control. 36 in 90 + 15 is quite common, however.

The above looks like a variant of one of the Edinburgh League time controls.

(There are two - the "traditional" 3 1/2 hour session of 34 in 85 + 20 QP, and the "Summer Cup" rate of 34 in 70 + 15 QP, used by clubs where they have to be tidied up and out of their council owned premises by 10 p.m.

I think way back, the time control was 36 in 90, followed by 24 per hour (with adjournments as necessary). When QP finishes were introduced, the 2 1/2 minutes per move was kept, with possibly a little more time allocated to the new-fangled "allegro finish" .)

Perhaps there was a desire to keep the target 34 moves, but also have a more normal 15 QP?

Alistair Campbell wrote: I don't think there is such a thing as a "Scottish" time control. 36 in 90 + 15 is quite common, however.

As in England. It's the 34 which looks really strange. Presumably an Edinburgh special. Yorkshire like to use 42, so you get a 4 hour Congress game as 42 in 105 minutes plus 15. If you aren't used to it, that's one of the more difficult ones. With 42 moves to make and 105 minutes to make them, you can almost play at the leisurely "serious" rate of 40 moves in 2 hours. The necessary change of pace to G/15 is drastic.