Chief Organiser: Alex Holowczak - alexholowczak@gmail.com

Secretary: Thomas Evans - thomasjevans@hotmail.co.uk

Time Limit & Rating

The time control will be 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. The tournament will be ECF Rapidplay rated and FIDE rapidplay rated.

Pairings & Results

Teams will be allocated to groups of 10 based on their initial ratings. No more than two teams from the same University will be entered into the same group, except for in the Championship that shall contain no more than one team from each University. Each group will be played as a Round Robin. The bottom group will be played as a Swiss system competition if the number of entries is not conducive to it being played as a Round Robin. Group 1 will be the Championship, Group 2 will be the Plate, Group 3 will be the Bowl and Group 4 will be the Shield.

Each team will earn 2 matchpoints for a win, 1 matchpoint for a draw, and 0 matchpoints for a loss. If a team in the Swiss receives a bye, then this shall count as a drawn match. The team with the most matchpoints at the end of the tournament shall win.

If two or more teams are tied on matchpoints, then the tie will be split as follows: (i) Gamepoints (ii) Direct Encounter (iii) Direct Encounter – Board Count (iv) Direct Encounter – Board Elimination (v) Sonneborn-Berger (Matchpoints) (vi) Sonneborn-Berger (Gamepoints). The tie-breaks for the Swiss will be announced later if there is one.

Blitz Tournament

The time control will be 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. The tournament will be a 9-round individual Swiss, paired using Swiss-Manager. Entry to this is free to any player who is eligible as per the definition below, irrespective of whether or not their HEI has entered a team into the tournament. Entry forms will be available at the event. The tournament will be ECF-rated and FIDE-rated. If two or more players are tied after nine rounds, then the tie will be split as follows: (i) Direct Encounter tie-break (ii) If still tied, Median-Buchholz (iii) If still tied, Buchholz Cut 1 (iv) If still tied, Buchholz (v) If still tied, the places shall remain tied.

Player Eligibility

All students progressing towards an academic qualification at a Higher Education Institute (HEI) are entitled to play for a team. The team itself must be from a HEI that is a member of BUCA, and may consist only of players currently studying at that HEI. This competition is open to all players regardless of citizenship or FIDE registration.

Number of Players

Universities may field a maximum of 4 teams overall; this may be revised closer to the tournament date. Each team is composed of four players. Reserves are permitted; squads have no limit in size.

Registering a squad of Players

Universities must register a squad of players in descending rating order. Variances in team selection are permitted within a 100-rating point tolerance. Note: Squads of split strength are not permitted. When you have submitted your entry, you will be emailed a username and password, as well as instructions as to how to register your players directly via our website. Team lists for each round must be submitted at least 30 minutes before each round, regardless of whether or not the pairings for that round are published.

All players who play in this tournament must get a FIDE ID from their national rating officer, except if you wish to be registered as England, in which case the organisers will be able to do that for you. You can find your Federation, and your national rating officer here: https://ratings.fide.com/fide_directory.phtml

Please note it will cost you 50 Euros to transfer to another country later, so it is important to get this right at the time you enter!

Ratings to be Used

Captains may choose between a player’s national or international standardplay or rapidplay rating when registering their players. Ratings will be taken from the appropriate lists as of 1st February 2025. Players without any of these ratings will be given an estimate by BUCA to be used for the purpose of this tournament.

For ECF rating lists, only ratings of category A or K will be considered, as well as P ratings based on a minimum of 5 games against fully rated opponents. P ratings based on fewer than 5 games may be used by BUCA as an estimate for players with no other ratings.

The organisers reserve the right to amend the choice of a captain if the choice is, in their opinion, manifestly unreasonable. Examples of when this provision might be invoked include, but are not limited to, using ratings based on very few games compared to ratings based on a large number of games, choosing a rating which is significantly misaligned with the players’ other ratings, and an attempt to deliberately "sandbag" by choosing low ratings in order to enter a team into a lower division. The organisers’ decision will be final.

Entry Fee

£30 per team.

Entries received less than two weeks before the event will incur a further late fee of £20. Accommodation cannot be guaranteed after this date. Team lists may be modified after this date.

BUCA is grateful to the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust for providing the funding necessary to maintain the entry fees at their pre-pandemic levels.

Staying at the Hotel

All registered players must stay at the hotel. If this cannot be done because the hotel is full, then the team must bring receipts to the BUCA Treasurer at the AGM. The Treasurer will then set a fee that ensures the late-entering team does not pay less money than a team entering on time. It is essential that as many players stay at the hotel as possible in order to ensure the event's viability.

Accommodation Options

All rooms are on a bed and breakfast basis; dinner is available to book in advance from the hotel at £25 per person per night.

Single room, single occupancy: £80 per night

Twin room, double occupancy: £90 per night (i.e. £45 per person per night)*

*Additional guests in a room can be added at a rate of £10 each per night. Please be advised that our twin double bedrooms can accommodate up to 4 guests. Our twin double bedrooms only contain 2 beds. We do not have rooms with 3 or 4 beds in them.

Rooms are held as an allocation booking. Guests must call the in-house reservations team on 0116 242 8715 during business hours, which are Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm. Guests will need to quote the code UK2 to the in-house reservations team. Guests will need to provide a payment guarantee method upon booking and rooms will be full chargeable once booked. Any unused rooms will be released from the allocation 6 weeks prior to arrival and not be chargeable.

There is a limit of twin rooms, and if necessary, these are available on a "first come, first served" basis. Please note that, in this respect, bookings will only be made with the hotel once the entry fee has been received.

Hotel accommodation must be booked by 11th January.

BUCA Membership

All Universities that field teams must be BUCA Members. BUCA Membership for the 2023/24 season is £20.

ECF Membership

All players at English universities must be ECF members at Bronze level or above. Information about joining the ECF can be found here: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-membership-rates-and-joining-details

The ECF are now offering student players that have not previously been ECF members a free year of Silver membership – more details can be found at the above link.

Prizes

The winner of each tournament will receive the Championship trophy. Each player in the team will win commemorative medals.

Rules

The FIDE Laws of Chess will apply. Article A.5 will be in effect for all events at the Championships. There shall be no default time; a player will be defaulted if their time expires without making a move.

Appeals Committee

An Appeals Committee of three will be formed, the members of which will be published at the event. Volunteers to be on this Committee are welcome.

Entries

Entries should be e-mailed to Thomas Evans at thomasjevans@hotmail.co.uk. No entry will be accepted without payment of the relevant entry and membership fees. Information for transferring the fees will be provided upon receipt of a completed entry form.

Travel to the Venue

The nearest railway station is Leicester, which is regularly served by trains from London St Pancras and Birmingham New Street.