4NCL - The Four Nations League - www.4ncl.co.uk/pre2010

4NCL Rapidplay Championships 9-10 October 2010
Entry Guidelines

The 4NCL will be holding its first team and individual rapidplay championships for which entries are invited from all interested teams and players. For those of you with long memories, the format we are using is not dissimilar to the now defunct British team lightning championships (held between 1953 and 1992), with the team championship held on the Saturday and the individual championship on the Sunday.

Winners will hold the title of 4NCL Team and Individual Rapidplay Champion respectively for 2010/2011.

Details are as follows:

1. The championships will take place on the weekend of 9-10 October 2010 at Harben House, a De Vere venue. More details on the venue can be found at here.

2. The tournament is open to any team, whether or not a participant in the 4NCL itself. As with the 4NCL, teams can be existing clubs, new clubs, groups of friends etc.

3. The entry fees are:

Ł40.00 per team (to cover entry to both team and individual championships)
Ł10.00 per individual (wishing to play just on Sunday’s individual championship).

Entry fees must be received by 30 September 2010. A 25% discount (Ł10.00 team/Ł2.50 individual) may be claimed if entry fees are received by 30 June 2010. Please send entry fee cheques made payable to "4NCL" to Mike Truran at The Old Farmhouse, 7 Church Street, Ducklington, Witney, Oxon OX29 7UA. If you would like to pay directly to the 4NCL bank account, please contact Mike on 01993 708645 for bank account details.

Entries will be accepted on a 'first come first served' basis.

4. Each match in the team championships will comprise four players per team. A team may nominate up to six players for the weekend. Combined squad rule 2.1 of the current 4NCL rules will NOT apply, so no nominated player may play for more than one team over the weekend.

5. Team board order will be determined on the following basis: (a) ECF or Chess Scotland rapidplay grades (b) ECF, Chess Scotland or Welsh Chess Union standard grades (c) FIDE ratings. Chess Scotland and Welsh Chess Union grades will be converted to ECF equivalent grades using the formula Chess Scotland/Welsh Chess Union grade - 180 divided by 10, and FIDE ratings will be converted to ECF equivalent grades using the formula FIDE rating - 650 divided by 8. Where there is a difference of more than 10 ECF grading points between two players in the same team, the higher rated player must play on a higher board than the lower rated player.

6. Team lists including FIDE ratings/ECF grades should be posted to Neville Belinfante at 10 Ostlers Court, Old Coach Drive, High Wycombe, Bucks HP11 1AR or by email no later than 30 September 2010. ECF membership is not required.

7. The time limit will be 10 minutes +5 seconds per move.

8. The championships will consist of 9 rounds on the Saturday (team championships) and 9 rounds on the Sunday (individual championships). The schedule for the two days will be as follows:

Saturday:

Round 1: 2.00 pm
Round 2: 2.45 pm
Round 3: 3.30 pm
Round 4: 4.15 pm
Round 5: 5.00 pm
Round 6: 5.45 pm
Round 7: 6.30 pm
Round 8: 7.15 pm
Round 9: 8.00 pm

Sunday:

Round 1: 9.30 am
Round 2: 10.15 am
Round 3: 11.00 am
Round 4: 11.45 am
Lunch break 12.30 pm
Round 5: 1.00 pm
Round 6: 1.45 pm
Round 7: 2.30 pm
Round 8: 3.15 pm
Round 9: 4.00 pm
Prizegiving: 4.45 pm

9. There will be a prize fund of Ł2,000, allocated as follows:

	Team	Individual
First prize	Ł400	Ł240
Second prize	Ł300	Ł180
Third prize	Ł200	Ł120
Best performance by team with average ECF/individual with ECF less than or equal to 175	Ł175	Ł105
Best performance by junior team/junior individual (under 18 on 1 September 2010)	Ł175	Ł105

Placings will be decided on the following basis:

Team championships: Total game points, with ties being broken in the following sequence: (a) total match points (b) sum of opponents’ game points (c) sum of opponents’ match points (d) coin toss.
Individual championships: Total number of points, with ties being broken in the following sequence: (a) sum of progressive scores (b) sum of opponents’ scores (c) coin toss.

10. The tournament will be run under FIDE rapidplay rules unless otherwise specified in these entry guidelines and/or as announced by the arbiters before start of play.

11. The event will be registered with the ECF Game Fee Scheme and all games will be included in the ECF rapidplay gradings. It is a condition of entry that players agree to their grading information being published on the ECF website.

12. Mobile phones and other electronic means of communication should be switched off during play. Should any such device make a sound during play, the arbiters will issue a warning to the player concerned to switch it off. Should the player’s device make any further sound at any time during play over the weekend the player will lose the game during which the sound is made.

13. Accommodation arrangements are as follows:

Bedroom rates are in line with those in place at other De Vere venues used by the 4NCL. We have also negotiated competitive food and bar prices (in line with, for example, those in place for our 4NCL Hinckley Island weekends). Please refer to the 4NCL website for further details on rates and how to book bedrooms. We recommend that you book rooms early on the basis that any unbooked rooms from our allocation will be released by the venue some weeks beforehand.

14. For further details contact David Welch by email or Mike Truran on 01993 708645.