English Championship Rules and Prizes for tournaments started before 18th March 2023.
1 The EFCC Executive Committee shall appoint a Tournament Organiser to organise and run the tournament, and a Championship Committee comprising the Tournament Organiser (who shall be the Chairman) and two nominees. This Committee shall be responsible for the general supervision of the Championship and for the selection of players from the entrants subject to the provisions hereinafter contained.
2 The Championship shall be held once every two years, and shall be open only to those players who are registered or able (in the case of new players) to be registered to play under the England flag in the ICCF. The EFCC reserves the right to decline an entry or entries without stating a reason or entering into any further correspondence.
3 The Tournament Organiser shall receive entries with the entry fee as decided by the EFCC by 1st February of each year the tournament is held. Play shall commence on 5th March and the adjudication date shall be 31st December of the 2nd year of play, which allows approximately 22 months of playing time. After the adjudication date any move played shall not be counted as a move in the game and no claim other than a claim for adjudication shall be entertained.
If adjudication is required then the EFCC Adjudication procedure shall be used.
4 There shall be:
a) one Championship final, having a minimum of eleven and a maximum of fifteen competitors;
b) two Semi-Finals having a minimum of nine and a maximum of thirteen competitors; and
c) Preliminary sections, each having between seven and eleven competitors, where possible.
5 Competitors shall play one or two games against each of the other competitors in their section as decided by the Championship Committee. All games shall be played on the ICCF webserver. The ICCF webserver Playing Rules current at the start of the competition shall apply, except as otherwise stated in these rules.
6 The following rules shall apply to selecting competitors to each section unless the Championship Committee decides that special circumstances justify an alteration. The ICCF rating list (valid as at 1st February in the year the event is due to start) shall be used to rank the players in order, and place them into sections appropriate to their ranking subject to the remainder of Rule 6 below. For players with no ICCF rating, FIDE and/or ECF ratings will be considered by the Championship Committee, and any Titles held by those players.
6.1 Championship Final
The winners and runners-up of the Semi-Finals of the previous tournament shall be entitled to enter. This entry cannot be deferred and must be used in the following event or it is void.
Those players who finished in 7th place or above in the previous tournament (in a 15 player final), in 6th place or above in the previous tournament (in a 13-player Final) or 5th place or above (in an 11-player Final).
The remaining places in the Final will be allocated at the absolute discretion of the Championship Committee.
6.2 Semi-Final Sections
The winner of each previous Preliminary Section shall be entitled to enter a Semi-Final Section.
The players who finished 3rd and 4th in the previous Semi-Finals shall be entitled to enter a Semi-Final Section.
The players who finished in 7th place or below in the previous tournament Final (in a 13-player section) or 6th place or below (in an 11-player section) or in 5th place or below in a 9-player section).
All other players in ranking order until the Semi-Finals are full.
6.3 Preliminary Sections
The number of Preliminary Sections shall be increased as necessary to include all those that wish to participate.
6.4 Players shall be placed by seeding, not by chance.
7 The time limit for all sections will be 40 days for each 10 moves, with time doubling after 20 days.
8 The amount of leave for all sections is 28 days per calendar year. No special leave is permitted though the Tournament Director will be allowed to grant extra leave in exceptional circumstances.
9 Tie-breaks will be resolved in the following order of priority:
number of wins by each tied player in the tournament;
points evaluation by the Sonneborn-Berger-System;
results of the tied players against each other.
If necessary, the Championship Committee is entitled to set up further tie-breaking procedures. These procedures must be indicated in the start list at the latest. If players are still tied after all relevant tie-breaking procedures have been used, the players will be considered equal.
10 Any player who defaults 50% or more of his/her games in a tournament without a satisfactory explanation must also be reported to the Tournament Sub-Committee. Once a default occurs that represents 50% (or more) defaulted games within any one tournament, the Tournament Director is obliged to write to the player to find out the reason(s) for the defaults. If the player fails to respond, the player should be considered silently withdrawn. If the player responds but offers no good reason (or a very weak reason), the player should receive an unaccepted withdrawal other than silent. If the player offers a reason that seems to the Tournament Director as substantial, the Tournament Director has the option of allowing play to continue.
Given the potential enormity of the effect of the Tournament Director's decision on this and other tournaments, the Tournament Director must consult with his/her mentor if there is one and with the Tournament Sub-Committee who in turn may consult with the ICCF World Tournament Director to determine if a reason is substantial enough of not.
If the withdrawal is considered silent or otherwise non-accepted, all open games of the withdrawing player shall be scored as losses (unless the player never played any moves in any game of the tournament in which case all games should be cancelled). If the withdrawal is accepted (for any reason other than death of the player), his/her remaining games shall be cancelled if both of the following conditions are true:
• none of the player’s games in the relevant tournament has yet completed (excluding by ETL by either player, adjudication, and cancellation)
• and the average number of moves across all of his/her games is less than 25. If one or both of these conditions is not met, all of his/her remaining games in this tournament shall be adjudicated.
11 The EFCC shall award a prize fund as follows:
11.1 Championship Final
Winner will receive £175 together with an engraved trophy for retention.
Runner-up will receive £80.
Third place will receive £40.
Fourth place will receive £20.
11.2 Semi-final sections
Winner will receive £40.
Runner-up will receive £20.
11.3 Preliminary sections
No prize money.
12 Any matters concerning the organisation and running of the tournament not covered in these rules or the ICCF Playing Rules shall be decided at the discretion of the Tournament Organiser.
13 Competitors may appeal against decisions of the Tournament Director to the EFCC Secretary by e- mail. Such appeal shall be e-mailed within seven days of receiving the decision in question. The appeal shall be referred to the appropriate committee of the EFCC whose decision shall be final.
