HCC Spring Classical Quad 2023 Tournament Announcement

Registration is now closed. To watch the games, join us on Thursday evenings in the HCC Club Room or find links to the games on the pairings and results sheet.

HCC's January Classical Quad tournament was so successful that we have decided to repeat the formula for our next event. Play will begin on March 9th and we would love to have you join us if you can. We play serious chess but also cultivate a welcoming club atmosphere. Contact @datasmith to register.

Once registration closes players are divided into groups of four to six by rating and paired using the FIDE tables for round-robin tournaments. Four player sections will play a double round-robin (six rounds). Six player sections will normally play a single round-robin of five games unless the participants decide they would like to play a double - and are all able to commit to ten weeks of play. (And yes, you are correct. These don't all qualify as 'quads'. As @E3Engineer points out, we actually play quads, pentads and hexads, though these last two don't roll off the tongue in quite the same way!). You can see an example of what the pairings and sections will look like on the pairing sheet from our last tournament.

The experience of our winter tournament was excellent. The ability to schedule a game at a time convenient to both players allowed a number of people to join who would otherwise have been unable to. It also meant that the the curse of online tournaments (no-shows) seemed to disappear. Dividing the group by rating made each section competitive and improved the experience for most of us. Some players even took advantage of knowing their opponents ahead of time to do serious opening preparation.

Play begins at 7pm EST (0h UTC) on Thursday March 9th. Registration closes 24 hours before the scheduled start of the tournament to allow us to assign players to sections and publish the pairings. The pairings and schedule will be posted on the morning of Thursday, March 9th. To register please message @datasmith.

Games use a time control of 60+30, are rated and are normally played on Thursday evenings beginning at 7pm Eastern time. This allows everyone to enjoy watching the other games and makes scheduling simpler for those of us with complicated calendars. If you are not in Canada or the US, note that beginning on March 12th we move our clocks forward and so the Thursday evening start time becomes 23h UTC.

A game not played on Thursday may be scheduled for another time agreed upon by the players. The person wanting to make the change should message their opponent at least 48 hours before the scheduled start of the round and propose three possible alternative days and ranges of start times, ranked in order of preference. Here is an example of a message you might send your opponent :

I offer the following dates and range of starting times:
Friday March 17, 17:00 to 20:00 EDT (UTC: 21:00 to 0:00 Jan 14)
Saturday March 18, 11:00 to 13:00 EDT (15:00 to 17:00 UTC)
Sunday March 19, 13:00 to 16:00 EDT (17:00 to 20:00 UTC)

Note that it is important to indicate the time zone and/or to give times in UTC as we don't all live in the same part of the world. The proposed dates should ideally be within a week before or after the scheduled date of the round. The opponent should then accept one of the proposed dates or offer three alternate dates of their own. With good faith on both sides, it should be possible to find a mutually acceptable time to play. Once a new time is agreed, the player of the white pieces should notify the tournament director (@datasmith). Note that for this to work, players will need to consult their lichess inbox daily for messages (or alternatively confirm their opponent's Thursday availability in advance). If you do want to make a change, please give your opponent as much lead time as possible.

Once a game is completed, it is the responsibility of the winner (or White in the case of a draw) to report the result to the tournament director by messaging @datasmith. Results will be posted on the pairing sheet as they are reported.

Once play is underway on Thursdays I will make an effort to post links to the games in the HCC Club Room. If I am otherwise occupied, in vainly trying to refute some obscure gambit for example, please post a link to your game in the Club Room chat so that others can watch.

The more participants we have, the more fun for everyone so please pass on this blog post to your networks and encourage them to join us too. Looking forward to seeing you there !

David (@datasmith)