2019 Qualifier Rules
Team Formation:
- The qualifier will be held on November 3rd and will begin at 8 AM Pacific Time.
- 8 teams will qualify from this event into the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- To join you will create a team centered around one city.
- Each team is made up of four players, 3 of whom must be "local" players and one who can be a "free agent". You are not required to use a free agent, and can instead use all four local players.
- A free agent is a player from anywhere in the world
- A local player is a player who is from the same region as your team. In all countries except for the United States of America, China, Russia and India, a local player will be someone who either lives in the same country as your team, or has lived there at some point for a continuous period of three full years.
- If your team is from The United States of America, China, Russia or India, your country is broken into sub-regions, which can be found at the end of this article. The location of your sub-region determines which players are considered local for your team. *
- If your team qualifies for the PRO Chess League, anyone who played in the qualifier for your team is required to play on your team during the 2019 PRO Chess League Season, and cannot play for any other team. If your team does NOT qualify, everyone who played for your team in the qualifier is free for play on any team they wish.
Team Ratings:
- The September 2018 Rating List will be used to determine ratings for the Qualifier. These ratings will ALSO be used for the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- The minimum rating per team is 2400
- The maximum average rating must be under 2500 (2499.75 is legal, 2500.00 is not)
- Teams can potentially have a higher rating than 2500 as follows:
1. There are bonuses available for players above 2700 (their rating only counts as 2700 towards the average rating). This is to encourage more top players to participate in the league
2. There are bonuses available to female players (their rating = rating-100). Therefore a 2500 rated female would count as 2400 towards the average. This is to encourage more females to participate in the league.
3. Keep in mind however that anyone rated under 2000, will be considered as rated 2000 towards the team's average rating. So an 1800 is treated as a 2000 rated player. A woman rated 2050, is treated as a 2000 rated player (and not a 1950 rated player).
Event Format:
- The format of the event is as follows:
Stage 1: There are two 14 team Round Robin events, split up geographically. Every team will play a one-game match against every other team. In these matches, board one for each team will play the board one for every other team. Board two will play the board two, and so on. The time control will be three minutes plus a two-second increment.
The scores for this phase are total game points and not match points. That means that you add up every point scored by each player on your team, and the total sum of those points is your score for the event.
At the end of this round robin, the top two teams from each group (four in total) advance to the PRO Chess League.
Stage 1 tiebreaks:
First tiebreak is board one score. Second tiebreak is board two score. Third tiebreak is board three score. Fourth tiebreak is head to-head. Fifth tiebreak is highest-rated lineup advances.
The one exception to the above rules is if there is a tie for 2nd place, which would result in one of the teams automatically advancing to the PRO Chess League. In this case the first tiebreak will be the winner of a 5 minute Twitter poll.
Stage 2:
The 3rd-5th place teams from Stage 1 all advance to Stage 2 in a last chance to earn one of the last four league spots.
The 6th-8th place finishers in each group will head to a Twitter fan vote, which will last for exactly five minutes. The winner of this poll will advance to Stage 2 as well. In case of a tie, the tiebreak is highest finisher during Stage 1.
That leaves eight teams fighting for four spots in Stage 2.
Stage 2 format:
Miscellaneous Rules:
* Regions:
1. United States Regions
Region 1: New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey
Region 2: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware
Region 3: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky
Region 4: Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska
Region 5: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas
Region 6: Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska
Region 7: Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii
(This map shows the borders of Northern and Southern California that will be used in the PCL)
2. Russia Regions
Region 1: Central District
Region 2: Volga District
Region 3: North Caucasian and Southern Districts
Region 4: Northwestern District
Region 5: Urals, Siberian and Eastern Districts
3. India Regions
Region 1: Jammu&Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Haryana, Delhi
Region 2: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Dadra&Nagar Haveli
Region 3: Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
Region 4: Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Asom, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Aunachal Pradesh
4. China Regions
Region 1: Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia
Region 2: Hainan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Chongqing, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi
Region 3: Hubei, Anhul, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu
Region 4: Henan, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia
Team Formation:
- The qualifier will be held on November 3rd and will begin at 8 AM Pacific Time.
- 8 teams will qualify from this event into the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- To join you will create a team centered around one city.
- Each team is made up of four players, 3 of whom must be "local" players and one who can be a "free agent". You are not required to use a free agent, and can instead use all four local players.
- A free agent is a player from anywhere in the world
- A local player is a player who is from the same region as your team. In all countries except for the United States of America, China, Russia and India, a local player will be someone who either lives in the same country as your team, or has lived there at some point for a continuous period of three full years.
- If your team is from The United States of America, China, Russia or India, your country is broken into sub-regions, which can be found at the end of this article. The location of your sub-region determines which players are considered local for your team. *
- If your team qualifies for the PRO Chess League, anyone who played in the qualifier for your team is required to play on your team during the 2019 PRO Chess League Season, and cannot play for any other team. If your team does NOT qualify, everyone who played for your team in the qualifier is free for play on any team they wish.
Team Ratings:
- The September 2018 Rating List will be used to determine ratings for the Qualifier. These ratings will ALSO be used for the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- The minimum rating per team is 2400
- The maximum average rating must be under 2500 (2499.75 is legal, 2500.00 is not)
- Teams can potentially have a higher rating than 2500 as follows:
1. There are bonuses available for players above 2700 (their rating only counts as 2700 towards the average rating). This is to encourage more top players to participate in the league
2. There are bonuses available to female players (their rating = rating-100). Therefore a 2500 rated female would count as 2400 towards the average. This is to encourage more females to participate in the league.
3. Keep in mind however that anyone rated under 2000, will be considered as rated 2000 towards the team's average rating. So an 1800 is treated as a 2000 rated player. A woman rated 2050, is treated as a 2000 rated player (and not a 1950 rated player).
Event Format:
- The format of the event is as follows:
Stage 1: There are two 14 team Round Robin events, split up geographically. Every team will play a one-game match against every other team. In these matches, board one for each team will play the board one for every other team. Board two will play the board two, and so on. The time control will be three minutes plus a two-second increment.
The scores for this phase are total game points and not match points. That means that you add up every point scored by each player on your team, and the total sum of those points is your score for the event.
At the end of this round robin, the top two teams from each group (four in total) advance to the PRO Chess League.
Stage 1 tiebreaks:
First tiebreak is board one score. Second tiebreak is board two score. Third tiebreak is board three score. Fourth tiebreak is head to-head. Fifth tiebreak is highest-rated lineup advances.
The one exception to the above rules is if there is a tie for 2nd place, which would result in one of the teams automatically advancing to the PRO Chess League. In this case the first tiebreak will be the winner of a 5 minute Twitter poll.
Stage 2:
The 3rd-5th place teams from Stage 1 all advance to Stage 2 in a last chance to earn one of the last four league spots.
The 6th-8th place finishers in each group will head to a Twitter fan vote, which will last for exactly five minutes. The winner of this poll will advance to Stage 2 as well. In case of a tie, the tiebreak is highest finisher during Stage 1.
That leaves eight teams fighting for four spots in Stage 2.
Stage 2 format:
- The teams will be paired off in an all play all PRO Chess League style match, with a time control of seven minutes plus two-second increment. This will be the same format used during the PRO Chess League regular season, but with a faster time control.
- The winner of each match advances to the PRO Chess League.
- If the match is tied, the players play one more round of three minutes plus two-second increment. Board one will play board one and so forth. If that ends in a tie, the match goes to sudden death. Board one plays against board one in one single game, using reverse colors from the previous tiebreak round. If that’s drawn, then board two plays board two. The first team to win a game wins the match.
- The pairings work as follows: The third-place finisher from Stage 1 gets to choose its opponent for Stage 2 from the other three teams in the group. The two other teams from each group then play against each other. The team that did better in Stage 1 gets the "A" pairings of this table:
- Round 1: B4-A1, B3-A2, A3-B2, A4-B1
- Round 2: A1-B3, A2-B4, B1-A3, B2-A4
- Round 3: B2-A1, B1-A2, A3-B4, A4-B3
- Round 4: A1-B1, A2-B2, B3-A3, B4-A4
Miscellaneous Rules:
- If a game is accidentally not started due to the fault of PRO Chess League admins, we may have to start the game with a faster time control to ensure that it ends at a similar time as the remainder of the games from that round. The fastest this time control will be is 1 minute base time with a 1 second increment
- If a team from the 2018 PRO Chess League Season decides to withdraw from the season before it begins, the Commissioners Office reserves the right to choose ANY team from the Qualifier as a replacement team. We can use any method we want to decide this team, and it's placement in the Qualifier may or may not be used as a deciding factor.
- If a player is disconnected when we try to begin their game, we have the right to forfeit them, but we also can give them a bit of time to reconnect if we are in communication with her or her team's manager.
* Regions:
1. United States Regions
Region 1: New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey
Region 2: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware
Region 3: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky
Region 4: Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska
Region 5: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas
Region 6: Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska
Region 7: Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii
(This map shows the borders of Northern and Southern California that will be used in the PCL)
2. Russia Regions
Region 1: Central District
Region 2: Volga District
Region 3: North Caucasian and Southern Districts
Region 4: Northwestern District
Region 5: Urals, Siberian and Eastern Districts
3. India Regions
Region 1: Jammu&Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Haryana, Delhi
Region 2: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Dadra&Nagar Haveli
Region 3: Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
Region 4: Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Asom, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Aunachal Pradesh
4. China Regions
Region 1: Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia
Region 2: Hainan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Chongqing, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi
Region 3: Hubei, Anhul, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu
Region 4: Henan, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia
