ChessBase.com Scottish Grand Prix 2020

1. Purpose To boost the Scottish tournament circuit. To provide another benefit for Chess Scotland (CS) members who play chess regularly.

2. Target group Members of Chess Scotland, 17 years or over as at 1 January 2020 (ie appearing as J17 or higher junior age in grading system and GP charts), with gradings of 2150 or less.

Note: To qualify for inclusion in the Grand Prix players must have taken up CS membership by 1 January 2020. There will be a couple of months while renewals are processed for players whose membership expired in December before the eligible member list for the Grand Prix is set for the season. This would usually happen about mid March.

Players outwith Scotland (of any nationality) are eligible provided they become members by the due date.

Juniors up to 16 years old AND graded below 1350 have their own Grand Prix - details here. (ie appearing as J16 or lower junior age in grading system and GP charts) Juniors under 17 AND graded 1350 or above appear in the "adult" Grand Prix leaderboards and compete for a specific junior prize in addition to the top three place awards. To qualify for inclusion in the Grand Prix junior players in the "adult" Grand Prix sections must have taken up CS membership by 1 January 2020.

3. Categories: Chess Scotland Members with 2019-2020 start of season gradings in the Main List within the following limits (the allegro grade is not used in deciding eligibility to Grand Prix categories):

Grading limit 1901-2150 - Candidates Grand Prix

Grading limit 1701-1900 - Challengers Grand Prix

Grading limit 1451-1700 - Major Grand Prix

Grading limit 0-1450 - Minor Grand Prix

Ungraded players will be placed in the Minor Grand Prix. If an ungraded player later that season achieves a new rating higher than the maximum published start season rating allowed (1450) they still remain in the Minor Grand Prix section for the duration of the competition.

4. Rules

Criteria used to formulate the rules: The rules must be simple to administer, meaningful to players and, above all, must not add anything to the burden of Tournament Directors.

To score points in the Grand Prix simply enter a Grand Prix eligible tournament and score at least the minimum points required. Grand Prix points will be accumulated throughout the season and updated in the leaderboards the minute an event has been received and processed for grading:

(a) Only performances of 50% or more will count, e.g. 2.5/5, 4.5/9 or 1.5/3.

(b) You must play a minimum of three games in an event for your score to be eligible for GP points.

(c) Half point byes and defaults will not count. However, discarding byes and defaults, a score of 2/4 would count, or 1.5/3.

(d) Points scored at the Scottish Championships and weekend congresses will be doubled. The "Scottish Championships" means all main list sections of the Championships including any weekend tournament.

(e) Points scored in allegro events and main list events taking place over more than one week (apart from Scottish Championships) will be single point multiplier. If a tournament organiser is in any doubt as to the multiplier which will be applied to their event please contact the GP invigilator prior to the event taking place.

(f) Final Grand Prix totals are based on the 10 best Grand Prix scoring events. (ie best Grand Prix points rather than best tournament game points).

(g) Adult GP: a maximum of 8 GP points can be scored in any one day event - regardless of number of rounds. Junior GP : a maximum of 12 GP points can be scored in any one day event - regardless of number of rounds.

5. Season The Grand Prix 2019/2020 season will start on July 1 2019 and finish with the Scottish Championship provided the event takes place in July, otherwise the season finishes on June 30 2020. The Scottish Championships will count twice for Grand Prix purposes as the last event of one Grand Prix season and usually first of new season. (provided the Scottish Championships are held in July). If an event other than the Scottish Championships started on June 30 2020 or before and finishes within the first week of July it will still be a valid event for the current season 2019-2020.

6. Tournaments Tournaments including congresses, championships and allegros, will be eligible for inclusion provided all their results are submitted and processed for grading and the appropriate grading fee paid.

a) Only events graded by Chess Scotland are eligible for Grand Prix points.

b) Domestic Club events, team events, outside Scotland events are not eligible.

c) Blitz events are not graded by CS and therefore do not count in Grand Prix.

7. Scores Grand Prix points are updated online as soon as the results of an event have been uploaded to the Chess Scotland grading system. The online Grand Prix display has a clickable option to show the complete breakdown of points for every player in the competition. If you think scores have been calculated incorrectly please contact the Grand Prix invigilator immediately.

8. Prizes In each category:

1st Grand Prix Memento Trophy, Chessbase Software, plus £100, plus book, plus magazine.

2nd Chessbase Playing program eg latest version of Fritz, plus book, plus magazine.

3rd Chessbase Playing program, plus book, plus magazine.

Juniors (J16 or younger) in the four Main ChessBase Grand Prix sections (Candidates, Challengers, Major and Minor) will be eligible to win the main top three prizes in addition to a specific junior prize.

Junior prize in each section is Trophy, ChessBase software, £25 Chess Scotland voucher plus book and mag.

Cash Bonus: There will be a new cash bonus award of £200 for the highest scoring player in any of the four Chessbase Grand Prix sections (in addition to the section prizes). Juniors of any age are eligible for the bonus award.

(Ties for all prizes will be resolved in favour of the lower rated player. Unrated players are classed as zero start grade regardless of what level they may attain later in the season.)

9. Sponsorship Chess Scotland would like to thank Chessbase and NewinChess.com for their continued support. Thanks also to new sponsors Chess Evolution and Scottish Crane who will continue their support.

10. Publicity Information about the Grand Prix will primarily appear on the Chess Scotland website. There may be leaderboard notices at tournaments and final positions in Scottish Chess Magazine. It would be helpful to promote the Grand Prix if the Chessbase.com Scottish Grand Prix was mentioned on entry forms.

11.Organisation The Chess Scotland Grand Prix invigilator reserves the right to take measures to facilitate the smooth running of the Grand Prix, to ensure that the rules and conditions are applied fairly and to update and clarify these rules when required. The invigilator cannot be a beneficiary of the prize fund.

12.Notice of events New events should give sufficient notice before an event will be deemed eligible for Grand Prix inclusion. Notice can be given by any of the following methods: inclusion in the CS online Calendar, by providing event details for the website Forum, a flyer or mention in Scottish Chess magazine; a published entry form available at other events, an entry form posted directly to potential participants.

13. GP News

Sponsors Chessbase, New in Chess, Chess Evolution and Scottish Crane continue their support for the new 2019-2020 season.

The change in junior eligibility to win the main prize awards resolves a potential anomaly inherent in the previous rules that two or more juniors could occupy the top three scoring positions and the second or third placed junior receive no prize.

The cash bonus of £200 is a welcome additional prize and should further incentivise players to maximise their Grand Prix scores.

Notes:

"Weekend congress" is defined as an event taking place over one weekend and a minimum of two days play.

"Main List" means events taking place with a time control by which it is processed for the main grading list, ie not an allegro rated event.

An event, other than the Scottish Championships, which takes place over two weekends is a single point multiplier.

Congresses which take place over several weeks - eg five successive Thursdays, are single point multipliers.

Where conditions of entry restrict participation in an event to players from a certain area or league eg Lothians, Lanarkshire, West or East of Scotland etc, these are single point multipliers.

If results of a GRAND PRIX eligible event are not processed for grading within one month of the final day of an event then the event will not be eligible for Grand Prix points. (Organisers should contact the GP invigilator at grading@chessscotland.com immediately if there is some reason why results cannot be supplied in that time period - and the time limit may be reviewed).

Programming: Chess Scotland would like to thank programmer Gordon Rattray for his long term support for the grading system including implementing all Grand Prix calculations.


The Grand Prix invigilator would be happy to clarify rules and receive any constructive suggestions about modification of rules and conditions of the Grand Prix. Please help to continue to make it a success.