BRITISH UNIVERSITIES'
CHESS ASSOCIATION
2017 BUCA TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday 25th February and
Sunday 26th February, 2017
Jury's Inn Hotel
Watling Street, Burbage, Hinckley LE10 3JA
Chief Organiser: Alex Holowczak –
http://www.buca.org.uk
Schedule of Play
Round 1: Saturday 13:00-15:30 BUCA AGM: Sunday 9:00
Round 2: Saturday 16:00-18:30 Round 4: Sunday 9:30-12:00
Round 3: Saturday 19:00-21:30 Round 5: Sunday 12:30-15:00
Blitz: Saturday 22:30-00:00
Prize giving will follow as soon as possible at the end of the final round.
Sections: There will be four tournaments:
(1) Championship, open to 1st teams
(2) Plate, open to 2nd teams, and by request, 1st teams whose average grade for their top 4 registered players is below 160, and
(3) Bowl, open to 3rd teams, and by request any teams whose average grade for the top 4 registered players eligible to play for that team is below 130.
(4) Shield, open to 4th teams, and by request any teams whose average grade for the top 4 registered players eligible to play for that team is below 100.
The organiser reserves the right to transfer one or more teams between any sections – either up or down – as necessary. This shall usually be done in order to ensure an even number of teams are in as many sections as possible.
Championship, Plate and Bowl Tournaments:
The time control will be 60 minutes plus 10 seconds per move; all games will be played with DGT clocks. The tournaments will be played over 5 rounds. The tournaments will be ECF standardplay graded.
Shield Tournament:
The time control will be 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move; all games will be played with DGT clocks. The tournament will be played over 5 two-game rounds, with one game for each colour; a total of 10 games. A team may not be changed between both halves of a round. The tournament will be ECF rapidplay graded.
Pairings & Results
Seeding within scoregroups for the sake of pairings will be done by mean ECF grade. Each team shall earn 2 matchpoints for a win, 1 matchpoint for a draw, and 0 matchpoints for a loss. If a team receives a bye, it shall be credited with 2 matchpoints and 4 gamepoints. The team with the most matchpoints at the end of the tournament shall win. If two or more teams are tied on matchpoints after five rounds, then the tie will be split as follows: (i) The team with the highest scoring using the Olympiad Sonnenborn-Berger tiebreak (ii) If still tied, the team with the most gamepoints shall be placed higher (iii) If still tied, the gamepoints scored from the bottom-most player in the team shall be removed from the gamepoints total - similar to “board elimination” - the team with the highest remaining number of gamepoints in its total shall be placed higher; if still tied, this process shall be repeated for the next-lowest board and so on, until no boards remain. (iv) If still tied, the team with the higher Sum of Opponents’ Matchpoints shall be placed higher. (v) If still tied, the places shall remain tied.
Player Eligibility
All students progressing towards an academic qualification at a Higher Education Institute (HEI) are entitled to play for a team. Of course, the team itself must be from a HEI that is a member of BUCA. This competition is open to all players regardless of citizenship or FIDE registration.
Number of Players
Universities may field as many teams as they wish, with the only limitation of being able to enter 1 team into each of the Championship, Plate and Bowl sections. Each team is composed of four players. Reserves are permitted; squads have no limit in size. A scratch team will be composed of reserves in other teams if there are an odd number of teams in any section. Note that the Organiser will aim to have an even number of teams in the Championship, and then the Plate, and then the Bowl, and will move teams if necessary; the scratch team would play in a section at the discretion of the Organiser. Should this not be necessary, graded friendly games will be available for reserves who want them.
Registering a squad of Players
Universities must register a squad of players in descending standardplay grade order. Variances to this within the squad are permitted within a 10-grading point tolerance. Players must then play in that position within their squad for the duration of the event. For example, if a University registers 8 players for its squad, then the player registered fourth will always play on board 4 for the University 1st team, and the player registered fifth will always play on board 1 for the University 2nd team. Note: Squads of split strength are not permitted.
Board Order – Shield
Having fixed the playing order within the squad, should a University have a team or teams in the Shield, the four players in that team must play in descending rapidplay grade order, notwithstanding their order within the initial squad of registrations. Variances to this are permitted within a 10-grading point tolerance.
Grades to be Used
The national grades of players will be used depending on the country in which a University is situated. Other grades may be used upon request, subject to the organiser’s agreement. Grades outside England will be converted to ECF using the formula ECF = (Other Elo – 700) / 7.5. Where a player has no grade, the Organiser will provide an estimate for the player upon request. The Organiser will use the grades in the January 2017 ECF Grading List.
Entry Fee: £25 per team.
Entries received after 23rd January will incur a further late fee of £25. Accommodation cannot be guaranteed after this date. Team lists may be modified after this date. Reserves must purchase extra rooms through BUCA at the rates quoted below. It is recognised by the Organiser that this deadline is before the Grading List comes out – please do not wait for the January grades before filling in the team list when you enter.
Staying at the Hotel: All registered players must stay at the hotel. If this cannot be done because the hotel is full, then the team must bring receipts to the BUCA Treasurer at the AGM. The Treasurer will then set a fee that ensures the late-entering team does not pay less money than a team entering on time. It is essential that as many players stay at the hotel as possible in order to ensure the event's viability.
Accommodation Options (per team of 4, per night):
Bridge Overseas will handle the accommodation requirements for this event. Details for arranging payment will be distributed in a supplementary version of this entry form, and will be available before Christmas.
The prices will be:
£67.00 per room (£33.50pp) for shared B&B accommodation
£57.00 per room for sole occupancy B&B accommodation
Hotel Food
Dinners not booked in advance can be purchased for £20 from the reception upon arrival. Lunch will be available from the hotel on both days. Sandwiches, drinks and other light refreshments will be available at reasonable prices from outside the playing area. It is not permitted for players to bring in their own food and drink to the venue. All food and drink consumed on site must be purchased at the hotel. The organisers at the venue will be supervising this, and penalty gamepoints may be applied. Severe breaches may result in teams being disqualified from the competition.
BUCA Membership: All Universities that field teams must be BUCA Members. BUCA Membership for the 2016/17 season is £20.
ECF Membership: All players at English universities must be ECF Bronze Members or above. A team wishing to register players who do not fulfil this requirement must add a £12.50 per player surcharge to their team entry fee.
Championship Prizes: The winner of the Championship section will receive the trophy and the title of BUCA Team Champion. The top four teams will win the right to represent Great Britain at the 3rd European Universities Championships. These will be played in Fuengirola, Spain on 18-22 September, 2017. Fuengirola is approximately halfway between Malaga and Marbella.
Division Prizes:
The winning team in each Division will win the Championship, Plate, Bowl or Shield trophy as appropriate. There will be individual keepsakes for all members of the winning team.
Individual prizes:
Individual prizes will be awarded to all players who score the following percentage scores, subject to playing a minimum of 4 rounds of the competition:
Gold medal 80% or higher
Silver medal 70% or higher
Bronze medal 60% or higher
Playing a graded friendly in a round will count as “playing in a round” for the purposes of this calculation; and the result will be used to calculate the percentage.
Rules: The FIDE Laws of Chess will apply. The default time shall be 30 minutes.
Appeals Committee: An Appeals Committee of three will be formed, the members of which will be published at the event. Volunteers to be on this Committee are welcome.
Entry Fee Refund Policy: Universities who withdraw any team entries before 30th January will be entitled to a full refund of their entry fees. All potential refunds after this date will be considered on a case-by-case basis at the BUCA AGM. Please see the Accommodation Options section for information about refunds on Accommodation.
Entries: Entries should be e-mailed to Alex Holowczak at . No entry will be accepted without payment of the relevant entry and membership fees. Information for transferring the fees will be provided upon receipt of a completed entry form.
Information about the Venue:
https://www.thehotelcollection.co.uk/cms/the-hotel-collection/pdfs/thc_fact_sheet_royal_angus_2016.pdf
Travel to the Venue:
The venue is within walking distance of major Birmingham railway stations:-
Birmingham Snow Hill – 5 minutes – the station exit is on Colmore Row, although there is a Livery Street exit.
Birmingham New Street – 20 minutes
Birmingham Moor Street – 20 minutes
If your train stops at both Snow Hill and Moor Street, then it is strongly recommended to get off at Snow Hill.
All three railway stations have taxi facilities, although in the opinion of the writer of this form, this is totally unnecessary from Snow Hill!