We held our 10th online club tournament on Tuesday 21st July. It was a Rapid play tournament on lichess.org, in which players had ten minutes per player per game. The event was an Arena format for one hour, and there were 14 players – our best yet! A great turnout, and hopefully everyone enjoyed the event.

Congratulations to James Daas for winning this week’s tournament! Well done Graham Stuart (‘WillHeSac’) 2nd, and Keven Lamb (me!) 3rd.

How are scores calculated?

A win has a base score of 2 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss is worth no points.
If you win two games consecutively you will start a double point streak, represented by a flame icon.
The following games will continue to be worth double points until you fail to win a game.
That is, a win will be worth 4 points, a draw 2 points, and a loss will still not award any points.

For example, two wins followed by a draw will be worth 6 points: 2 + 2 + (2 x 1)

Arena Berserk

When a player clicks the Berserk button at the beginning of the game, they lose half of their clock time, but the win is worth one extra tournament point.
Berserk only grants an extra point if you play at least 7 moves in the game.

How is the winner decided?

The player(s) with the most points at the conclusion of the tournament’s set time limit will be announced winner(s).

When two or more players have the same number of points, the tournament performance is the tie break.

How does the pairing work?

At the beginning of the tournament, players are paired based on their rating.
As soon as you finish a game, return to the tournament lobby: you will then be paired with a player close to your ranking. This ensures minimum wait time, however you may not face all other players in the tournament.
Play fast and return to the lobby to play more games and win more points.

How does it end?

The tournament has a countdown clock. When it reaches zero, the tournament rankings are frozen, and the winner is announced. Games in progress must be finished, however they don’t count for the tournament.

Other important rules

There is a countdown for your first move. Failing to make a move within this time will forfeit the game to your opponent.

Drawing the game within the first 10 moves will earn neither player any points.

Draw streaks: When a player has consecutive draws in an arena, only the first draw will result in a point, or draws lasting more than 30 moves. The draw streak can only be broken by a win, not a loss or a draw.

Next Tournaments

There will be another Arena club tournament next Tuesday, 28th July.

If you can’t wait until then you will be pleased to discover that there is an extra tournament before then! This Thursday, 23rd July, we’ll be trying out the ‘Swiss’ tournament format. This is like over the board tournaments in that it is comprised of a number of rounds (5 rounds in this case). But like our Tuesday Arenas the individual games will be ten minutes per player. It is already set up on lichess: click here. Or the button below.