Players' Responsibilities and General Info

Arriving and playing games

Please report to your coach by 8:30 a.m. Your coach will then report to chess control. 

Players/teams should bring boards and clocks. 

In the event that neither player has a clock, you may use the chess.com clock app on your phones. These phones must be on airplane mode to eliminate push message distractions. 

All games will be played in g40d5 time control. 


Swiss System/Event Structure

Players will play 3 rounds on 1/24 and another 3 rounds on 2/14. If you need to withdraw from the tournament, please communicate that through your coaches. There are no byes for this tournament; however, it does aid the event to let us know if you will not be in attendance. 

This will be a Swiss style tournament. Players will gather points for their team by winning rounds. Each win will be worth 1. Loss worth zero. Tie worth 0.5. 

Your opponents will have similar records to you. If you win round 1, then you will play another player player that won. If you lost, you will play another player that lost. We will be using Swiss Sys to run this event.

You will not play a player on your own team. However, as the tournament progresses, you may have to play someone from your school. For example, LaSalle had an A and B team. We will do our best to limit these matches between A and B, however in the final rounds, it may be impossible to break these matches. 

Any Swiss System requires a list to organize the event. Players will be ranked first by USCF rating. Players without USCF ratings will then be organized by last year's Quality Points in LBCSCL. If a player does NOT have a USCF rating and did NOT play in LBCSCL, then we will rank them by alphabetical order. You can see the master list and pairings on the Google Sheet available on the homepage.

All USCF rules will be in effect during the matches. This includes mandatory notation taking.

Other than as an emergency clock, no phones may be used during gameplay. This means no calls, no texts, no checking social media, no music. Phones may not be used by spectators near the boards. 

If you suspect a player is using their phones in the bathroom to look up correct moves on a chess engine, please involve a Mr. Simmons, Mr. Keenan, Mr. Nauen, or your coach immediately. 

We reserve the right to ban phones being on players. Coaches would need to house the phones of their players. However, we would prefer to trust initially. 


Following Each Round

Once done your matches, clean up your board. Then report the result of your match to chess control. 

Following your match, you are free to watch the other games. However, there should be zero communication around the boards. This includes with active players AND with fellow spectators. If you are found communicating near the boards, you will be given one warning. The second will be a deduction of points for players and teams. 

We will make our best efforts to be quick between rounds. Please be patient. This is our first tournament of this size. Patience is appreciated. 


The schedule is 

8:30- 9: Registration and Check-in

9:00-10:30: Round 1

10:45- 12:15: Round 2

Lunch: 12:15 to 12:45

12:45 to 2:15: Round 3


Lunch will be at your own discretion. Please discuss this with your coaches prior to the event.


If you have an issue with anything 

Please communicate with your coach. Your coach can involve Mr. Keenan, Mr. Nauen, or Mr. Simmons to intervene. 


We will update this page with player specific questions listed below.