2022 Rules
This page contains the ruleset for the 2022 Racing Kings WC. Participants of the 2019, 2020 or 2021 RKWC editions will notice that they are largely the same as during previous editions, however a number of changes have been made. Now there is a single elimination and round robin phase. Please read these rules carefully if you consider signing up for the 2022 RKWC. The rules we compose are not exhaustive. When this page provides insufficient clarity about a situation occurring in the RKWC, it is up to the Tournament Directors to judge the case.
Entrant Eligibility:
Entrants who meet the below criteria are eligible to take part:
1. Have an established Racing Kings rating on Lichess;
2. Have played at least 200 rated Racing Kings games on Lichess;
3. Be participating only using their main account;
4. The account needs to be at least 6 months old;
5. Having had no account that was banned for violating the Lichess ToS for at least 3 years. In case of a marked account before that time, the account that you register with needs to have at least 1000 rated Racing Kings games before the start of the tournament to be eligible;
6. Have messaged RacingKings with an interest in participating during the registration period (June 1 to June 26, 12:00 UTC);
7. Have joined the team “Racing Kings WC”.
Points 1-4 are aimed primarily at preventing duplicate accounts from entering. Unlike in previous years, entries not meeting these conditions cannot be accepted. If your current account does not meet point 4. but you do have an older account that meets the requirement and is otherwise eligible, you should use that instead.
Any player attempting to use multiple accounts or computer assistance will be kicked out and if necessary, reported to Lichess moderators.
Tournament Rules:
The tournament format is:
Single elimination until there are 32 players left.
Double elimination until there are 4 players left (2 in the winners and 2 in the losers bracket).
Round robin with the last 4 players.
20-point final between top 2 from the round robin. The winner of the round robin gets a 2-0 lead. First to get 10.5 points wins.
You will be paired with a player for a round. Each round continues for one week (Monday - Sunday), by the end of which you are expected to have played your match. Please note the following stipulations:
1. All games are rated.
2. Results AND games of each match should be communicated to the Tournament Director (TD) (Natso or FS-Schach), or posted in the relevant forum thread upon completion.
3. Each match will consist of TEN (10) games of 3+2. An exception is made for the final match of the tournament, which consists of TWENTY (20) games of 3+2 (played in two series of 10 games).
4. Either player can stop the match if someone reaches a decisive advantage (5.5 points within the first 10 games of a match).
5. If the score is 5-5 after 10 games, then pairs of tiebreak games of 3+2 will be played, with the match stopping if one player is ahead after an even number of games.
6. If the score reaches 8-8 without a winner, then the time control will change to 1+0 until one player is ahead after an even number of games.
7. A player can request a maximum of one break between games, of approximately 10 minutes, during a match. The player requesting the break will have to communicate this clearly to his opponent.
8. The tournament main draw will have either 16, 32, 64 or 128 players.
-- If the number of entrants is below 16 the tournament will not take place;
-- If the number of entrants is equal to 16, 32, 64 or 128 then all players will take part in the first round;
-- Otherwise, the first round will involve the lowest seeded entries and eliminate the required number of players for the new total to be the highest possible out of 16, 32, 64 or 128.
9. If a player loses a match, they will enter the losers bracket. If they lose a second match they will be eliminated from the tournament.
10. Assuming there are 64 players, after the first round there will be 32 players in the winners' bracket and 32 in the losers' bracket. After the second match there will be 16 players in the winners' bracket and 32 in the losers' bracket, and so on.
11. The tournament ends when the top two of the round robin have played their final.
12. The initial pairing will have the top seed vs bottom seed, the second seed vs second from bottom etc. For example, in an eight-player event: (1) v (8), (2) v (7), (3) v (6), (4) v (5). The winner of (1) v (8) will then play the winner of (4) v (5) and the winner of (2) v (7) will play the winner of (3) v (6).
13. The seeding will be based on the average between a players peak rating and their rating at the time the tournament entries are closed (June 26, 12:00 UTC). Both of these ratings are taken on and are rounded off as whole points. In case of a tie in the seeded ratings, the higher current rating will be used as the decisive factor.
14. If somebody is unable to complete a series, or has to withdraw, then their opponent is considered the victor. Byes may be issued in the case of an odd number of players.
15. If someone knows they will not be able to play a certain week when a round is scheduled, they must notify the TD BEFORE they play their PRIOR match. At the TD's discretion their match may be moved to the following week. This will only occur a maximum of 1 time per player.
16. The top 2 in the round robin will be decided by match-points. In case of a tie, the individual result will be used. After this the sum of the game-points difference for each round robin match. If this all fails, the finalist will be decided by seeding.
17. For pairings, numbers are done by first winners bracket then seeding. The order will be (1) v (4) and (2) v (3), (1) v (3) and (2) v (4), (1) v (2) and (3) v (4).
Match Negotiations:
1. Players may begin negotiating a playing start time as soon as their next pairing is known.
2. Each player is responsible to offer at least 3 separate times for the match, unless an offer has been accepted before that number is reached.
3. The 3 offered times should be no closer than 3 hours to each other and no more than 2 on a single date.
4. If 3 offers are not made in time the player at fault must accept a time chosen by the opponent.
5. If both players fail to make 3 offers by the deadline, then a match arbiter will assign a time.
6. A player should respond to an offer by accepting or making a different offer, preferably within 24 hours.
7. If a player is excessively or repeatedly late for scheduled matches they may be forfeited.
8. If both players make 3 offers but no agreement is made before the weekend then a match arbiter will determine if fault lies with a particular player.
9. If a player is at fault, then their opponent will decide the match time, if no player is at fault the Tournament Director will assign a match time.
About cheating, bans, and forfeits:
1. Accusations of cheating or other actions that violate the Lichess ToS must be sent to Lichess moderators using the report function.
2. Public shaming is against the Lichess chat policy and will, if necessary, be reported to Lichess moderators. Additionally, public shaming of a player in the context of the Racing Kings WC may result in a sanction from the Tournament Directors. This can include but is not limited to a warning, the forfeit of a match, or removal from the Racing Kings WC team.
3. If it is brought to the TD's attention that a participant of the Racing Kings WC has been marked as having violated the Lichess ToS by the Lichess moderation team, the concerned player will have all their matches automatically forfeited and the result of their last played match will be scored as a 0-10 outcome.
3. If it is brought to the TD's attention that a participant of the Racing Kings WC has been marked as having violated the Lichess ToS by the Lichess moderation team, the concerned player will have all their matches automatically forfeited unless the match is more than 3 weeks ago in the losers bracket.
4. Participants of the Racing Kings WC are not permitted to play their matches in any other way than on lichess.org, and using the account that they registered with. If it is noted that a player's account is closed, their remaining matches will be forfeited at the end of the week provided that the account is still closed by that time.
5. If a Tournament Director is involved in any type of incident that requires intervention of the tournament organisers, responsibility to handle the incident is handed over to the remaining TD(s).
About privacy
When registering for the Racing Kings World Championship your account will be checked by the Lichess moderators. You can register privately by messaging @RacingKings. Tournament directors will only get the final list of participants. By registering, you agree that your username, performance rating and match results can be put on our website, Challonge and the Lichess forum. We allow players with a communication ban on their Lichess account to be accepted into the Racing Kings WC. In order to properly manage the tournament pairings, Tournament Directors will be aware of these communication restrictions on a participant's account. We will inform your opponent with a private message of a possible communication ban - this to assure that communication between players can take place smoothly in private messages. As we play our matches on Lichess, the Lichess ToS and Privacy Policy apply.
The original RKWC rules from 2019 were based on those used during the Atomic World Championship of 2018, which were in turn based on those used in the 2005 AWC and match negotiation rules from the slow chess league: