2023 Rules
RKWC 2023 Rules
This page contains the ruleset for the 2023 Racing Kings WC. The format is the same as last year, but many clarifications have been added. Please read these rules carefully if you consider signing up for the 2023 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 a rating deviation lower than 65 in Racing Kings 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 before the start of the tournament;
5. Having had no account that was banned for violating the Lichess ToS for at least 3 years. This includes shared accounts, unless involvement is outside their control. 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. No multiple “cheat detected” games over a period of 2 years before the start of registrations;
7. Have messaged RacingKings with an interest in participating during the registration period (June 6 to June 25, 12:00 UTC);
8. Have joined the team “Racing Kings WC”.
Points 1-4 are aimed primarily at preventing duplicate accounts from entering. 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.
In case of an error or miscommunication during the registration process, the entrant has to inform the TD’s within a week of the start of the tournament. Chatbanned players should take extra care when registering.
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. If accidentally a match is casual, then the first time the result will be processed with a warning from the TD.
2. Results AND games of each match should be communicated to the Tournament Director (TD) (RoyalManiac, QueenEatingDragon and Natso), 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 EIGHTEEN (18) games of 3+2 with a 2-0 lead for the RR winner.
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. Only the final will have an additional unrequested break after 6 games.
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. If one player requests playing the final under camera and screen share, then the TD’s will try to set this up with permission of the opponent.
13. 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).
14. The initial seeding will be based on the average between a players peak rating and their rating at the time the tournament entries are closed (June 25, 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. In round robin matches rules 4, 5, and 6 do not count. After a 5-5 score, the game will be a tie.
18. 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 player with a higher game differential from all their 3 round robin matches (at the time a decisive advantage is reached) wins the tiebreak. If this all fails, the finalist will be decided by RR seeding.
19. RR seeding is determined by first the winners over losers bracket, then initial 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 within constraints set by the TD, 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. Additionally it is possible to notify the TD’s privately.
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 unless the match is more than 3 rounds ago in the losers bracket.
4. The use of chess engines or cheating during their RKWC games will lead upon TD discretion to a lifetime ban from all RKWC tournaments, along with their names added to a blacklist. This rule extends retroactively to all RKWC’s.
5. 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.
6. If it comes to a TD’s attention that any match in the RKWC was intentionally forfeited or lost by a player, this will lead to an immediate disqualification from the tournament. Additionally the TD may issue a 1 to 3 year RKWC ban depending on the seriousness of the case.
7. When a player forfeits the tournament at the first round or after reaching the top 16, the TD may issue a 1 year RKWC ban for disrupting the tournament.
8. In case of a double forfeit, the higher ranked player by the tournament system will be advanced, however this will only happen once per player.
9. 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. RKWC cheat cases and blacklists can be put on the website to help enforce registrations and make the decisions transparent. 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: