Rules

Entrants who meet the following criteria are eligible to take part:

1. Have an established Racing Kings rating on Lichess;

2. Have played at least 50 rated Racing Kings games on Lichess;

3. Be participating only using their main account;

4. The account needs to be created before June 30, 2024;

5. Have joined the team “Lichess Racing Kings”.

Any player attempting to use multiple accounts or any other illegal methods to gain a competitive advantage will be kicked out and if necessary, reported to Lichess moderators.

1. The Olympiad is a competition between teams of 3 players.

2. Players within a team have a designated board number at which they will play for their team (boards 1, 2 and 3). When teams play a match against each other, each board plays against their counterpart on the opposing team.

3. Boards are to be distributed according to rating at the time of registration: the strongest player on a team plays on board 1,  the middle player on board 2 and the weakest player takes board 3. In case two players are less than 50 points apart at the time of registering, the team may choose to switch these players' board positions instead. 

4. The tournament format is as follows:

   1. A Round Robin Stage if there are 10 teams or less followed by a final match between the top two teams

   2. A Swiss Stage of 9 rounds if there are 11 teams or more followed by a final match between the top two teams

5. Please take note of the following stipulations:

   1. Pairings will be taken care of by the organisers and will be posted on Lichess every week. 

   2. Ties in the final standings of the Swiss/Round Robin stage will be broken by (in order):

      1. Mutual score

      2. Cumulative points score across all matches

      3. Cumulative individual board scored in ascending order (board 1’s total points, then board 2’s total points, then board 3’s total points)

6. When teams are paired against each other,  each player is matched against the opponent with their corresponding board number (boards 1 play against each other, as do boards 2 and 3). 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 one of the organisers, or posted in the relevant forum thread upon completion.

   3. Each match will consist of SIX (6) games of 3+2. An exception is made for the Final of the tournament, in which all players will complete a match of EIGHT (8) games of 3+2.

   4. Players are allowed to end a match as soon as a decisive score of 3.5 points (or 4.5 points for the Final) or more is reached. They have to communicate this clearly to their opponent. The winner will obtain the remaining points in the match (for example, if at game 4, the score is 3.5-0.5, and the players agree to end the match, the final score would be 5.5-0.5)

   5. Breaks during matches are not allowed. If a player is unable or unwilling to continue the series, they forfeit the remaining games to their opponent.

7. Once all players from a team have played their match, the results from their respective matches are added up. A match win counts for 1 point towards the total match score of your team, and a draw counts for 0.5 points. The team with the higher total match score is declared the winner.

8. In case the total match score between two teams in the final match is 1.5 - 1.5, the result from board 1 is used as the primary tiebreaker. The secondary tiebreaker is the result from board 2. In the unlikely case all three boards draw their matches at 3-3, all players from all boards will replay their matches but in the time control of 2+1. 

9. In case a draw between two teams occurs in the Swiss/Round Robin stage, the result of the match is counted as such and requires no tiebreak.

10. The tournament will begin within 24 hours after registration. Registration opens on December 23rd, 2024 and closes on January 4th, 2025. The first round will be the only round to start on a Sunday and the remaining rounds will start on a Monday.

1. In order to register, either message an organiser, or post your message in the designated forum thread [LINK] during the registration period (December 23rd, 2024 through January 4th, 2025 16 UTC).

2. Players can register directly as a team of 3. Only one member of the team needs to register all 3 team members. The team must be registered in a format that clearly states all 3 players are joining as a team. An organiser will then individually message each player to confirm their registration as a team.

3. Team registrations must contain the following information:

   1. Usernames of all three players

   2. An (self-)assigned Team Leader who can act as a general representative of the team and as a contact for the organisers in case of disputes.

   3. Who will play on Board 1, on Board 2 and on Board 3. These positions cannot be changed anymore after the first round is played.

   4. A team name

4. If you do not have a team, but would like to register, you can send a message in this forum [LINK] stating your interest to participate. Other players trying to form teams can draft players from this forum (but are not guaranteed to claim players nor are players guaranteed to get drafted into a team if they message here). You may also join the House Discord Server in an attempt to gain team mates there, but must register as a team in the aforementioned way above.

5. In an effort to keep teams as competitive as possible among each other, 6 of the strongest players participating in the event were appointed as designated Team Leaders (DTL) in advance. These 6 players will each have to seek their own teammates, and are thus not allowed to team up together. They must also play as board 1 for their respective teams. As a fair compromise, by agreeing to not participate in teams together, these players gain access to the rules before the registration period begins. Due to this, these players are allowed to begin unofficially forming teams before the tournament begins.

   1. The players were selected as follows:

      1. The four round-robin finalists of the 2024 Racing Kings World Championship, if agreeing to participate

      2. Former world champions not meeting the first criteria, if agreeing to participate (going from most recent to least recent)

      3. At the time of agreement, any other players would be offered an opportunity to become DTL based off of their current racing kings rating

   2. Teams registering without any of these players are allowed to choose their own Team Leader.

   3. The players that have agreed to become a DTL are as follows:

      1. QueenEatingDragon

      2. CyberShredder

      3. RoyalManiac (WITHDRAWN)

      4. IMakeManyMistakes

      5. BlunderPandaZz

      6. seth_777

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 an organiser may assign a match time at their discretion.

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.

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 RK Olympiad may result in a sanction from the Tournament Directors. This can include but is not limited to a warning or the forfeit of a match.

3. If it is brought to the organisers' attention that a participant of the RK Olympiad has been marked as having violated the Lichess ToS by the Lichess moderation team, the concerned team will have said player's last 2 series forfeited as 0-6 and their match results adjusted accordingly. If the remaining two teammates wish to continue in the Olympiad, they are expected to acquire a substitute player with an equal or lower rating than their original player within 96 hours of being notified by a tournament organizer.

4. If it is brought to the organisers’ attention that a participant of the RK Olympiad has been forfeited due to lack of match appearance or multiple failures to schedule matches, the concerned player may be substituted for a non-participant at the discretion of the team leader. The forfeited player will not be able to continue whether a substitution is made or not. If the team leader decides to substitute a player, they are expected to acquire a substitute with an equal or lower rating than their original player within 96 hours of agreeing to substitute. Alternatively, the team leader may withdraw their team from their tournament and all future and previous matches of that team will be forfeited by means of 3-0 losses (all board scores being 4-0).

5. Participants of the RK Olympiad are not permitted to play their matches in any other way than on lichess.org, and using the account that they registered with.

6. If an organiser is involved in any type of incident that requires intervention of the tournament organisers, then responsibility to handle the incident is handed over to the remaining organiser(s).

7. While these rules outline most foreseeable circumstances and organizers are expected to uphold and maintain the rules as stated above, when all relevant organizers agree to take actions on cases either a) not covered by the rules above or b) not having proper actions clearly outlined, they may take action that has not previously been stated without limitations.