How it Works

We organize Slow and Rapid Online Chess Tournaments. The membership is free.
The following is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners.
Have you already played in Teamleague? Then just focus on Snailbucket specialties in orange font.

Preparing to participate

1. Create a free FICS account.

2. Play five rated standard games on FICS to get a rating.

3. Create your Snailbucket account, sharing info such as:
a) Which game controls do you like best? (enabled for slow, but not rapid chess tourneys)
b) Which times are generally bad, e.g. your sleeping times?

4. Once a tourney is joinable, study the rules and format on the Regulations page.

5. Are you ready to commit to the tournament? Sign up!

Playing in the tournament

6. An email will notify you when a new round starts.

7. Access your Game forum. That's a chat window where you and your opponent discuss when to play. You might say e.g. "Hi, How about Sunday or Monday at 1100 FICS server time?" Avoid offering times marked as bad by your opponent (see above). The Regulations page details until when you should make contact. Game forum messages are forwarded to your email address.

8. Have you agreed on a convenient time? Then one of you can set the time in the game forum.

9. Show up on FICS at that time, and play your match.

10. You may watch other games in the tournament. Use the whisper command to share thoughts. Players can read them after the game.

11. Are you sometimes busy? In some tourneys, you may skip a round, or schedule games ahead of time.

Now you know how Snailbucket works. Create your account!