How it Works

The following is a step-by-step tutorial for beginners.
Have you already played in an online chess league, e.g. Teamleague? Then just focus on Snailbucket specialties highlighted in orange font, and create your account.

Preparing to participate

1. All games will be played on the Free Internet Chess Server FICS. In order to participate in our tourneys, you need to create an FICS account first which is free.

2. Play ten rated standard games on FICS so that we can give you a rating when you join our next open tournament.

3. Create your Snailbucket account which is free. You will be asked to create a Profile with info such as:
a) What's your email address (important for the forwarding of game-related messages)?
b) Which slow time controls do you like better than others? This feature is enabled for our slow time control tourneys, but not for our rapid chess tourneys.
c) Which times are generally bad for you, e.g. your sleeping times? Comparing the bad times will speed up finding a suitable match time for you and your opponent.

4. Watch out for upcoming tournaments. We're offering a variety of formats.

5. Once a tournament is joinable, you'll find the playing dates, deadlines etc. in the Tourney guide.

6. Creating your account does not sign you up to any tourney. So don't forget to sign up!

7. Once sections have been finalized, the tourney will start.

Playing in the tournament

8. An email will notify you that pairings for the next round have been created.

9. The Pairings page shows you who your opponent is. The player in the column to the left will have the white pieces.

10. Access your Game forum. That's a chat window where you and your opponent negotiate a day and time to start your match. For example, one of you might start out by saying: "Hi, How about playing on Sunday or Monday at 0800-1100 FICS server time?" Game forum messages are instantly forwarded to your email address.

11. Once you and your opponent have agreed on a time that is convenient for both of you, one of you can set the time in the game forum.

12. Show up on FICS at the time that was agreed, and play your match.

13. Feel free to watch other games in the tournament. You may use the whisper command to share thoughts. The players can read them after the game has ended.

14. Are you too busy for the next round? In some of our tourneys you can either request a BYE, or schedule (or even play!) games ahead of time.

Now you know how Snailbucket works. Please proceed to create your account!