SB Rapid 2 Tourney guide
The following contains all tourney-related info for beginners.
If you have experience playing in an online chess league, e.g. Teamleague, you may focus on Snailbucket specialties highlighted in orange font, and then sign up.
In a nutshell
3- or 4-round swiss tournament in January/February 2025.
14 days to schedule and play your match.
Your match consists of four rapid games of 5' + 15'' inc. with the same opponent.
Joining
1. Understand how Snailbucket works.
2. Create your Snail Bucket account.
3. Sign up to the tourney between Sun, December 15th and Fri, January 3rd.
The number and size of the buckets depends on the number of participants and the rating gaps. Check signed-up players and provisional buckets here.
BYEs: You may request one 0.5 point BYE, before 2200 FICS server time on the Saturday of the previous round.
Profile
1. Please speed up negotiations by marking bad times in your profile. You may change them throughout the tourney, as long as you have no pending game.
2. Your Time Control Preferences are deactived for this Rapid tournament.
Playing dates
You have one match every other week; 14 days to schedule and play your games:
- Round 1: Tue, January 7th - Mon, January 20th
- Round 2: Tue, January 21st - Mon, February 3rd
- Round 3: Tue, February 4th - Mon, February 17th
- Round 4: Tue, February 18th - Mon, March 3rd
The SB Rapid 2 rounds are one week ahead of the SB Knockout 1 rounds. You may play in both tournaments.
Negotiations
Posting of pairings: Tuesday, 2200 FICS server time. Access your game forum, start negotiations.
1st contact deadline: Thursday, 2200 FICS server time. Meet this deadline, or you may have to accept one of your opponent's offers.
2nd contact deadline: Friday, 2200 FICS server time. Meet this deadline, or your opponent may claim a forfeit win.
Please speak English.
Talk to your opponent only in your game forum.
Make at least three distinct time offers (hours apart and/or on different days).
Pay attention to your opponent's bad times.
Reply to your opponent reasonably fast (ideally within 24 hours).
Allow 24 hours buffer between setting the clock and game start.
FICS settings
Check your server settings. Type (or copy and paste) into your FICS command console:
var
If necessary, make the following adjustments:
set notakeback 1
set private 0
set noescape 0
set rated 1
set autoflag 1
We have written a Help article about avoiding to lose a game accidentally. The short version is:
set f7 !private and !noescape and rated
set formula f7
Match format
Every round will consist of four rated rapid games against the same opponent. Time control: 5' + 15'' inc.
Tentatively: Use "tell snailbot play" to start the first of the four games. (tbc!)
Otherwise: Use "match" to start your first game, e.g. "match pchesso 5 15 rated white". If the FICS server warns you that a disconnection will be considered a forfeit, abort the game. You and your opponent must "set noescape 0". Resend the match challenge. For games 2-4, use "rematch", so that colours are always reversed. Feel free to arrange quick breaks between the games. Please report the result.
If you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your game, your opponent may claim a forfeit win.
Game play
Applicable Teamleague rules apply:
- silence
- fair play
- no kibitzing
- no takebacks
- no repetitive draw offers
Assistance of any kind is prohibited during your game.
Tie-breaks
No tie-breaks:
If a champion isn't found after round 3, a fourth round will follow.
If a champion isn't found after round 4, a fifth round (possibly with even shorter time controls) may follow for those who are tied for first place.
Conduct
We may ban any player who lacks common courtesy in game forum negotiations, disrespects an FICS rule laid out in "help abuse", or is in any way a disagreeable troublemaker. We can only monitor posts on our website, but we ask that you practise good sportsmanship in your FICS tells and whispers, too.
Contact
If anything comes up, contact TD pchesso.
