SB Rapid 3 Info

In a nutshell

  • 3- or 4-round tournament in January/February 2027.
  • 14 days to schedule and play every round.
  • In every round, you play one pair of two Rapid games of 20' + 10'' inc.

Joining

1. Understand how Snailbucket works.
2. Create your Snail Bucket account.
3. Log in. Sign up to the tourney between December 15th and 29th.

The number and rating gaps of newly confirmed players will constantly impact the number, size and format (Swiss, or Single or Double Round Robin) of the provisional buckets. Given enough participants, we're aiming for smaller buckets with smaller rating gaps, rather than one big bucket for everyone (as we've done in the SB Monthly). Buckets will be finalized after the sign-up deadline.

BYEs: The format may not allow for BYE requests. Upon signing up, make sure you can commit to all rounds. There's no Schedule ahead in this tourney.

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 Game Control Preferences are deactived for this Rapid tournament. The game control is 2 x 20' + 10'' inc.

Dates

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.

You play one pair of two games every other week; 14 days to schedule and play those games. Start dates:

  • Round 1: Tuesday, January 5th
  • Round 2: Tuesday, January 19th
  • Round 3: Tuesday, February 2th
  • Round 4: Tuesday, February 16th

A fourth round may not be necessary.

Negotiations

Make this tournament a memorable, friendly experience for your opponent.
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).
Use FICS server time. That's EDT/EST which you can compare to your local time by typing the date command.
Pay attention to your opponent's bad times.
Reply to your opponent fast (ideally within 24 hours).
Allow 24 hours buffer between setting the clock and game start.

For example, you might post in your game forum:

Hi!

Thanks for your message, your proposed times don't work for me this weekend.
How about the following:

Sat/Sun 1700-2100, or Mon 0700?

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 one pair of two rated rapid games against the same opponent. Time control: 2 x 20' + 10'' inc.

Check your FICS settings (see above). Send your opponent a match challenge, e.g. "match pchesso 20 10 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 game 2, use "rematch" to play with reversed colours. Feel free to arrange quick breaks between the games. If the games got played, please report the overall result of your two-game match in the game forum by clicking the appropriate button.

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

A tie-break round (possibly with shorter time controls) may follow for those who are tied for first place.