SB Weekly 4 Regulations

Please read these SB Weekly 4 Regulations before committing to the tournament.

In a nutshell

  • Six or seven weeks, starting on Tuesday, September 2nd 2025
  • Round Robin format
  • One game per week on FICS
  • Default SB game control: 90' + 30'' inc.; you can set preferences in your profile
  • New SB tourney feature: Schedule ahead

Joining

1. Understand how Snailbucket works.
2. If you have not yet done so: Create your SB account.
3. Log in. Sign up to the tourney between August 10th and August 28th.

The number and rating gaps of newly confirmed players will constantly impact the number, size and format (single or double Round Robin) of the buckets. They will be finalized after the sign-up deadline.

BYEs: No BYE requests; but there's Schedule ahead.
Late-joining: No late-joining.

Profile

1. Please speed up negotiations by marking bad times in your profile. Use FICS server time.
2. You may also set Game Control Preferences. If two player's preferences match, that game control will be used. If not, the default (90' + 30'' inc.) will be used.

Dates

Pairings for all rounds will be posted on September 2nd, all game forums will be opened at once.

Start of official rounds: 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.

Official rounds work in the same way you know from previous SB/TL tournaments, with these start dates:

Round 1: Tuesday, September 2nd
Round 2: Tuesday, September 9th
Round 3: Tuesday, September 16th
Round 4: Tuesday, September 23rd
Round 5: Tuesday, September 30th
Round 6: Tuesday, October 7th
Round 7: Tuesday, October 14th (there may be no 7th round)

You may play every game during the respective official round, or the two extension weeks following it. But you are also encouraged to schedule (and even play) your games ahead of the official round. This might make scheduling easier for players with full calendars; please see our new Schedule ahead help article for examples.

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.

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

Starting the game

Check your FICS settings (see above). Send your opponent a match challenge, e.g. "match pchesso 90 30 rated black". If the 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.

If you arrive more than 15 minutes late for your game, your opponent may claim a forfeit win.

Game play

Applicable TL 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 with shorter time controls may follow for those who are tied for first place.