A State Championship Event with Open and Scholastic Sections

Location:  Jackson Preparatory School, 3100 Lakeland Dr, Flowood, MS 39232

Date: Saturday, July 20th

Check In:  No later than 8:30 AM

The Swiss System tournament will consist of 3 sections: Open, Reserve (U1300), and K-5. All teams are eligible to play in the Open section. The Reserve section is open to teams who have a team rating under 1300. The K-5 section is a scholastic section based on the most recently finished grade and pre-K players are welcome. 

Schedule:  3 Rounds no elimination.  All rounds will be played 60 minutes for each player with a 15 second increment.

Saturday:  9:00 AM, 12:30 PM, 3:30 PM, may accelerate as possible. Players will be allowed a minimum 10 minute rest break between rounds.

Awards Ceremony to follow last round or tiebreaks.  Plaques or trophies will be given for the top 2 team finishers in each section.

General Rules

1. Each team will play a 4-board match against a different team each round. Two players on each team will play the white pieces and two will play the black pieces. Color will alternate, with boards 1 and 3 having one color while boards 2 and 4 have the other color. Each team will score 1 point, ½ point or 0 points each round. A combined game score of 2 points for each team is a draw and each team will receive ½ point. More than 2 game points per round wins the match for the team, while less than 2 points loses. All teams will play 3 rounds unless the number of rounds in a section is changed because there are less than 4 teams.
2. K-5 TEAMS. While school or homeschool organization teams are recommended, K-5 teams are not required to attend the same school.
3. SECTIONS: We do not intend to merge sections even if there are as little as 2 teams in a section. We will look for alternatives to merging such as finishing early and/or voluntary extra rated games.
4. TEAM RATING. Calculated by setting all unrated players to a fixed value based on section - Open is 1300, Reserve is 500, K-5 is 300; then taking the highest rating up to 4, and dividing by 4, regardless of the number of players on the team.
5. SUBSTITUTES. Up to 2 substitutes are allowed per team. All substitutes must be registered (in board order) with their team by the end of registration.
6. BOARD ORDER. Board order is determined by rating. The highest rated player on a team must play first board, the second highest player plays second board, and so forth. The team must play in the same board order each round. A team with only 3 players must forfeit Board 4 each round. If a board is to forfeit any round, all remaining players must close ranks to Board 1 for that round.
7. TIE BREAKS. If two or more teams tie for 1st place, a 10 minute playoff match will be held to determine the champion. Otherwise, tie-break Systems used to break ties will be (1) US Team (see Rule 34G2 of the US Chess Federation’s Official Rules of Chess, 7th Edition for details); (2) Team Median; (3) team Solkoff; (4) Team Cumulative; and (5) coin toss.
8. BYES: Only zero point byes are available by request for any round.
9. DUES. No MCA dues required to play in the State Team Championships. All players in all sections must be current US Chess members.
10. EQUIPMENT. Sets and notation sheets will be provided by the organizer.
11. MISCELLANEOUS. Unusual situations not covered by these rules will be dealt with by the Tournament Director at the site.