Caplin British Online Chess Championships
The Caplin British Online Championships will take place over two weeks from 18th December 2020 to 3rd January 2021 on the Chess.com platform. The event is being run by the English Chess Federation in collaboration with the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Ulster, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man Chess Federations/Unions. The British Online will include separate Championships – Open, Women’s, Junior, Senior and Rating Limited. The format is based on one week of qualifier events followed by a week of finals for each Championship.
Each Championship will consist of a qualifier and finals stage with a number of separate events at four different time controls (Standard, Rapid, Blitz and Bullet) as shown in the table below. Players may take part in one or more championships for which they are eligible (e.g. Open, Women’s, Junior etc), and one or more events within their selected championship(s) (e.g. Standard, Rapid, Blitz etc), subject to the entry conditions and playing schedule.
All Standardplay events will be based on a game a day with 7 rounds of qualifiers and 7 rounds of finals each in Swiss format. Standardplay games will be based on direct challenge matches on Chess.com, started by an arbiter. Faster time controls (Rapidplay, Blitz and Bullet) will be run as platform Swiss tournaments. Further details can be found in the Tournament Summary and Schedule.
Entries
Entry will be via an online form, with Single Qualifier and All Events options as follows –
- Single Championship Ticket – allows the player to take part in qualifiers for one championship, including one or more events at different time controls within that championship, subject to eligibility and playing schedule.
- All Events Ticket – allows the player to take part in any/all championships they are eligible for, including one or more events at different time controls across championships, subject to eligibility and playing schedule.
Eligibility
In order to participate in these Championships, all players must either –
- Have a FIDE Nationality of ENG, IRL, SCO, WLS, GCI or JCI; or
- Have been continuously resident in England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man since 1st January, 2020; or
- Be a British or Irish citizen.
All players must be members of their National Federation. English players should be members of the ECF at Supporter level or higher
Prizes
Championship titles will be awarded separately for each event (e.g. British Online Open Standardplay Champion or British Online Open Rapid Champion etc.) Further details of the prizes will be published shortly and will include trophies and/or medals for the top placed finalists in all Championship events.
Regulations
Detailed competition regulations will be issued shortly, including details of arbiter arrangements. ECF Online Fair Play regulations will be in force at all times with tournament specific rules.
Ratings
All games will be rated in the ECF Online Rating List.
