This annual event has been running over the summer season since 2023, with participation by club members as well as talented juniors from ALCA. It is a fun, informal competition where players can turn up or not as they please on any given club night. Anyone is welcome (although non-ECF members must be willing to join the ECF as the event is ECF-rated).
Format: Players are welcome to join the event at any time – there is no need to register in advance or to play in all of the rounds. Just turn up on any Tuesday in time for a 19.30 start (doors open at 19.15). There will be two rounds per evening (or one on evenings featuring some other Summer Programme event), with expected finish around 21.30 (players are also free to leave after one round, for an expected finish time around 20.30).
Games will be played at a time limit of 25 minutes with an increment of 10 seconds per move, and will be ECF-rated. Although the games are played on an even basis, the tournament is scored as a handicap tournament in the sense explained below (see tournament scoring). The system was originally based on the ECF rating algorithm, such that the winner would be the player with the largest rating gain over the course of the summer, but has now been simplified for easier calculation on a round-by-round basis.
Tournament scoring: Each player is assigned a starting rating based on their ECF rapidplay (or standard play if no rapidplay rating available) rating at the time they first join the event. In addition to gaining positive or negative points for winning or losing (result points), players gain positive or negative points each time they are paired against a higher or lower rated opponent (pairing points). The champion will be the player with the highest average score (total score divided by number of games played), subject to having played a minimum of eight games.
Pairing points: Calculate the rating difference (up to 400), divide by 50 and round to the nearest integer (maximum score is 8). This number is added to the score of the weaker player and subtracted from the stronger player.
Result points: +10 for a win, -10 for a loss, 0 for a draw.