1. Goals and objectives.

The Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 is being organised with assistance of Ministry of IT and communication with the following principal objectives:

To demonstrate positive changes in the information-oriented society in Russia that take place owing to the active application of ICT;
To promote and popularise chess in the Russian Federation;
To find the strongest Russian player in blitz over the Internet in 2005.

2. The competition direction.

The competition is directed by the Organizing Committee presided over by the First Vice-President of the Russian Chess Federation - Beresnev Vyacheslav Andreevich. All the tournaments comply with the FIDE rules of chess, adopted by FIDE in the 71st Congress in Istanbul (Turkey) on November 11^th 2000, which came into effect on July 1^st 2001. The competition will take place on the chess Assistant Club (http://www.chessassistantclub.com/). Refereeing and control of the Cup are conducted by a Panel of Arbiters appointed by the Organizing Committee.

3. Timetable.

The Russia Cup is to take place from September 20^th 2005 to December 30^th 2005. The terms for each of the tournaments shall be defined by the Organizing Committee.

4. Schedule of the Cup and offset points calculation.

The Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup consists of 1252 tournaments and is held according to the following scheme:

1) Three rounds of the Russia Cup.

Second and third rounds of the Russia Cup includes 424 qualifying Cup tournaments and the Main tournament for the current stage of the Russia Cup. In each of the three rounds according to the schedule approved by the Organizing Committee it’s held:

300 usual individual qualifying tournaments, in each of them 10 offset points are played off:

1^st place – 10 points,
2^nd place – 7 points,
3^rd place – 4 points,
4^th place – 3 points,
5^thplace – 1 point.

50 priority individual qualifying tournaments, in each of them 200 offset points are played off:

1^st place – 50 points
2^nd place – 35 points
3^rd place – 25 points
4^th place – 20 points
5^th place – 15 points
6^th place – 10 points
7^th place – 8 points
8^th place – 7 points
9^th place – 6 points
10^th place – 5 points
11^th - 15^th places – 2 point for each.
16^th - 24^th places – 1 point for each.

74 team-individual qualifying tournaments, in each of them 350 offset points are played off. Out of them 200 points are played off in individual reckoning:

1^st place – 50 points
2^nd place – 35 points
3^rd place – 25 points
4^th place – 20 points
5^th place – 15 points
6^th place – 10 points
7^th place – 8 points
8^th place – 7 points
9^th place – 6 points
10^th place – 5 points
11^th - 15^th places – 2 point for each.
16^th - 24^th places – 1 point for each.

In team reckoning 150 points are played off:

each of the four best players from the team-winner and its captain gets 15 offset points extra
each of the four best players from the team winning the second place and its captain gets 10 offset points extra
each of the four best players from the team winning the third place and its captain gets 5 offset points extra

Besides, teams get team points:
For the first place in team reckoning – 5 team points
For the second place in team reckoning – 3 team points
For the third place in team reckoning – 2 team points

In individual reckoning for individual and individual-team tournaments if the points are equal then the places and offset points corresponding to them are defined under the following criteria in descending order:

by Buchholtz coefficient
by progress coefficient
by personal game result

In team reckoning for individual-team qualifying tournaments the winner-team is defined under the following criteria in descending order:

the sum of the points scored by the four best players for each team
the higher place of the best player from the team in the individual reckoning for the given tournament

Each participant can play in any number of qualifying tournaments of the current stage of the Cup.

2) The Main tournament for the current stage.

In the Main tournament only the players who scored no less than 30 offset points in the qualifying tournaments are allowed. In the Main tournament for each stage 15000 offset points are played off:

1st place – 3500 points
2nd place – 2500 points
3rd place – 1500 points
4th place – 1200 points
5th place – 1000 points
6 th place – 800 points
7 th place – 700 points
8 th place – 600 points
9th place – 500 points
10th place – 300 points
11th - 20th place – 100 points
21st – 30th place – 70 points
31st - 40th place – 50 points
41st - 50th place – 20 points

If the points in the tournaments are equal then the places and offset points corresponding to them are defined under the following criteria in descending order:

by Buchholtz coefficient
by progress coefficient
by personal contest result

3) The Super final of the Russia Cup.

In the Super final of the Russia Cup only the players who scored no less than 150 offset points in the qualifying tournaments are allowed. In the Super final of the Russia Cup 50000 offset points are played off:

1^st place – 10000 points
2^nd place – 8000 points
3^rd place – 6000 points
4^th place – 4000 points
5^th place – 3000 points
6^th place – 2000 points
7^th place – 1500 points
8^th place – 1200 points
9^th place – 1000 points
10^th place – 800 points
11^{th -}20^th place – 400 points
21^{st –}30^th place – 250 points
31^{st -}40^th place – 200 points
41^{st -}50^th place – 150 points
51^{st -}70^th place – 100 points
71^{st -}100^th place – 50 points

If the points in the Super final of the Russia Cup are equal then the places and offset points corresponding to them are defined under the following criteria in descending order:

by Buchholtz coefficient
by progress coefficient
by personal contest result

5. Time Controls.

1) Usual qualifying tournaments for the Main tournament.
Time control — 3 minutes per game without increment. These are Swiss tournaments, VII rounds with automatic pairings.

2) Priority qualifying tournaments and individual-team qualifying tournaments for the stages of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Cup.

3) The Main tournament of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Cup.
Time control — 3 minutes per game without increment. These are the Swiss tournaments, XI rounds with automatic pairings.

4) Super final.
Time control — 3 minutes per game without increment. This is a Swiss tournament, XIII rounds with automatic pairings.

Note. Any time delay due to lag in signal transmission is automatically compensated and does not affect the players’ clock times.

6. Winners’ definition and prize fund.

Overall prize fund for the Russia Cup and the Super final of the Russia Cup amounts to $12 000. Each offset point scored in the qualifying tournaments of the Russia Cup, final tournaments of a stage and the Super final of the Russia Cup corresponds to 1 rouble. 1 USD equals 20 Virtual roubles, and 1 Euro equals 25 Virtual roubles.

You can choose any products for the won sum in the Internet Shop www.ChessAssistant.com

On the basis of the scored offset points the following participants are declared winners and receive additional prizes:

The participant who has scored maximum offset points on the sum of all qualifying tournaments, final tournaments of a stage and the Super final of the Russia Cup is declared the winner of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 and receives the CHAMPION Cup and an additional prize of $600 cash.

The participant who has scored the second total of points on the sum of all qualifying tournaments, final tournaments of a stage and the Super final of the Russia Cup is declared the vice-winner of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 and receives the additional prize of $300 cash.

The participant who has scored the third total of points on the sum of all qualifying tournaments, final tournaments of a stage and the Super final of the Russia Cup receives the additional prize of $300 cash.

The woman-participant who has scored maximum offset points on the sum of all qualifying tournaments, final tournaments of a stage and the Super final of the Russia Cup is declared the winner of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 among women and receives the CHAMPION Cup and an additional prize of $100 cash.

The best young chess player born after January 1st, 1989 and scored the greatest number of offset points among the juniors receives an additional prize of $30.

The best young girl chess player born after January 1st, 1989 and scored the greatest number of offset points among the girls receives an additional prize of $20.

The team scored the greatest number of team points in the second and third rounds receives an additional prize of $300 in cash for the team.

The team scored the second number of team points in the second and third rounds receives an additional prize of $150 in cash for the team.

The team scored the third number of team points in the second and third rounds receives an additional prize of $100 in cash for the team.

At the equality of offset points by several participants in the nomination the winner of the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup is the player who won a higher place in the Super final of the Russia Cup.

7. Distribution of prizes and its terms.

Prize money is redirected to the player’s virtual account in the club “Chess Assistant Club” just after closing the tournament and the player can use it at his/her own disposal.

8. Terms and conditions of participation in the Russia Cup.

Any chess player can participate in the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup independently of a player’s country of residence. Every player intending to participate in the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 consents to the following obligations:

to play without the assistance of computer programs or other chess players;
to use modern lines of communications where the time lag due to the signal transmission does not exceed 3 seconds per move;
to recognize the decision of the Panel of Arbiters as the final one in any dispute.

To register for participation in the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup, every player must do the following:

- Download and install the proprietary software from the site http://www.ChessAssistantClub.com on a personal computer connected to the Internet.

- Enter the program and register a “Login” in the format Second name_First Name. In the registration form you should give the following true personal information: full name, gender, date of birth, city, country of residence and your e-mail address. If there is no name in the player’s login or his/her personal details are wrong, then the offset points and prizes scored by this players are annulled.

9. General Information and Disputes.

In the case of one of the players becoming disconnected during a game, the time it takes to restore the connection is lost by the side who caused the disconnection;

The Arbiter of the tournament has a right to exclude a participant from the tournament if the participant’s mean time lag during the game exceeds 3 seconds per move. In this case the participant retains their scored performance points but is excluded from the pairings for the next round;

The Panel of Arbiters has the right to disqualify any participant if they have serious grounds to believe a participant has used computer programs or had help from other chess players. The Panel of Arbiters retains this right for a week immediately following the completion of the tournament. In this case the disqualified player retains their scored performance points but does not take part in the distribution of the offset points according to the tournament results.

10. Official information and Contacts.

The official language of the Internet Cup of the Russian Federation is the Russian language.

The official information on the Blitz chess Russian Federation Open Internet Cup 2005 will be placed in the Central Chessplayer’s House of Botvinnik A. A. There one will also organise the transmission of the chosen games.

The tournaments schedule, information about past tournaments and official press releases will be available:

- at the Internet portal “Chess Assistant Club”, address http://www.chessassistantclub.com/

- by e-mail: info@convekta.com

- for support by e-mail: admin@chessplanet.ru