CSC Online

4th Annual

Winter Break Online Event

Wednesday–Sunday, December 27–31, 2023

We will use www.chess.com to host this event. USCF ratings will NOT be affected. You can play in this Online Winter Break Event from anywhere with an internet connection!

Enter by 6:00 pm EST today to play the entire event. After today enter by 6:00 pm EST on any day to play beginning on the next day. To go directly to the online entry form, click here.

Players are not required to play all five days. They may play on any combination of days, from one to all five. It is possible to qualify for a trophy even if you play on only one day.

Play begins at 10:00 am every day. Play will end by noon or earlier each day. PLAYERS, PLEASE NOTE: Rounds start promptly, and once a round has started, you have only a certain amount of time within which to make your first move (15 seconds in a Blitz time control, 55 seconds in a Rapid time control). If you do not make your first move within the specified time, you lose the game on the basis of “abandonment” (this is a chess.com rule). So it is important to be present and ready to play round 1 before 10:00 am. You may be online as early as one hour before the tournament start time; we recommend that you be online no later than 9:55 am.

Format

The Winter Break Event is played over five days, but each day offers a separate, stand-alone tournament, so players can choose how many and which days to play on. The daily tournaments will be of two types:

• On Wednesday and Friday, there will be Arena tournaments, in which there is no set number of rounds and everyone plays in one big tournament. Players may play as many games as they can manage within the overall time period (90 minutes), or as few as they choose. Players are not paired by group; instead, after completing one game, a player will be paired again as soon as he or she is ready and an opponent is available.
• On Thursday and Saturday there will be Swiss tournaments defined by rating. Each tournament will have five rounds. The two days will use different time controls and different ratings.  Players may play up.
• On Sunday there will be two Swiss tournaments of five rounds. These will not be defined by rating. One tournament will be only for players who did not qualify for any trophy on Wednesday through Saturday. This is their “Last Chance” to try to qualify for a trophy. The other tournament will be only for players who did qualify for a trophy on Wednesday through Saturday. This is one more opportunity for them to try to qualify for a “Bigger Trophy”.
• Remember that in a Swiss tournament, all rounds after the first round will start very shortly after the last game in the preceding round ends, with no fixed schedule, so if your game ends early, we caution you not to be away from your computer for a long time. Chess.com continually shows when games are still in progress; you should be mindful of this so as to be at your computer when the next round is about to begin.

Ratings

Chess.com Rapid and Blitz ratings will be used; see Tournament Details below. Anyone without a chess.com rating may create an account at www.chess.com by choosing a username and indicating a skill level (to determine an initial rating). It is simple and free to create a basic account. Your participation in this event will not affect your USCF ratings.

Tournament Details

The top 10% of players in each tournament (rounded up) will qualify for a trophy; for example, an Arena tournament with 52 players will qualify six trophy winners, and a Swiss tournament with 11–15 players will qualify two trophy winners. Ties will be broken using chess.com tiebreaks except that, on Sunday only, all those who tie for the last trophy position will qualify for a trophy.

*For the Swiss tournaments on Thursday and Saturday, tournaments will be defined by rating shortly after noon on the preceding day based on the entries received at that time, with the objective of equalizing the number of players in the tournaments and ideally with 12 to 15 players in each tournament. The number of tournaments will depend on the number of entries. CSC will email to all participants a list of players by tournament and other pertinent instructions on Wednesday and Friday evenings. Players may play in their assigned tournament or in any tournament with higher ratings. Cincinnati Scholastic Chess reserves the right to require a player to enter a tournament with higher ratings when deemed appropriate by CSC.

On Sunday, December 31 there will be TWO Swiss tournaments, Blitz ratings, 5 rounds, G/ 8 + 2, as follows:

• LAST CHANCE: for players who did not qualify for any trophy on Wednesday through Saturday
• BIGGER TROPHY: for players who already qualify for a trophy and want to try for a bigger one

Each player will be eligible to play in ONLY ONE of these two tournaments.

Trophy Details

Trophies are personalized with the winner’s name and delivered (in Southwest  Ohio**) by Dr. Brackenridge. We hope that A LOT of participants are able to win a trophy! Players who qualify for trophies on multiple days will get one BIGGER trophy. The size of the trophy depends on HOW MANY days you qualify for a trophy: ONE day = 14” trophy; TWO days = 17” trophy; THREE days = 20” trophy; FOUR days = 23” trophy (all trophy sizes are approximate).

**Players who do not live in Southwest Ohio (defined as Hamilton, Clermont, Butler and Warren counties) are welcome to participate in this event; however, in the event that any such player wins a trophy, we will make mutually agreeable arrangements with the player’s family to have the trophy delivered to him or her with the understanding that if the trophy is shipped, the family will pay the shipping cost.

Entry

Online entry only using our online entry form. The entry fee is $49 for the entire event – no entry fee refunds or discounts for any day missed. You may enter the event by 6:00 pm EST on any day in order to begin play the next day. It is possible to qualify for a trophy even if you play on only one day.

We hope to see you in this event (virtually – even if you’re on a vacation out of town) as we offer what is typically our ONLY online event of the year – during Winter Break again in 2023!

Questions? Send an email to info@chesscincinnati.com.

For more information about online chess generally and tournaments on chess.com specifically, please see our CSC Online Essential Information document.