Rules and Schedule

The 3rd ACP Tournament will be held from May 31st to June 5th 2004. There will be 5 qualifying tournaments from which 15 players will go through to the final event (the first three of each tournament). Evgeny Najer, runner-up of the ACP Inaugural Tournament, has been granted a free place in the final event.

The tournaments will take place at the following dates:

Qualifier 1	Monday	May 31st, 2004	18:00h CET
Qualifier 2	Tuesday	June 1st, 2004	22:00h CET
Qualifier 3	Wednesday	June 2nd, 2004	16:00h CET
Qualifier 4	Thursday	June 3rd, 2004	20:00h CET
Qualifier 5	Thursday	June 3rd, 2004	20:00h CET
Final	Saturday	June 5th, 2004	16:00h CET

On one of the above dates there will be two tournaments held simultaneously. The exact day will be determined after registration has closed and depends on which day most participants have chosen (see registration form). Note that all times are given in CET = Central European Time, which is the time in Paris and Berlin. Since daylight saving time will be active this translates to GMT plus two hours. You can click the times in the schedule to find the local time in your town anywhere in the world.

1. General
1.1 Eligible are all ACP members. Players, who are not in the ACP cannot take part in the tournament.
1.2 The server-rules of the playchess.com server apply for the whole tournament, unless otherwise stipulated in the following.
1.3 Every participant is responsible for having a reliable internet-connection during the tournament. If longer lags (more than 2.0 seconds/move) occur repeatedly, the tournament director has the right to declare the game in question to be won for the opponent, and to give the player an opportunity to put things in order by leaving the server and reconnecting to it.

2. The Tournament
2.1 The qualifying tournaments will be played as round-robins. If there are ten or less participants, a two lap round-robin will be played. If there are 11 or more participants a one lap round-robin will be played.
2.2 The final event on June 5th will be held in two phases. The first leg consists of 4 groups of 4 players disputing round-robins (12 rounds). The first two of each group go through to the second phase which will be held as a knockout. Quarter-finals, Semi-finals and the final will be played at the best of four games.
2.3 The tournament director for the tournament will be nominated by playchess.com. In cases of conflict he will decide in cooperation with a representative nominated by the ACP. His decisions are final.

3. Time-limit
The time-limit throughout the tournament will be four minutes for the entire game plus an increment of one second per move (4+1).

4. Tie-break
4.1 Should a tie-break be necessary for determining the qualifiers, it will be played on a two-game basis (4+1) in case only two players are involved. If three or more players are concerned, there will be held a single round robin amongst them (4+1).
4.2.1 Should a tie-break be necessary at the first leg of the final event, it will be played on a two-game basis (4+1).
4.2.2 Should a tie-break be necessary at the knockout, one game will be played with a time-limit of five minutes for White and four minutes for Black without increment. White has to win to decide the tie-break in his favor.

5. Using engines and databases (cheating)
5.1 Using engines and databases during the game is specifically prohibited. A breach of these rules leads to an exclusion from the tournament.
5.2 Cheating is checked by software provided by playchess.com and a comittee nominated by the ACP. This comittee reaches a final decision whether players "cheated" or not. The decision about an exclusion from the tournament is final and incontestable.