ChessWorld - Tournament FAQs

ChessWorld promotes various types of Tournaments:

Specialised All play All Tournaments, which can be anything up to 15 player All-play-Alls. In these you have two games with each other player, one with White and one with Black. For example, in a 4-player All-play-All you would be playing a total of 6 games.

Knockout Tournaments. In these, the winner goes through to the next round. You may be playing with either White or Black. The colour is decided either by the relative ratings of the players, or, if the Tournament Organiser has specified, the pairing, and hence playing colour, will be made at random. In the event that the game ends in a draw, the player with the Black pieces goes through.

Team Tournaments. In these you are paired with players from other teams who are on the same board number as you within that particular team league. Typically there would be eight games in total; two games each against four opponents who are in different teams.

Simul Tournaments. In these, one player, the Host, plays a single game against each of a number of other players, the Challengers. For full details please refer to the Simuls the dedicated section below.

Pyramid Tournaments. In these, you compete with other players who are on a similar Level to yourself. As you win games you move up to another level in the Pyramid. Equally, if you lose you may drop down a Level.  By entering a Pyramid Tournament you are committing yourself to two games, one with White and one with Black, but these will not all be with the same player. You may, if you wish, challenge another player, but you must accept any challenge made by another player. As each game finishes the challenge process continues, as there is no finite end to the Tournament. The object of competing is to try to reach the highest possible Level, and, as such, no Norms are awarded. The Full Members Pyramid games are all rated and each game is on a 5-day limit. In the Guest Members Pyramid, games are unrated, although the 5-day limit still applies.

For further information on Pyramids please refer to the dedicated section below. For full details and information on making progress to higher Levels of a Pyramid, visit the Play ... Latest Pyramid link.

To create a Tournament visit the Join Games ... Create New Tournament page. (For guidance on Simul Tournaments, please refer to the dedicated Simul section below.) There are a number of options available, and you are free to chose which of those apply to your particular intentions. You should, however, always try to enter suitable and informative text in the Tournament Nickname and Idea(s) behind the tournament boxes as these are usually the first point of contact for intending players.

Take care to select an appropriate Tournament type.

If you are creating an All-play-All Tournament be aware that, as the number of players increase, so does the related game load increase for the players. For example, in a 4 player Tournament there would be a total of 6 games for each player and in a 15 player Tournament there would be 28 games per player.

If you are creating a Knock Out Tournament you should be aware that, by default, random pairing is not enabled.  If you wish to use random pairing in your Tournament ensure that you have checked the Random Pairing (if knockout) box before you press  Submit .

If you wish to create a private Tournament make sure that you have clicked the appropriate checkbox, otherwise the Tournament will be open to any eligible Member who wishes to join. You may also, if you wish, invite a selected group of friends to join the Tournament, whether or not is it open to all Members.

You may configure the other options to suit your preferences, but you should take care when specifying the particular time limit that you wish to use. The full range is available for All-play-All Tournaments, but for Knock Out Tournaments there is a fixed limit of 5 days per move.

When you have carefully checked all of the entries that you have made, click the  Submit  button. After a short delay you will see a further page confirming that the Tournament has been successfully created.

As the Tournament creator you should consider the probable ability of the players.

You can set the Playing strength for the Tournament using a combination of the options available to you, depending upon your Playing strength as noted on your homepage.

     Open to all - any Member may enrol, subject to the Min rating and Max rating settings.
     Advanced - players classified as Advanced and who also satisfy the Min rating and Max rating settings may enrol.
     Intermediate - players classified as Intermediate and who are rated below 2400 may enter.
     Beginner - players classified as Beginner and who are rated below 1600 may enter.

In the latter two cases the minimum and maximum ratings are automatically set by the system and will over-ride any limits that you may choose to set independently.

In the interests of all Members, and as a safeguard against potential abuse, ChessWorld makes various checks before a Member can enrol to ensure that their recent rating history is compatible with the Tournament specification. The precise checks are confidential but, if a Member has a recent rating history significantly in excess of the Tournament specification they will be unable to enter even if their current rating is within the Tournament specification. No checks are made when the Ratings range is set at the default values of 0 - 3500.

To provide a more competitive environment you may wish to check that potential entrants have demonstrated some commitment to the site. You can do this by making the appropriate selection in the Player criteria box, which checks that a potential entrant has played your specified number of games of over 10 moves. Open to all sets no preconditions for games played, or, alternatively you may specify a minimum of 2 or 5 games played.

By default, it is always assumed that you wish to play in the Tournament yourself. However, if that is not your intention you should uncheck the appropriate box, which is checked by default.

If you wish to specify that your Tournament is classed as a Guest Welcoming Tournament, check the appropriate box, which is unchecked by default.

All-play-All Tournaments.

 

Players
Gameload

3
4

4
6

5
8

6
10

7
12

8
14

9
16

10
18

11
20

12
22

13
24

14
26

15
28

          Before you enrol for the larger All-play-All Tournaments we suggest that you consider your
          potential gameload. Do not forget that these games will be in addition to any that you are
          already playing!

KO Tournaments.

 

Players
Rounds

8
3

16
4

 

32
5

64
6

128
7

          There is one game per round. The maximum number that you play depends upon
          your progress through the Tournament.

          * Tournaments for 32-, 64- and 128-players can only be created by Admin.

If, after you have created a Tournament, you wish to cancel, or remove it, this can be achieved via My Stuff ... My Tournaments where you can identify the specific Tournament.

Click on the link Track invite progress in detail and then, on the resulting page, click on the link You can cancel this tournament if you wish.

You may cancel the Tournament at any time until all games have been allocated and play has begun. If some players have already enrolled it would be courteous to inform them of your decision!   Remember, once the Tournament has started it cannot be cancelled!

You can leave any Tournament that you have joined until the Tournament has actually started. Once a Tournament has started any withdrawal would affect other players and unduly distort the result.

If play has not started visit the My Stuff ... My Tournaments page and locate the particular Tournament. Click on View knockout pairings table or View tournament crosstable as appropriate and then click on the ... leave this tournament if you are currently joined link.

Sometimes a Tournament may take an extended period of time to complete the enrolment process, or, exceptionally, there may have been problems completing the pairing in a Knock Out Tournament.

ChessWorld reserves the right to arbitrarily close such Tournaments without notice.

Norms are prizes for achieving a high position in an All-play-All Tournament or winning a Knock Out. Norm winners get an icon, to indicate their Norms, displayed next to their name on the game page, and on their homepage. Accumulating a number of Norms will earn a title, such as 'Tournament Master'.
See Q. What is a Tournament Title? below for further details.

Norm calculations are normally invoked at weekly intervals so that you may have to wait several days after you have won a Tournament in order to receive your Tournament Norms and icon. If your expected Norm has not been awarded after two weeks or more please contact the HelpDesk with the relevant details.

If you already have a Tournament icon for that particular type of Tournament, you will only get more Norms added, and a new Tournament title as appropriate. This will be highlighted on your homepage.

The winner of an All-play-All Tournament is always awarded at least one Norm. However, where the Tournament has involved a large number of players the number of Norms awarded for winning, or achieving a high placing, is increased to reflect the greater number of games that have been played.

The full details can be seen on the Tournament Norm awards page. Alternatively, you can see the same page via Community ... Top 100 Norm Reports or Community ... Top 100 Norm Titles and then clicking on the
How Norms are awarded link.

The winner of a Knock Out Tournament is awarded a single Norm in the usual way. This is considered to be fair, on the grounds that, even in the largest Knock Out Tournaments it is unlikely that winner would play more than 7 games.

On the game board, simply roll the mouse over any Norm icons that appear there. Alternatively, visit your Homepage and you will see your current Norm Icon totals with the detailed information alongside. If you click on the embedded links in the information details you will be taken to a further page that will show you a detailed list of all of your separate Norm winning achievements.

Tournament Titles are based upon the number of Norms gained from All-Play-All, Knock Out and Team Tournaments. The various Titles range from the lowest, Tournament Winner, (TW), through a number of levels up to Senior Elite Tournament Grandmaster, (SETGM). The full range of Titles, in rising order of seniority, and the number of qualifying Norms, is shown below.

 

Tournament Winner
Tournament Candidate Master
Tournament Master
Tournament Candidate Grandmaster
Tournament Grandmaster
Tournament Super Grandmaster
Elite Tournament Grandmaster
Super Elite Tournament Grandmaster

TW
TCM
TM
TCGM
TGM
TSGM
ETGM
SETGM

1   
2 - 
4 - 
10 - 
21 - 
51 - 
76 - 
100 +

When a Tournament Title is awarded, or a higher level is achieved, the details are displayed on your Home page where potential opponents may check your current status.

To check the current 'Top 100' players in any of the categories visit the Community ... Top 100 Norm Titles page.

In All-play-All Tournaments, when two players finish on the same points, they both receive Tournament Norms for finishing 1st= or 2nd= or the prize position at stake.

All Knock Out Tournaments start automatically as soon as the appropriate number of players have been enrolled. At that time each player receives an Email with details of their Opponent and the clock starts.

Tournaments created by Members, for 8 or 16 players, usually start within a few days, so that it is easy to remember your playing commitment.

However, when you enrol in a large Tournament, organised by ChessWorld, involving 32, 64 or 128 players it is important that you remain aware of your commitment to play, as the time for enrolment is often significantly extended, sometimes over several months.

ChessWorld does not Email Members advising them of the progress of the enrolment process, but if you are concerned you can always check by visiting My Stuff ... My Tournaments and selecting the relevant Tournament number.

If you choose not to accept Email notifications it is essential that you make regular checks when you login otherwise you may lose a Tournament game by default!

When a Knock Out game ends in a Draw, each player gains a half point, as normal. However, the game is awarded to Black. If the game is the final round, the Tournament is awarded to Black. This is considered to be fair to all players on the widely accepted basis that the player with the Black pieces starts the game with a slight disadvantage.

In Tournaments it is important that all games reach completion, so that the final Tournament winner can be announced, and Tournament Norms awarded.

After (2 x the time limit of the tournament) + 1 day, (and a minimum of five days after the player to move has returned from holiday), your game becomes at risk from being automatically cancelled with the indicator of 'T-T', when the weekly Tournament Norm calculations script is run. (This means there is between 5 and 12 days typically to claim a win on time against an opponent who has returned from holiday). This does not mean that you lose rating points, but it does mean that the opportunity to have claimed a win and gain a Tournament point has gone.

Example 1: If the Tournament time limit is 10 days a move, you should try and claim a win before 21 days
      [(10 x 2) + 1 = 21 days.]
If you do not claim a win within 21 days of your Opponents last move, the game may be marked as T-T when the next Tournament Norm calculations are run.

Example 2:, if the Tournament time limit is 5 days a move, you should try and claim a win before 11 days.
      [(5 x 2) + 1 = 11 days.]
If you do not claim a win within 11 days of your Opponents last move, the game may be marked as T-T when the next Tournament Norm calculations are run.

The My Tournaments page maintains a record of all Tournaments that you have played in, regardless of the current status of those Tournaments. You can reduce the number of Tournaments shown by checking the Any Tournament Status box and selecting one of the drop down menu options: In Progress, Enrolment stage, Completed Tournaments or Knockputs still playing in. You may select any one of those options as your display default for future logins by checking the Keep tournament status preference for future logins: box.

You may also select from a wide range of options provided in the Any Tournament Type box.

ChessWorld does not normally send automatic Emails to advise when a Tournament has actually started. We assume that Members who have enrolled in one of the many different Tournament formats that are available will check their Current Game page regularly. The notification that games are awaiting moves is always shown on that page, and you may configure that in any way that you feel is appropriate to help you keep a track of your current commitments.

In the special case of Guest Welcoming Tournaments  ChessWorld does send out an advisory Email as a courtesy to new Members who may not be fully conversant with our procedures.

Many of our Tournaments are either Class Tournaments or Member created Tournaments where there is a pre-defined rating range specified.

When you attempt to join one of these Tournaments we review your playing history, normally up to a maximum of 175 games. The dates when the games were completed is irrelevant.

If your rating during that period has been more than a permitted amount above the range specified for the Tournament you will not be able to enter.

Typically we allow players to join if their rating, during the period under review, has not exceeded a preset number of points above the limit set for the Tournament. This value varies according to the specified maximum for the Tournament. We reserve the right to change that allowance from time to time.

There are no restrictions on entry to Open Tournaments.

You can create, and play in, your own Tournament with a limited rating range if you so wish.

As the name implies this Tournament format is based upon a chosen Theme, typically one of the more interesting Openings. When you attempt to set up a Thematic Tournament you will be invited to choose the particular Theme that interests you from a list of pre-approved games in our Openings Library.

When opponents accept your invitation and start to play they will all see, as their first board, the position set up as defined in the particular Theme: any pieces that may have been 'taken' in the game prior to the position shown will not be displayed on the game page. From that point play can continue normally, although, in many cases the intention of the creator would be that play continues along the lines of the chosen Theme and then to explore interesting variations.

This Tournament format is open to players of all abilities; there are no limits on either maximum or minimum ratings specified for players. Players with lower ratings should expect some challenging and hard-fought games when they meet Opponents who have a significantly higher rating than themselves.

These Tournament formats impose limits on both the upper and lower ratings at the time of enrolment so that players are more evenly matched than would be the case in an Open Tournament. The rating restrictions are applied at the time of enrolment.

Strength Tournaments
        Beginner - for players with a rating up to, and including, 1600
        Intermediate - for players with a rating up to, and including, 2400
Class Tournaments
        Class A - for players with a rating less than 1400
        Class B - for players with a rating 1400 - 1879
        Class C - for players with a rating 1880 - 2199
        Class D - for players with a rating 2200 and above

Ratings tend to fluctuate as the result of normal play and it is possible that the rating of a player who is eligible at the time of enrolment may change quite significantly after they have joined the Tournament. For example, assume that a Tournament has been created with a rating limit of 1600 - 1800. It is possible that, subsequent to enrolment, one player has achieved an increased rating of, say, 1900, and another falls to a rating of 1500. This is acceptable and both players remain eligible to play in the Tournament.

It is possible for Admin, and, with prior approval, certain Members, to create All-play-All or Knock Out Tournaments, using specific criteria, which they can then repeat as many times as they wish without the need to continually revisit the Tournament creation page.

The major advantage of such Tournaments is that, as soon as one becomes fully subscribed, a new Tournament with the same criteria is immediately created.

Members, subject to the criteria specified by the Tournament creator, may join one, or more, of these Tournaments as and when they choose. It is not possible to invoke any form of auto-enrolment procedure as the choice and management of individual game-loads is always the responsibility of the Member.

ChessWorld does not, and indeed cannot, impose games on any Member.

Please refer to Q. What does Tournament Performance Rating, TPR, mean? which appears in the Ratings FAQ's.




ChessWorld Simuls

A ChessWorld Simul allows Members to Host a Tournament for a number of players, Challengers, at the same time, in a similar manner to a real-life demonstration Simul.

The advantage to the Host is that they can add a fixed number of games to their game-load whilst, for the Challenger, they only add a single game to their game load.

This is the only difference to the conventional ChessWorld Tournament. In a Tournament each player plays each separate Opponent with both White and Black, which could be viewed as playing in two Simuls running side by side. In the case of a Simul, the Host plays with the color of their choice against a range of Opponents, Challengers, who, as they only play a single game cannot choose their color.

It is convenient to think of the players in a ChessWorld Simul as being either the Host or the Challenger.

The Host is the Member who specifies and creates the Simul, who could properly be described as the 'Simul creator'.

The Challenger refers to any of the other players who take part, who could properly be described as the 'participants'.

Why do we use these names? Purely for convenience and to reflect reality.

Guest Members cannot create ChessWorld Simuls.

Creating a ChessWorld Simul is just as easy as creating a normal Tournament. Visit Join Games ... Create New Simul and complete the appropriate details.

The first stage is to decide on a suitable Simul Name together with a brief outline of the Simul Objectives. Choose the content for these boxes carefully because these are the first pieces of information that the intending Challenger will see. If, later, you feel that you could improve this information, simply use the Edit link that is available to the Simul creator on the Simul home page. Be aware that long descriptors may be truncated when shown on the Join Simuls page, so try to ensure that the first few words are sufficiently eye catching and informative.

If, inadvertently, you fail to complete the Simul Name details the default name will be set as [username]'s Simul. You can edit this later if you wish.

The default settings have been chosen carefully, and in most cases you will find them quite suitable. However, there are some choices which only you, the creator, can make.

When you choose the Number of Current Games be aware that, as ChessWorld Simuls run continuously you will be choosing a fixed number of games to add to your current gameload.

You choose the color with which you prefer to play. In conventional Simuls it is common practice for the Host to play White, but you may choose either White or Black or opt for a mixture of White and Black. In the latter case, board colours are allocated alternately as further Challengers join the Simul.

The Time Limit defaults to 5 days per move which is convenient for the Host, bearing in mind that, potentially, a large number of games have to be played, but it is important to be aware that your Opponents, the Challengers, are each only playing one board against you and they may well be quite comfortable with faster responses from you.

As with conventional Tournaments you can choose to create Rated or Unrated games and you can, in the former case, also set your preferred Opponent's Rating range. We suggest that you carefully review these settings before you finish the creation process, otherwise you may find that you are playing Members with a wider range of ability than you may perhaps prefer.

By default, ChessWorld Simuls are open to all Members, but you may wish to restrict your Challengers to Members who currently appear on your Friends list. For further information on this option, please refer to Q. How can my Friends join my Simul? below.

If you wish to restrict players to those Members claiming allegience to a particular Country flag you can do so by selecting the appropriate option from the Country Participants list. By default this list is set to allow players from Any Country. However, you can limit players to those who display your own flag by selecting Same Country as you. You may, if you so wish, specify any other Country from the list.

When you choose any option other than the default value the 'globe' icon on the Join Simuls page will change to reflect your choice.

Please be aware that the flag shown on a Homepage does not necessily mean that the Member is resident in, or is a citizen of, that Country.

Country specific Simuls are only available to Members who show the corresponding flag on their Homepage.

The final choice to be made is whether or not you wish to allow Guest Members to challenge you. If so, leave the default setting for Guest Members Allowed but be aware that this does not prevent Full Members from joining. If you wish to restrict your challengers to Full Members only, check the appropriate box.

As it is possible for the Host to control their potential gameload, rather than allowing the Simul to slowly decline, as successive games are completed the Simul remains open for further Challengers who may join at any time that there is a vacant board. When they complete the joining process a new board number is automatically generated and they will play with the appropriate color. Once a Challenger has completed their game, rather than looking for another Simul to join, they may, if they wish, re-challenge their current Host.

So that the Host can control their game loads over a period of time it is possible for the Host to temporarily stop any further enrollments. To do this it is necessary to click the   Prevent Enrollments   button, which will then change to show   Allow Enrollments  . You, as the Host, can stop and start the Simul enrollment process as often as you wish. If you want to allow the Simul to close naturally as each game is concluded, simply leave the Simul in the STOPPED state.

Visit Join Games ... Join New Simuls and select from one of the Simuls currently displayed. You are eligible to join the Simul of your choice. Simuls where your Membership status or current Rating would disqualify you are not shown.

Before you make your selection you may wish to check the basic details, such as the name of the Host, (Simul creator), Min Rating, Max Rating, and Time Limit. You can also check the current number of active boards as well as the number of boards in total, shown in the Capacity column.

The multi-colored bar at the right side of the screen shows you the current number of wins, draws and losses recorded by the Host which you may find helpful in judging the strength of the chosen Simul.

As a Challenger you can end your game at any time by pressing the   Resign   button on the game page.

As a Host, you cannot close the Simul permanently. However, when you visit the Simul homepage, you can click the   Prevent Enrollments   button. From that point on, until and unless you click the   Allow Enrollments   button, the Simul is effectively finished as soon as any outstanding games have been completed.

If you wish to reduce your current gameload but continue playing in the Simul, you can use these buttons at any time so that you can control the number of new Challengers.

This feature is restricted to your Reciprocated Friends, as shown on the My Stuff ... My Friends page.

Once the Host has created the Simul their Reciprocated Friends will see the message Join their Simul against the Host's name in their Friends list. Clicking on that link opens the relevant Simul page; if there are still boards available the   Join this Simul   button will be visible, otherwise an informative message is shown.

Challengers will not be able to join a Simul which excludes their current ChessWorld rating.

The ChessWorld Simuls homepage provides you with clickable links to the game board, which opens in a new window, and to the Analyse board, which opens in a small pop-up window.

The mini-board is always shown from your own perspective, as on the main play page, and, as a reminder to you, a small white or black pawn icon indicates the colour that you are playing. As a further aid, either the     White    to move   or     Black    to move   icon, as appropriate, is also shown.

Full Members may be identified by the 'star' icon shown before their rating.

To help inform your fellow players both Host and Challenger names are shown as hyperlinks, which, when clicked, open up the relevant Homepage in a new window. Host and Challenger rating details are updated whenever necessary to ensure that this page always shows current information. To conserve space and to provide an attractive layout longer Challenger names are truncated; rolling the mouse over the name will show a small box displaying the full name.

When a game has exceeded the specified Time Limit the Host will see a small 'clock' icon next to the board. Clicking on this will initiate the Claim Win sequence, unless the Challenger is currently on holiday, without the need to open the relevant play page. However, the Claim Win and Abort options will still be available as appropriate whenever the play page is visited and may be used in the normal manner to finish a game.

When visiting the Simul homepage the Host will see the 'clock' icon against any game that has exceeded the time limit. Clicking on this will initiate the Claim Win sequence unless the Challenger is currently on holiday.

This feature allows the Host to manage their gameload more efficiently without the need to visit individual game boards to claim any wins as the Simul homepage remains the principal focus on screen.

As completed games are removed from the display, the remaining games are rearranged as necessary.

All ChessWorld rated games can have an effect on your current rating, and playing in Simuls is no different.

If you are a Challenger then your only performance measure is your result, and your current rating.

However, if you are the Host, the pie-chart at the top of the Simul homepage shows your current result statistics, for games within that Simul only. If you are the Host for several Simuls, each will show a pie-chart based upon the results for the specific individual Simul; results from several Simuls cannot be combined.

Yes. ChessWorld Simuls are like any other game and your rating may change according to the result of the game.

When winning, or losing, games against players with a much lower rating than your own the changes are limited, as in all ChessWorld games, so as to discourage players picking up 'easy' wins by playing very weak players.

No. In a Simul the Challenger plays only a single game and, as such, would not be eligible.

Hosts can measure their success by checking the pie-chart, based upon the results of all games exceeding 10 half-moves in length, which appears at the top of every Simul homepage. After completing a number of games you may feel that a useful measure of success, in that Simul, is when your wins exceed 50% of the games played.

To provide you with an accurate means to measure your success, or otherwise, in each of your Simuls we only record the result of games in which more than ten half-moves have been made. The only exception is when a shorter game is concluded by checkmate.

Any games that are allowed to time-out, when they are awarded T-T status, are effectively abandoned and no result is recorded.

These criteria are commonly used across ChessWorld. Be aware that, in the case of such short games, there is no effect on player Ratings.

On every Simul homepage the pie-chart gives a general, graphical indication of your overall performance. In the case of Rated Simuls the Detailed Breakdown by Opponents link provides a detailed breakdown of Simul performance.

In the case of Unrated Simuls, this link provides a list of all completed games.

You can check if a player has Hosted any Simuls by visiting their Homepage and opening the  Events  tab.

If the player has hosted any previous Simuls you will see a link, such as This player created x Simuls. If you click on this link you will see a page where all Simuls Hosted by that player appear at the top of the list. You can check the current status and view the criteria for each Simul.

If you wish to examine the games in a particular Simul more closely simply click on the Simul Name.

Yes. You may create as many concurrent Simuls as you wish and you may choose different criteria for each Simul that you create; always make sure that you provide clear objectives for each Simul.

Be aware that your Simul performance, as measured by the pie-chart that appears on every Simul homepage, is based upon each individual Simul that you create; results from several Simuls cannot be combined.

Yes. In common with other ChessWorld features we allow former Full Members to continue with their present gameload, but our normal Guest Member restrictions apply. The change of Membership status means that some site features become unavailable.

In the case of a ChessWorld Simul, you remain free to continue Hosting any existing games. However, the Simul will no longer be visible to other Members, apart from those who are currently participating. In effect this means that the Simul is closed until such time as you renew your Membership subscription. Once your renewal is confirmed your Simul will become visible once again, unless you have chosen to use the   Prevent Enrollments    option.

Exactly in the same manner as when you are playing conventional ChessWorld games. If, when you are on holiday, the time limit is exceeded, the 'clock' icon will automatically appear against the boards on the Simul homepage but, as in all ChessWorld games, the Claim Win process is disabled until the holiday period has expired.

One or two Simul icons may appear, with any other ChessWorld icons, next to the player name on the play page and indicate that the player is either currently Hosting an active Simul or has done so in in the past.

The red icon indicates that that player is currently Hosting one or more active Simuls which are open to new players, subject to boards being available and any qualifying criteria specified by the Host.

The purple icon indicates that the player has Hosted one or more Simuls in the past. However, at the present time they have applied the   Prevent Enrollments   button to all Simuls that they have created so that no further enrollments can be accepted.

When viewing any board where a player is displaying a Simul icon, the act of rolling the mouse over the icon will display an informative note.




Pyramids

ChessWorld provides a range of different Pyramids available to Full Members. Guest Members are restricted to the Guest Pyramid only.

You can find a list of Pyramids which you are eligible to join by visiting Join Games ... Join New Pyramids or My Stuff ... My Pyramids.

To play a game on a Pyramid you must first join the Pyramid by clicking the Join link.

Once you have done that you will, playing as White, then be able to challenge any available player, who will be clearly identified, on the Challenge list. As soon as you join the Pyramid, your name will appear on the Challenge list, and any other Player may challenge you to a game where you will be playing with Black.

Any challenges, once made, must be accepted!

Game(s) are set up immediately and the ChessWorld clock starts.

You can make a challenge when you first join the Pyramid. After finishing a game when playing White you are free to challenge another player, provided that one is available on your Level. Any available players will be clearly shown and identified on the Challenge list.

After finishing a game when playing Black you then become available to be challenged. Once such a challenge is made the ChessWorld server accepts it and you are notified that the game has begun. You cannot reject a challenge other than by forfeiting the game and accepting any relevant penalties and probable demotion to a lower Level.

With one exception, there are no rating restrictions on players in any Pyramid.

However, in the interests of fair play and balanced opposition we do prevent any players who have attained a ChessWorld rating of 2500, or above, from making further challenges within their current Pyramid.

When this happens the player is removed from the Pyramid and automatically entered in the
Champions League Pyramid where they will have to the opportunity to challenge players with a rating of 2500+.

In the event that a player falls below the level of 2500 they may choose to leave the
Champions League Pyramid and re-enter one of the existing Pyramids. However, whenever ratings change as a result of normal play the same exclusion process will be invoked.

Unless there is no alternative, to protect the integrity of the Pyramid you should complete any current games and then go to the Pyramid homepage and click on the Team Homepage link. On the resulting display look for, and then click on, the link I wish to leave this team.

You will then be removed from the Pyramid.

If you do not wish to complete your current games you should resign them as a courtesy to your Opponent, rather than simply allowing them to time out.

You can check your current status in the Pyramid(s) that you are playing in by visiting
My Stuff ... My Pyramids. The display page will show all game numbers that you are playing and will also show you clearly where you may offer a further challenge.

The normal Rules of Chess apply.

There are special Rules regarding promotion and demotion between Levels; these are explained in detail on every Pyramid homepage.