Mediterranean “Checkmate Coronavirus” Team Chess Games 29/5-14/6/2020

The Mediterranean “Checkmate Coronavirus” Team Games, will be an Online Team Grand Prix for all member nations of the Mediterranean Chess Association and will take place every week for 3 weeks, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 29th May to 14th of June 2020.

The objective of these games is mostly to strengthen the ideals and values of unity, solidarity and participation.

The event will be part of FIDE’s Checkmate Coronavirus initiative and all participants will be entering the draw for the over 1.500 Checkmate Coronavirus prizes, including the at least 64 one week Guest invitations to the 2021 Moscow Olympiad (including air tickets, full board accommodation, side events and closing ceremony attendance).

Additionally, there will be 100 additional prizes by the Mediterranean Chess Association, only for our tournaments’ participants.

Schedule:

 Friday 29 th May, 5 th June & 12 th June

Mediterranean Grand Prix Bullet (1'+ 0'') at lichess.org 19.30 - 21.30 (UTC +3)

 Saturday 30 th May, 6 th June & 13 th June

Mediterranean Grand Prix Blitz (3'+ 2'') at lichess.org, 19.30 - 21.30 (UTC +3)

 Sunday 31 st May, 7 th June & 14 th June

Mediterranean Grand Prix Rapid (10'+ 5'') at lichess.org, 19.30 - 21.30 (UTC

+3)

Registration:

Each participating nation will need to nominate an administrator who will create an official Federation Chess Team on Lichess.org. To do this you can follow the simple instructions in this link https://lichess.org/team/new. The Mediterranean Chess Association can assist in any difficulties.

Nations must register for each tournament, at least 2 hours before the tournament commences, sending the link of their official Federation Chess Team on lichess.org with an email to geoffrey.borg@gmail.com and aliabbas.chess@gmail.com.

The Mediterranean Chess Association Official Club page on lichess.org is at https://lichess.org/team/mediterranean-chess-association-official-club .

The links to each tournament, will be sent to each nation’s team administrators and will be also be appearing on the main tournament page of lichess.org.

Only member nations of the Mediterranean Chess Association have a right to play. To find more about the Mediterranean Chess Association and which are the member nations, please visit our official website https://mca.fide.com .

Teams composition:

Each nation will invite its players & chess clubs to join as members of the team, sending them the link of the team.

Each nation team can have limitless (up to the server’s ability) numbers of players playing for their team.

Prizes:

All participating players will be entering the draw for the Checkmate Coronavirus prizes as described at the official organiser’s webpage https://checkmatecoronavirus.com/faq & https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S_LyPri-pow-j1aNNHYi5JsejqpnFNtU/view. 

In addition to that, only for our tournaments’ participants, there will be 100 prizes by the Mediterranean Chess Association.

Each prize winner, will win a 3-hour long interactive online lesson with a Grandmaster. The lessons will take place in groups of five people per group.

The prizes will be given accordingly:

3 prizes/seminars for each federation which participates, to accord them to three under 20 players of their choice. (To be eligible a federation must have an average of 10 players per tournament).

The remaining prizes will be awarded by a prize draw, regardless of the result. The players win one spot in the prize draw, for each tournament that they play in. (To be eligible for a spot in the prize draw, a player must have played at least 3 games in a tournament).

Playing and scoring system:

The playing system is the “Team Battle” Arena Tournaments system on lichess.

a) Each player is randomly drawn to players of other teams.

b) When their game is over, they are drawn to other opponents, without having to

wait.

c) Players can play against each other more than once.

d) They can late join or withdraw early. If a player gets disconnected for whatever reason, while playing, he might unfortunately lose the game according to the platform’s regulations.

e) The sum of points of the best 10 ranked players of each team, counts for the final score of the team.

f) If more than 10 nations declare interest in participation, they will be randomly divided in two groups. Each week the groups will be randomly changed.

The points of each weekly tournament will be added up. Nations with the most points at the end of the 3 week - Grand Prix, in each category, will be declared as Mediterranean Checkmate Coronavirus Bullet Champions, Blitz Champions and Rapid Champions.

Special note: If one of the top 10 players of a team is caught by the platforms fair play system, then his/her points are subtracted from the team’s total points and will not be replaced by another teammate. Lichess.org has an accurate fair play system and suspicious performances will be also monitored.

Further important notes might be announced during the course of the games.

Time Control:

The nations will be participating in 3 tournaments every week. One nation can choose to participate in fewer events but must inform so in advance.

On Friday: 19.30 - 21.30 Bullet 1’ + 0” Arena

On Saturday: 19.30 - 22.30 Blitz 3’ + 2” Arena

On Sunday: 19.30 - 22.30 Rapid 10’ + 0” Arena

(Time mentioned is UTC +3, meaning Athens & Istanbul time)