FIDE RATED City of Belfast Classic Championship 2025

Sat 24th May, Sun 25th May, Mon 26th May

Venue: Castleview Suite, Maynard Sinclair Sports Pavilion, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland

6 round classic. Time control 90+30

Timetable:

Saturday 24 May:

Check-in 10am to 10:15am

Round 1 at 10:30am to 2:00pm

Round 2 at 3:00pm to 6:30pm

Sunday 25 May:

Round 3 at 10:30am to 2:00pm

Round 4 at 3:00pm to 6:30pm

Monday 26 May:

Round 5 at 10:30am to 2:00pm

Round 6 at 3:00pm to 6:30pm

Prize-giving at 6:30pm

One open section, with the champion awarded the perpetual Nemtzov Cup. The highest placed finish by a player rated U1700 will win the Henderson Cup.

Chief Arbiter: Brendan Jamison

Assistant Arbiters: Paul Reaney and Dermot Maguire

By entering the competition, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

FIDE Rules will apply.

The pairing software we use is Swiss Master 5.7 Build 8. This is not compatible with the Chess-Results website (which requires Swiss Manager) therefore the results will not appear online until the ICU Rating Officer uploads the results to the FIDE website on Tuesday 27 May 2025.

This tournament will be triple rated by FIDE, ICU and UCU

Spectators and parents of under 18s are not permitted in the playing hall during live games. Please watch hall through the glass wall and entrance lobby (and only enter hall after all games have finished and leave again before new round begins). We have had issues in the past with spectators and parents distracting chess players by talking in the hall and through phones ringing and making text noises.

One half point travelling bye may be requested before the deadline of 17 May. No byes will be awarded after this date and any byes requested during the tournament will be recorded as zero point byes. Half point byes can be allocated for rounds 1-5 only.

All players should be seated at their board 2 minutes before the start of each round (but 5 minutes before the start of round 1). All clocks will be started at the publicised start times for each round. A player not at the board will lose the game after 30 minutes has expired.

The use of our 6 live boards will be confirmed by mid-May if our tech director is available to run the live boards at this event. An extensive archive of live games are available to view at ulsterchess.net

Phones must be switched off before the start of play. Any mobile phone that makes a noise will lead to an automatic loss for the player, including the loss of rating points. Switched off phones can be left at the arbiter’s table.

Players must make at least 10 moves before agreeing a draw. The Arbiter will not accept games whereby players have pre-arranged a draw and the three-fold repetition has been executed during moves 1-3. If 10 moves have not been played, the Arbiter may record the result as 0-0, i.e. both players will be scored zero.

Players are not permitted to text or email the arbiter requesting pairings. The pairings will only be printed and attached to the wall in the playing hall. It is the player’s responsibility to view the pairings in the hall.

If you are travelling from outside Northern Ireland, you are very welcome. Just please note, players are not permitted to text or email the Arbiter requesting accommodation recommendations, it is the sole responsibility of chess players to arrange their own accommodation, based on their own needs.

Please note, at weekend events, it is not uncommon for a player to withdraw on the morning of a round or the afternoon round if feeling ill (before play has commenced) therefore to reduce the prospect of an opponent not getting a game, pairings may be updated (up to 15 minutes before start time of each round). If a player withdraws less than 15 minutes before the start of a round, the pairings will not be redone. The opponent will be awarded a default win.

Format: Open Swiss

Tie-breaks will be determined by Swiss Master 5.7 Build 8 in the following order: Buchholz, Progressive Score, TPR Mixed.

3 member Player’s Appeal Committee TBC after entries received. It will be chaired by Edward Khanzharov (FIDE-licensed National Arbiter)

As per FIDE guidelines, players should be members of their national federation to compete in a FIDE-rated event. Therefore, with the exception of newcomers or players visiting from overseas, local players should already be paid-up members of the Irish Chess Union [ICU] The 2024/2025 season began on 1st September 2024, ending on 31st August 2025. We currently have an inventory with 130 Northern Ireland players paid-up with the ICU. Please check your ICU membership status before emailing to register as the ICU has to pay a fee to FIDE for each individual player competing in a FIDE-rated classic event. The Chief Arbiter has admin access to ICU site to check member status of all entrants.

A full list of ICU membership rates are available here:

https://www.icu.ie/shop

Please note, any players without an over-the-board rating should send their ChessDotCom or LiChess username so we can create a provisional rating for the tournament seeding. Please note, online ratings can be 200-400 rating points higher than over-the-board ratings. A newcomer without any online activity will be given a standard provisional rating of 1400 and it will appear as 1400p in the seeding list at the beginning of the tournament.

Deadline to register: 12 noon on Saturday 17 May 2025

Payments must be made in advance to secure a place in this competition

£30 for adults (if paid before 12 noon on 17 May 2025) otherwise £40 for anyone paying after deadline.

£25 for under 18s and full-time students (if paid before 12 noon on 17 May 2025), otherwise £40 for anyone paying after deadline.

Based on current entry numbers at our weekend events in Belfast, we expect a prize pool of approximately £1,000 (depending on number of entries)

Full refunds will be issued to players withdrawing up to 24 hours before the start of Round 1 (i.e. withdrawing before 10:30am on Friday 23 May)

The venue has limited table capacity. We can accept 54 chess players.

To secure a place, please email fidechessni@gmail.com and follow up with payment before deadline. Payments can be taken by bank transfer, Revolut, PayPal or by cash at a prior event. Only players who pay in advance will be added to entry list.