USCF Online Rated, $1000 in Projected Prizes!

Tournament Info

• Date: Saturday, May 16th
• Sections: Open, U1200
• Entry Fee: $15 by 5/11, $20 by 5/15, $25 same-day
  • Free entry for GMs, IMs, FMs.
  • 1/2 point bye may be given for same-day registrations after 9:30am
    
• Time Control: Game/15 Minutes, 5-second increment
• Schedule: Rounds at 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:30pm, 2:30pm, 3:30pm (Central Time)
  • Half-point byes available for any round
  • Most games will take about 30 minutes to complete, so players will have some break time in between rounds
    
• Raffle: The first 25 players to register for the tournament will be put into a raffle to win a free book on Chessable , courtesy of IM John Bartholomew!

Prizes

• $1000 in prizes based on 50 paid entries per section
  
• Open: 1st $200, 2nd $100, 3rd $50, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400 each $50
• U1200: 1st $125, 2nd $75, 3rd $50, U1000, U800, U600 each $50
• Prizes may be adjusted based on specific section turnout

Rules

• The tournament will be paired using USCF standard ratings
• The tournament will be rated using USCF online ratings
• Accelerated pairings may be used at TD discretion
• Players may request in advance as many 1/2 point byes as needed

Tournament Logistics

• We will be posting standings and pairings for each round at https://tinyurl.com/y9dr568s.
• All communication between players, and TD announcements will be made over our Discord server at https://discord.gg/2xMxkKy.
• Once pairings are posted for each round, players can find their opponent on either chess.com or lichess.org and issue a challenge.
• If your opponent doesn't respond to your challenge within 10 minutes of the posted round time, message us to claim a forfeit win.
• If we don't yet have your usernames on Lichess, Lichess, and Discord, we cannot pair you for the tournament. Please send us a message on Discord or Email to let us know what they are. If we already have this information from you, you don't need to provide it again.
  

Cheating

• We will mainly determine if cheating occurred based on Lichess/Chess.com algorithms.
  
• A committee of players, including the TDs and several strong titled players, will analyze the games of all prize winners at the end of the tournament, looking for additional evidence that a player may have used computer assistance.
• The TDs reserve all rights to withhold prize money if we believe that cheating may have occured
• Penalties for cheating include but are not restricted to: Expulsion from the tournament, Suspension of MSCA membership, or Suspension of USCF membership.
• At the moment, we are not requiring all players to share their screens or video, though this is subject to change. We may require any particular individual to take these measures during the middle of the event if we have reason to believe they may be cheating.
• Please don't cheat! We have already caught several cheaters during the Online Grand Prix, before even adding these new measures. Confronting cheaters is the worst part about directing online tournaments, and we don't want to keep having to do it.