Chess tournament - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A chess tournament is a series of chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851

London 1851 chess tournament

right|thumb|[[Adolf Anderssen]] won both the London International Tournament and the rival London Club Tournament.London 1851 was the first international chess tournament. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess...

, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.

Today, the most recognized chess tournaments for individual competition include the Linares chess tournament

Linares chess tournament

The Linares International Chess Tournament , is an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it is held...

and the Corus chess tournament

Corus chess tournament

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...

. The largest team chess tournament is the Chess Olympiad

Chess Olympiad

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

, in which players compete for their country's team in the same fashion as the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

. Since the 1950s, chess computers

Computer chess

Computer chess is computer architecture encompassing hardware and software capable of playing chess autonomously without human guidance. Computer chess acts as solo entertainment , as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human...

have even begun entering the tournament scene.

Most chess tournaments are organized and ruled according to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) handbook, which offers guidelines and regulations for conducting tournaments. Chess tournaments are mainly held in either round-robin style

Round-robin tournament

A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...

, Swiss system style

Swiss system tournament

A Swiss-system tournament is a commonly used type of tournament where players or teams need to be paired to face each other for several rounds of competition. This type of tournament was first used in a Zurich chess tournament in 1895, hence the name "Swiss system". The Swiss system is used when...

or elimination style

Single-elimination tournament

A single-elimination tournament, also called a knockout, cup or sudden death tournament, is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match or bracket is immediately eliminated from winning the championship or first prize in the event...

to determine a winning party.

History

Although modern chess had been established since around 1475, the first tournament (in the sense of structured competitions) was in Leeds in 1841. There was a knockout tournament in London in 1849 and a tournament in Amsterdam in 1851. The first international

International

----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...

chess tournament was held in London in 1851. The London 1851 tournament

London 1851 chess tournament

took place during The Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition

The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October...

, and would serve as a guide for future international chess tournaments that would follow it. The tournament not only showed the need for time control

Time control

A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game clock...

s but it also clearly demonstrated the drawbacks to the knockout elimination tournament format. It was won by Adolf Anderssen

Adolf Anderssen

Karl Ernst Adolf Anderssen was a German chess master. He is considered to have been the world's leading chess player in the 1850s and 1860s...

of Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, who became regarded as the world's best chess player as a result.

The number of international chess tournaments increased rapidly afterwards. By the end of the 1850s, chess tournaments had been held in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, San Francisco, Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. By the end of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

there were 24 international chess tournaments per year, and by 1990 there were well over a thousand.

Chess Olympiads

An attempt was made in 1924

1924 Summer Olympics

The 1924 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1924 in Paris, France...

to include chess in the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

. However, because it was very difficult to distinguish between amateur and professional chess players, the event was called off. While the 1924 Summer Olympics

1924 Summer Olympics

The 1924 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1924 in Paris, France...

was taking place in Paris, the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad

1st unofficial Chess Olympiad

The first Team Chess Tournament had been held by coinciding the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, 12th - 20 July 1924, at Hotel Majestic. The core of the organizing committee were the Frenchmen Pierre Vincent and Alexander Alekhine. Fifty-four players representing 18 countries arrived to Paris...

took place separately from the Olympics, but also in Paris. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs

Fédération Internationale des Échecs

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...

(FIDE) was formed on the closing day of the first unofficial Chess Olympiad. FIDE organized the first official Chess Olympiad

1st Chess Olympiad

The 1st Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between July 18 and July 30, 1927, in London, United Kingdom...

in 1927 in which there were 16 participating countries. By the 29th Chess Olympiad

29th Chess Olympiad

The 29th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between November 16 and December 4, 1990, in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia.-References:...

in 1990, there were 127 member countries. The Chess Olympiads were held at irregular intervals by FIDE until 1950; since then, they have been held regularly every two years.

**Growth of Chess Olympiads**

Computers in chess tournaments

The first chess engine (a chess playing computer program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

) to beat a person in tournament play was the Mac Hack Six, in 1967. Soon after, tournaments were created just for chess computers. In 1970, the first North American Computer Chess Championship

North American Computer Chess Championship

The North American Computer Chess Championship was a computer chess championship held from 1970 to 1994. It was organised by the Association for Computing Machinery and by Dr. Monty Newborn, Professor of Computer Science at McGill University. It was one of the first computer chess tournaments. The...

(NACCC) was held in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and in 1974, the first World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...

(WCCC) was held in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

. Kaissa

Kaissa

Kaissa was a chess program developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. It was named so after the chess goddess Caissa. Kaissa became the first world computer chess champion in 1974 in Stockholm.- History :...

, a chess program of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

was named the world's first computer chess

Computer chess

champion. In 1995, the first World Computer Speed Chess Championship

World Computer Speed Chess Championship

World Computer Speed Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other at blitz chess time controls. It is held in conjunction with the World Computer Chess Championship...

was held in Paderborn, Germany for blitz chess. Top commercial programs such as Shredder

Shredder (chess)

Shredder is a commercial chess program developed in Germany by Stefan Meyer-Kahlen in 1993. Shredder won the World Microcomputer Chess Championship in 1996 and 2000, the World Computer Chess Championship in 1999 and 2003, the World Computer Speed Chess Championship in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and...

or Fritz

Fritz (chess)

Fritz is a German chess program developed by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist and published by ChessBase. There is also a version called Deep Fritz that is designed for multiprocessing....

have even surpassed world champion

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

players at short time control

Time control

s.

Rybka

Rybka

Rybka is a computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich. , Rybka is one of the top-rated engines on chess engine rating lists and has won many computer chess tournaments...

has won every World Computer Chess Championship since 2007. It was later found to have plagiarized other programs and had its titles revoked. Other champion level programs include Fritz

Fritz (chess)

Fritz is a German chess program developed by Frans Morsch and Mathias Feist and published by ChessBase. There is also a version called Deep Fritz that is designed for multiprocessing....

, HIARCS

HIARCS

HIARCS is a commercial computer chess program developed by Mark Uniacke. Its name is an acronym stands for higher intelligence auto response chess system.-Overview:...

, Junior

Junior (chess)

Junior is a computer chess program authored by the Israeli programmers Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky. Grandmaster Boris Alterman assisted, in particular with the opening book...

, Shredder

Shredder (chess)

, and Zappa

Zappa (chess)

Zappa is a chess engine written by Anthony Cozzie, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The program emphasizes sound search and a good use of multiple processors....

Rules

FIDE tournaments are held according to the FIDE handbook rules, which is used as a basic guide for many chess tournaments. The handbook contains nine articles dealing with chess competitions.

The chess clock

A chess clock is a clock with two separate time displays of which only one display can be running at a time. The player with the black pieces

White and Black in chess

In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...

will initiate their opponent's timer at the start of the game. Thus the player with the white pieces

White and Black in chess

will have their timer running first, and will make the first move. The player or the arbiter may end the game at any time after the player's opponent has oversteped their time limit. If a timed out clock remains unnoticed, the game will continue as normal. If the game needs to be interrupted, the arbiter shall stop the clock.

Irregularities

If it is found that the starting position of the pieces is incorrect, the game must be cancelled and restarted. If it is found that an illegal move has been made, the game must return to the position directly before the irregularity. For the first two illegal moves by a player, the arbiter shall give two minutes extra time to his opponent each time. If a player is to make a third illegal move in the same game, the arbiter can declare the game lost by the offending player. If a game begins with the piece colors

White and Black in chess

reversed, the game should be stopped and restarted unless an arbiter rules otherwise. If a player displaces any pieces, they should place them in the correct locations on their own time.

The recording of moves

In games with long time control

Time control

s, each player is required to record all moves of the game in algebraic chess notation

Algebraic chess notation

Algebraic notation is a method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is now standard among all chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers...

. However, if a player reaches less than five minutes on their clock, and does not have a time delay of thirty seconds or more, they are excused from recording the remaining game moves until the game has been completed. At the conclusion of the game, both players must sign each other's scoresheets and turn them to the event organizers if instructed to do so. In fast chess games, players are not required to record moves, as it would take away from important thinking time. The scoresheets must be visible to the arbiter at all times. Each player must be familiar with the following chess abbreviations

Punctuation (chess)

When annotating chess games, commentators frequently use question marks and exclamation points to denote a move as bad or good. The symbols normally used are "??", "?", "?!", "!?", "!", and "!!". The corresponding symbol is juxtaposed in the text immediately after the move When annotating chess...

Symbol	Meaning
=	Draw offer Draw by agreement In chess, a draw by agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1...
0-0	Kingside castling Castling Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
0-0-0	Queenside castling Castling Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
x	Capture
+	check
# or ++	Checkmate Checkmate Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
e.p.	Capture by "en passant" En passant En passant is a move in the board game of chess . It is a special pawn capture which can occur immediately after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an enemy pawn could have captured it had it moved only one square forward...

The drawn game

A player must make their own move before offering a draw

Draw by agreement

In chess, a draw by agreement is the outcome of a game due to the agreement of both players to a draw. A player may offer a draw to his opponent at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. The relevant portion of the FIDE laws of chess is article 9.1...

, and must not stop their own clock and start their opponent's clock before they have made the offer. No conditions may be attached to a draw offer. If a player claims a draw

Draw (chess)

In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

according to the rules of chess, the player is allowed to stop both clocks and record the draw claim as long as his or her opponent agrees to the claim. If the opponent disputes the draw claim the director may be called to come to a conclusion. If the claim is found to be correct, the game is drawn. Once a player has made a move from a position eligible for a draw, they lose their rights to claim a draw on that position.

Quickplay finish

The quickplay finish is the phase of the game when all remaining moves must be made in a limited time. If a player has two minutes or less left on their clock, they may ask the arbiter to adjudicate a draw. The arbiter must decide if the player's opponent is making any attempt to win the game by normal means, or if the position can be won in any way. If the arbiter decides against a draw, the player's opponent will be awarded two extra minutes of time. Otherwise, the game is drawn, and the decision of the arbiter is final.

Scoring

Symbol	Score
1–0	White wins
0–1	Black wins
½–½	Drawn game Draw (chess) In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...

Players are granted one point (1) for a win, a half (½) point for a draw, and no points (0) for a loss toward their tournament score, unless otherwise stated by the tournament director beforehand. Full-point byes are received when a player is excluded from a round because of an extra player. Thus, in tournaments with an odd number of players, a different player will receive a full-point each round. A full-point bye is equal in points to a normal win. Half-point byes can be requested by a player who will be unavailable for a round. If accepted, the player will receive a half-point, as if they had drawn the game. A player who wins by forfeit or default will also be granted one point. Players may use the following format to record the game score:

Player conduct

Players are not allowed to take any action that will bring the game into disrepute. For example, deliberate attempts at cheating by sneaking a captured piece back on to the board can be punished by this rule, rather than the rules dealing with illegal moves.

Players can not make any use of any outside information. This includes advice, notes, and analysis of another chess board. Electronic devices are not to be used in the tournament area unless approved by the arbiter. If a player's mobile phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

rings during play, they may immediately forfeit the game. Chess scoresheets may be used for recording matters relevant to the game. Players should not distract or annoy their competitor in any way. Once a player has finished their game, they are considered a spectator. Refusal of a player to comply with the rules may result in penalty. If two opponents both refuse to obey the rules, the game may be considered lost by both players. In 1976, smoking

Smoking

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...

was banned in a major tournament for the first time (the National Open, Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

The role of the arbiter

The arbiter's

International Arbiter

In chess, International Arbiter is a title awarded by FIDE to individuals deemed capable of acting as arbiter in important chess matches . The title was established in 1951....

job is to see that the Laws of Chess are observed and make decisions in the best interest of the competition, but must not interfere with the game otherwise. If a rule is broken, the arbiter may choose from a number of penalties including the following:

warning the offending player
increasing the remaining time of the opponent
reducing the remaining time of the offending player
declaring a game to be lost
reducing the points scored in a game by the offending player
increasing the points scored in a game by the opponent
expulsion of the offending a player from the event

The arbiter may also expel offending spectators from the venue. Spectators are also forbidden to use mobile phones at any time in the playing area, and may be expelled for it. Member federations are allowed to ask FIDE authorities to give an official decision about problems relating to the Laws of Chess.

Formats

Most chess tournaments are held in either round-robin style, Swiss system style or single-elimination style.

Round-robin

In round-robin tournament

Round-robin tournament

A round-robin tournament is a competition "in which each contestant meets all other contestants in turn".-Terminology:...

s, each participant plays every other participant an equal number of times. Round-robin tournaments involving four participants are known as quads. Round-robin tournaments are often used for small groups because the element of luck is reduced when every player plays everyone else. Rating categories are sometimes used to separate players of different levels into different round-robin groups. The World Chess Federation, the Australian Chess Federation

Australian Chess Federation

The Australian Chess Federation is dedicated to promoting the game of chess in Australia, and is a member of FIDE, the world chess federation...

, and the United States Chess Federation

United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...

all use different categorization scales to distinguish player ability. Similar to the Round-robin style is the Scheveningen system

Scheveningen system

The Scheveningen system is a method of organizing a chess match between two teams. Each player on one team plays each player on the other team . The team with the highest number of games won is the winner. This system is a popular way to create title norm opportunities.The system was first used...

. The Scheveningen system is often used to face two chess teams against each other, where each player on one team plays each player on the other team.

Swiss system

A tournament that has too many participants for a round robin is commonly conducted as a Swiss system tournament

Swiss system tournament

. In the Swiss style, players are paired with opponents who have done equally well. For example, players with six points will play other players with six points (if possible), so that the player with the most points at the end of the tournament is the winner. Pairing players for Swiss system tournaments is often quite complicated, so tournament organizers commonly use a computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

to pair players.

Elimination

Single-elimination style

Single-elimination tournament

or knock-out style are also sometimes used for chess tournaments. In fact, the first international chess tournament was held in single-elimination style. In single-elimination tournaments, the loser of a game is immediately eliminated from winning the first prize. In most single-elimination chess tournaments there is a backdraw for players to compete for positions other than first. Players are normally given seeds based on their rating

Elo rating system

The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....

in order to prevent the highest ranked players from facing each other early in the competition. Double-elimination tournament

Double-elimination tournament

A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost two games or matches...

s and triple-elimination tournaments work in the same way as single-elimination tournaments except that a player loses eligibility to take first prize after two or three losses, respectively.

Handicap inclusivity

The physically handicapped are often welcomed to compete in chess tournaments. Although the Blind Chess Olympiad

Blind Chess Olympiad

The Blind Chess Olympiad is an international chess competition for the blind in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event takes place every four years, and is sponsored by the International Braille Chess Association...

is the most significant chess event for the blind

Blindness

Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...

and visually impaired, players in either group can participate at most standard tournaments including international ones. In some cases, specially designed chess boards with raised squares and pegs are used to aid the visually handicapped, while a tournament assistant can be used to help players with other physical handicaps.

Tournament categories

FIDE classifies tournaments according to the average Elo rating of the participants. The starting category for master-level tournaments is category I, which applies to a tournament whose participants have an average Elo rating from 2251 to 2275. From 2276 to 2300 it is a category II tournament, and so on with a further category every 25 points. The strongest tournaments to date have included a category XXI section.

Cat.	ELO Range
I	2251–2275
II	2276-2300
III	2301-2325
IV	2326-2350
V	2351-2375
VI	2376-2400
VII	2401-2425

Cat.	ELO Range
VIII	2426-2450
IX	2451-2475
X	2476-2500
XI	2501-2525
XII	2526-2550
XIII	2551-2575
XIV	2576-2600

Cat.	ELO Range
XV	2601-2625
XVI	2626-2650
XVII	2651-2675
XVIII	2676-2700
XIX	2701-2725
XX	2726-2750
XXI	2751-2775

Time controls

A time control is a mechanism in tournament play that allows each round of the match to finish in a timely fashion so that the tournament can proceed. The three main types of time controls used in chess tournaments are blitz, standard, and compensation.

Blitz

In blitz chess

Blitz chess

Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60 to 180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...

(also known as sudden death chess) each player starts with a fixed amount of time to spend on their moves of the game. The FIDE Handbook designates the following common blitz time controls:

Bullet: one or two minutes per side
Blitz: less than 15 minutes per side (often 5 minutes), sometimes with a small time increment every move
Rapid: 15–60 minutes per side (often 25 minutes), sometimes with a small time increment every move.
Armageddon: a single game guaranteed to produce a result, because the Black side has draw odds (that is, for Black, a draw is equal to a victory). To compensate, White has more time on the clock.

Blitz time controls increase the odds that one would "lose on time", meaning a forfeiture of the game due to the expiration of one's chess clock. Blitz tournaments are often documented with the notation "G/5" of "G/15", meaning "game in 5" and "game in 15", respectively.

Standard

Standard time controls (STC) are one's in which a player has a set amount of time to complete a specified number of moves. If the specified number of moves is met, the player's time will rejuvenate. The first standard time controls, introduced in 1861, were 24 moves in two hours, with the average game lasting five hours. In the mid-1980s, a new format, 40 moves in two hours, proved popular because few games lasted over 60 moves.

Compensation

Compensation (also known as incremental or delay) time control methods require the use a special clock, called a delay clock. There are two main forms which provide compensation for both the time lost in physically making a move and to make it such that a player can avoid having an ever-decreasing amount of time remaining.

Bronstein delay, invented by David Bronstein
David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was a Soviet chess grandmaster, who narrowly missed becoming World Chess Champion in 1951. Bronstein was described by his peers as a creative genius and master of tactics...

. When it becomes a player's turn to move, the clock waits for the delay period before starting to subtract from the player's remaining time. For example, if the delay is five seconds, the clock waits for five seconds before counting down. The time is not accumulated. If the player moves within the delay period, no time is subtracted from his remaining time.
Fischer delay, invented by Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

. When it becomes a player's turn to move, the delay is added to the player's remaining time. For example, if the delay is five seconds and the player has ten minutes remaining on his clock, when his clock is activated, he now has ten minutes and five seconds remaining. Time can be accumulated, so if the player moves within the delay period, his remaining time actually increases. This style of time control is common on internet chess server
Internet chess server
An Internet chess server is an external server that provides the facility to play, discuss, and view the board game of chess over the Internet...

s, where the delay is termed an "increment".

Prizes

The winners of chess tournaments are often rewarded with monetary prizes. Often, the chess tournament draws its prizes from a prize fund, from which all the winners in each section are rewarded. For example, the 2008 World Open chess tournament

World Open chess tournament

The World Open chess tournament is an annual open chess tournament played in most editions in Philadelphia and some editions in New York. The inaugural event was a huge success played in New York in 1973 with 732 participants, and was won by Walter Browne....

had a prize fund of $400,000. The winner of the open section was rewarded $30,000, while the winners of lesser sections were awarded subsequently smaller amounts. Other chess tournaments, such as the World Chess Championship

World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....

, also reward the winners with a title, such as the "World Chess Champion". Lesser tournaments sometimes replace monetary rewards with book

Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...

prizes or trophies

Trophy

A trophy is a reward for a specific achievement, and serves as recognition or evidence of merit. Trophies are most often awarded for sporting events, from youth sports to professional level athletics...

External links

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History

Chess Olympiads

Computers in chess tournaments

Rules

The chess clock

Irregularities

The recording of moves

The drawn game

Quickplay finish

Scoring

Player conduct

The role of the arbiter

Formats

Round-robin

Swiss system

Elimination

Handicap inclusivity

Tournament categories

Time controls

Blitz

Standard

Compensation

Prizes

See also

External links