2024 Blitz Ladder Rules
Competition is to run for the course of the season. All games are to be ECF rated. There are no requirements to join ECF for Blitz games to be rated. Players without an ECF grading number will be assigned one automatically. Games can be arranged ad-hoc between participating members. Time control is 10 minutes each with no increment.
Games should not be played whilst a home league match is underway, and should be limited to the first 2 hours of a club night (i.e. no games to be started after 21:10) to prevent disruption of the latter stages of club championship games. Regardless, players should make efforts to keep the play to an appropriate level of noise.
A ladder competition is a ranking system where results move a player up or down the ladder.
Entered players at the start of the season are seeded with a rating determined by the following priority order:
ECF Blitz A/K
Whichever is highest of ECF Rapid A/K, ECF Standardplay A/K
ECF Blitz P
Whichever is highest of ECF Rapid P, ECF Standardplay P
Estimate by the orgainizer.
Subsequent entries will begin at the bottom of the ladder, with simultaneous entries resolved using the above seeding order.
A player may enter the competition at any before the final month, however must play at least 5 games to be eligible to win the competition.
Any player may play any player.
The results are resolved as follows.
If Player A is ranked two spots or more than Player B:
Player A wins: Player A gains one position
Draw: Player B gains one position
Player B wins: Player B gains two position.
If Player A is ranked within 1 spot of Player B
Player A wins: Player A gains one position
Draw: Neither player moves
Player B wins: Player B gains one positions.
Two players may not play more than two competition games against each other on one club night. A second consecutive game will only count as maximum one position gain.
At the first meeting of two players, colour should be decided by a flip. Subsequent games between these players at any point in the competition should reverse the colour each time. This will not be policed, a game is valid regardless of whether the valid colour was played. Results should be submitted to the organizer (tom@tmoitie.co.uk) within two days of the games being played.
Ladder results from same day will be added in a rotation, starting from the game containing the lowest ranked player to the top ranked player.
In the final month of the competition, no new entries will be accepted and games may only be played between players within five ladder spots of one another (e.g. 1st place and 6th place may play).
The final day of competition will be determined by the organiser. Obvious attempts to game the system to gain an advantage in the late stages may result in games forfeit.