Gardner Chess Tournament Information

     Gardner Magnet School hopes to play an Invitational Chess Tournament later this school year.  This tournament will be a modified Swiss-System event. Third Graders will play Third Graders; Fourth Graders will play Fourth Graders; and Fifth Graders will play Fifth Graders.  Other than that modification, the tournament will follow the Swiss-System format.

     The tournament date will be announced after the first of the year.  A series of 20-minute rounds will continue until a winner in each grade level is determined. There will be about 5-10 minutes between rounds. 

     The top Gardner Chess Club players will be invited to participate in the tournament.  The number of Gardner players will be limited by how many players the other schools bring.  Last year about 8 players from each grade level participated in the tournament.

 

 

SWISS-SYSTEM TOURNAMENTS

The Swiss is the most common tournament format in the United States. An unlimited number of competitors play a specified number of games — no one is eliminated. Normally, as you continue to win games, you face progressively stronger opposition, leaving those not so successful to play against each other. Toward the end of the event, you will probably find yourself matched against players around your own level.

In Swiss-system events, players are paired with each other according to the following general principles:

1. A player is normally not paired with any other player more than once.
2. Players with the same score are paired whenever possible.
3. Colors are assigned by the director as fairly as possible. Alternating the colors is the ideal.

For the first round only, the players will be ranked (as much as possible) in a way that prevents school team players from competing against each other.

In the succeeding rounds, the director will use the same principles to pair each of the three score groups (those who won, those who drew, and those who lost). These pairing procedures will continue through the rest of the tournament.

 

  

Appendix A:

All players:

Must know or be able to do the following:

• Properly move all of the chess pieces
• Understand pawn promotion
• Understand rules for “advanced” moves: Castling and en passant capture (note: en passant is tough to teach, but please present it to your players, so all players are exposed to this move prior to the tournament)
• Understand Check and the ways to get out of check (move, block, capture)
• Understand Checkmate
• Understand the “touch-move” rule
• Understand the relative value of the pieces for this tournament: (Q=9, R=5, B=3, N=3, P=1, No Value assigned to King)

 

Appendix B:

Gardner Magnet Tournament Rules

Description: This is a modified Swiss-System chess tournament; the modifications will be for sections which will include Third Graders, Fourth Graders, and Fifth Graders. After the first round, you may be assigned to play someone from your own school. Games will consist of 20 minute rounds.  It is anticipated that 4-5 rounds should be enough to determine the winners. 

Prizes:  An individual trophy will be given for the top winner of each grade level.

YOU MUST: BOTH players are required to post their game result together to the Tournament Director! Failure to do so may result in forfeiting the rest of your games.

Important reminders for players:

1.     If you have a complaint or challenge, raise your hand to get the floor Tournament Director’s attention. You have the right to question a rule violation by your opponent.  Do NOT wait until after the game is over to make a complaint. Do it immediately before other moves are made.

2.     Touch-move is in effect at all times; if adjusting, announce, “I adjust” BEFORE making an adjustment.

3.     Notations will not be required for this tournament this year.

4.     When finished with each game, raise your hand for the floor TD to confirm the game is over.  Then shake your opponent’s hand, reset the chessboard, post result, and leave the playing area.

5.     The playing area must remain quiet while games are in progress. No talking during play.

6.     If no one checkmates before the time limit, stay seated at your game until the floor TD determines the winner on points.

7.     Please clean your area before leaving.

8.     Parents and coaches are spectators. Your help is very important to us, but you may not interfere with the chess games.

 

Appendix C

 

En Passant

Perhaps the most obscure and least used moves in Chess is called En Passant. It can only occur when a player exercises his option to move his pawn two squares on its initial movement. When this happens, the opposing player has the option to take the moved pawn "en passant" as if it had only moved one square. This option, though, only stays open for one move.

In the example diagram above, the white pawn has just moved forward two squares. The black pawn, may now move diagonally to the square with the dot and remove the light piece as if the white pawn had only moved one square and was positioned where the dot is located.

The en passant move was developed after pawns were allowed to move more than one square on their initial move. This was done to make sure they retained some of the restrictions imposed by slow movement, while at the same time speeding up the game.

 

 

Appendix D

 

Castling

Castling is a special defensive maneuver. It is the only time in the game when more than one piece may be moved during a turn.

This move was invented in the 1500's to help speed up the game and to help balance the offense and defense.

The castling move has some fairly rigid caveats:

1. It can only occur if there are no pieces standing between the king and the rook.
2. Neither king nor rook may have moved from its original position.
3. There can be no opposing piece that could possibly capture the king in his original square, the square he moves through or the square that he ends the turn.
4. The king cannot have been placed in check before the move.

The king moves two squares toward the rook he intends to castle with (this may be either rook). The rook then moves to the square through which the king passed. Hopefully, the diagram above makes this clear.

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