ChessKid UK Championship

If you know what "brown sauce" and "banofffee pie" are, then there's a chance for you to become the first-ever ChessKid champion of the United Kingdom!

Coming Saturday, June 5, the inaugural ChessKid UK Championship will crown several national championship teams and individuals. The UK has the second-most number of ChessKids, so it was high time we brought an elite event to your shores.

If you are a student in years 1-13 whose school is anywhere in the UK, you are eligible! That includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, the Channel Islands, and any British Overseas Territory or Crown Dependency. 

Besides being crowned a ChessKid national champion, there are other wonderful and unique prizes on offer, including lessons with top British players!

Main Details and Prizes

• All sections will play 7 rounds with a time control of Game 10+5 (10 minutes starting time with 5 seconds increment per move). Expected total time for all players will be approximately 3.5 hours.
• All sections start at 12pm UK time on Saturday, June 5.
• The top 10 finishers in each section, after tiebreaks, will receive a custom plaque via mail. **If the winning child lives in an area with prohibitive shipping costs, ChessKid reserves the right to replace with ChessKid gold membership extension award.
• In addition, the top 5 finishers in each section, after tiebreaks, will win a special online mini-camp with a top British GM or WGM!
• Team prizes for the top three school teams will also be awarded. The top four scores from a school in the same section will comprise a team. Winning team members will also receive a plaque.
• ChessKid reserves the right to ask for proof of identity for all prize winners.
• The standings/crosstable shown after the event is not official until ChessKid does all of its fair play review and possible score modifications. This may take up to two weeks to make official.

Registration and Benefits of Early Registration

• Early registration is £25 if registered before Monday, May 24 at 11:59pm UK time.
• After May 24, registration is £35. No entries will be accepted after May 31 at 11:59 UK time.
• If you register on or before May 24, you will also be invited to the warmup event. 
• In addition, all UK kids registered on or before May 24 get a FREE pre-tournament online lesson with a top British grandmaster (details to follow).

Special Rules, Sections, and FAQs

The four sections will be Years 1-4, Years 5-6, Years 7-9, and Years 10-13.

• Student may not "play up" into older sections. They must play in the section which their grade falls inside.
• ChessKid will generate one-time use accounts and attach the best rating possible to that account for purposes of pairings (FIDE, ECF with conversion, or online rating). Students will not be using their "normal" ChessKid account and if you have never been a member of ChessKid that is not a problem.
• If a player does not have an over-the-board or online rating of any kind, ChessKid will start with a pre-determined rating.
• There will be a warmup event on Saturday, May 29th also at 12pm UK time, which is highly encouraged for kids to play and practice using the site. This tournament will be 5 rounds of 5+1 and will only take one hour. (There are no prizes as this is a practice tournament -- the intention is to test your computer, internet, and get used to registering and playing in an event.)
• Although team prizes will be awarded, there will be no pairing restrictions. Although it may not happen often, teammates may play each other depending on their scores.

Fair Play Rules

• Every game will be subject to review by ChessKid's fair play systems, ChessKid staff, and tournament directors.
• Players are not allowed to use outside assistance of any kind. That includes no computer assistance, no human assistance, no watching the live stream, no tablebases, no databases, no books, no notes, no past games, or scorebooks, no use of a second chess set to analyze variations.
• Players are only allowed to have one tab open on their browser-- the tab in which they are playing. No other websites are allowed to be open during the event. Players with more than one tab open will be considered to be breaking fair play rules for this event and can be disqualified on this basis alone as a "technical forfeiture."
• Any fair play violations may result in removal from the tournament, forfeiture of games, permanent expulsion from both ChessKid and Chess.com, and also possible further sanctions from the English Chess Federation. Players may appeal a ruling, however after a second review occurs, ChessKid's decision will be final. There will be no more appeals after that.
• Parents are highly encouraged to talk with their children before the event to discuss what is not allowed. Please join ChessKid in helping kids understand that chess teaches honesty and integrity. As part of the registration process, both parent and child must agree to all of these fair play terms.

 

Technical Details

• All games will be played on ChessKid.com's live server. No account is needed and if you already have an account, you won't need that either. Special one-time use tournament accounts will be created for all players. 
• Each section will be open for kids to 'join' the tournament about 30 minutes before the first round. Here's a video on how a child joins a live tournament on ChessKid. If you try to register after the starting time, you may not be able to play. It is required that you 'join' before the tournament starting time.
• ChessKid highly encourages playing on a laptop/desktop computer and not a tablet. Wifi is usually stronger and the site functions better. If you can plug in to an ethernet port, that is best. The reality of online play, even with the world champion, is that Wifi failures can impact an online tournament.
• If you must play on a tablet, the web site version is the only way (opening a browser on your device). The app will not work for this.
• Preferred browsers are Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• Clearing your browser's cache before the tournament is another great protective measure.
• If you experience issues in the middle of the game or the tournament, clicking 'refresh' on your browser is the first thing to do. If you 'refresh' in the middle of a game, it will never kick you out of the game and can only help.
• Two kids cannot play at the same time on the same device.
• If a family has any issues with logging in, playing, etc, there will be a live help desk on Slack that will open one hour before the first round (only for the main event, not for the warmup).

Good luck and register now!