The class-tournaments are a perpetual league-system for individual players, with promotion or relegation according to the results achieved.
The format of the groups is: 5 player double round robin, standard time control (30d+1d/m).
1. Players & results
All tournaments (ready for signup, ongoing and completed) are listed on the page https://www.schemingmind.com/home/classtournaments.aspx
On the each players profile page you can find his/her current 'players class' (if once registered for the Class Tournament system).
2. How to participate
Every full member of SchemingMind can participate in the Class Tournaments System.
As soon as you have a first rating in Standard chess here at SchemingMind you can start in the CT system. Therefore you have to register once on the page https://www.schemingmind.com/home/classtournaments.aspx
Note: this is the signup for the CT system in general. Thereafter you can join in groups of your class, by clicking on the particular tournament, to join there as usual.
There should be always one recruiting tournament available for each class. In case you can not find one, ask for it at the TD or webmaster.
You are free to play more than one class tournament group simultaneously, or you are also free to participate irregularly, taking shorter or longer breaks. How often, and how many tournaments you join, depends only on you.
3. Class Tournaments rules
3.1. The class system
There are five classes, counted from 1 (highest), to 5 (lowest)), plus an extra-class for the better class 1 players.
The Initial class of a player is determined according to the players rating (only rated players can join), with the following rating limits:
- Class 1 (rating >2100)
- Class 2 (rating 1800-2100)
- Class 3 (rating 1500-1799)
- Class 4 (rtg. 1100-1499)
- Class 5 (rating <1100)
Later on, players are promoted/relegated according to the results of the tournaments they play, disregard of their current rating.
3.2. Promotion
If you win a tourney of the same or a higher class, than you are currently in, you are promoted one class up. If your class is already higher than the tournament class, your current class doesn’t change.
[Remark: this can happen if you play a few tournaments simultaneously. Say, you are class 3 player, and join two class 3 tournaments, and you win both. Winning of the first of them promotes you to the class 2, winning the other one has no meaning as your players class is already higher than the tournament class.]
In case two players share the first place, with the same score, both are promoted (only the score is taken into account, the tiebreak Sonneborn-berger (SB) is of no relevance). In case more than two players have the same score at the top, the player (or two players) with the higher SB is (are) promoted. If SB is also the same for more than 2 players, nobody is promoted.
In summary:
- One player has the highest score: That player is promoted.
- Two players share highest score (same or different SB): Both are promoted.
- Three or more players share the highest score (different SB): Player with highest SB promoted, a 2nd player to be promoted also, if SB differs from 3rd player.
- Three or more players share the highest score (all with same SB): Nobody is promoted.
(New for Class 1 winners: see §3.5)
3.3. Relegation
If you lose (finish last) a tourney of the same or a lower class, than you are currently in, you are relegated one class down. If your players class is already lower than the tournament class, your current class doesn’t change.
[i.e., if you played two class 2 tournaments, and finished last in both, you are demoted only to class 3.]
In case two players share the last places, with the same score, both are relegated (only the score is taken into account, SB is of no relevance). In case more than two players have the same score at the bottom of the table, the player (or two players) with the lowest SB is (are) relegated. If SB is also the same for more than 2 players, nobody is demoted.
In summary:
- One player has the lowest score: That player is automatically relegated.
- Two players share lowest score (same or different SB): Both are relegated.
- Three or more players share the lowest score (different SB): The two with the lowest SB are relegated.
- Three or more players share the lowest score (all with same SB): Nobody is relegated.
(No relegation for players in Class 5, of course)
3.4. Table for pro-/demotion
We have to distinguish ‘Class of Player’ (CP) and ‘Class of Tournament’ (CT); because as it is allowed to start in parallel groups, this may be different. So, at the completion of a tournament, the following rules apply in case of promotion and demotion, taking into account the current status of CP and the status of CT:
Promotion:
CT1 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/1E(*); 2/1; 3/2; 4/3; 5/4
CT2 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/1; 2/1; 3/2; 4/3; 5/4
CT3 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/1; 2/2; 3/2; 4/3; 5/4
CT4 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/1; 2/2; 3/3; 4/3; 5/4
CT5 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/1; 2/2; 3/3; 4/4; 5/4
(*) 1E = Extra Class for winners in Class 1
Relegation:
CT1E -> current CP/ new CP: 1E/1; 1/1; 2/2 ..
CT1 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/2; 2/2; 3/3; 4/4; 5/5
CT2 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/2; 2/3; 3/3; 4/4; 5/5
CT3 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/2; 2/3; 3/4; 4/4; 5/5
CT4 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/2; 2/3; 3/4; 4/4; 5/5
CT5 --> current CP/ new CP: 1/2; 2/3; 3/4; 4/5; 5/5
3.5. (New) Extra Class for Class 1 winners
The 'Extra Class' (CT Class 1E) is set up for players who achieve a 1st place (or shared 1st place) in Class1. Here new groups will be offered for enrolment also on an ongoing basis, and participants can also play several groups in parallel.
In each group, points are awarded to all players, which are used in a 'perpetual ranking' and (from 2024) in an annual ranking. The points gained are equal to the board points won (win = 1, draw = 0.5), for the annual ranking the 3 best results from the groups played are considered per year.
At the completion of a group, the last placed player(s) will be relegated, all others may continue to play in new groups in CT Class 1E.
Since it is to be expected that the restarting of groups in the Extra Class is less frequent than in Class 1, the players in Class 1E also continue to belong to Class 1, i.e. they may compete in both in parallel. Acc., in the players profiles both classes are displayed.
3.6. Applying the class changes
The class changes are applied within a few days after the tournament completion. In case the winner or loser is known before the tournament ends (say, somebody quickly wins or loses all the games), the class change may be performed before the tournament ends.
(updated: 09.08.2023)