Some Games from Engine Forbidden Tournaments

Engine-Forbidden Championship and 1st Engine Forbidden Aspirers Tournament (2019)

We have started an Engine-Forbidden Championship with 16 players and 1st Engine Forbidden Aspirers Tournament with 7 players. This was started in end September 2019. Since this is the first time we will be having an Engine-Forbidden Championship, we addressed some of the common questions often asked about special rules and regulations:

Selection

The entries received was arranged according to No-Engine Ratings List as on 1st September 2019 and the Engine-Allowed Rating will be used to decide among players with the same No-Engine rating.

The top 16 entries will constitute the Engine-Forbidden Championship and the next 7 entries will constitute the Aspirers Tournament.

Entries were closed on 14-09-2019.

Rules and Regulations

The Championship and Aspirers Tournaments will be played on AICCF Webserver and the rules and regulations of Normal rate of play will apply. The time limit will be 50 days per 10 moves. The games will be AICCF-rated but not ICCF-rated.

Players are not allowed to use computer or chess engines to analyse their games.

To analyse your game you should use a physical chess board or the analysis board provided for this purpose at AICCF server (AICCF server has an analysis board only for Engine Forbidden games). Some players find it sufficient to only look at the graphical board and make their move.

Opening books can be used, but it should be either a printed book or downloaded PDF, or an offline database. You are not allowed to open a chess playing program such as Fritz because such programs are connected to servers which have an inbuilt engine. Program like SCID, Aquarium, Arena etc. should not be used because engine suggestions are shown with just one click.

You can refer to your own games as well as other published games as reference, but these should not be opened on a chess playing program such as Fritz.

When the position reaches a situation when there are 6-men or less, the game will be automatically stopped and the Webserver Manager will refer to the tablebase and set the result.

Administrators

The Tournament Administrators will be:

Dr Ambar Chatterjee
DrAmbar@gmail.com and

Om Prakash
ommprakasshh@gmail.com.

Technical problems as well as suspicion of engine use should be reported by Emails marked to both Administrators.

How can engine use be detected?

Algorithms for engine detection will be applied by the administrators. While engine detection can never be perfect, nowadays one can decide with a great degree of correctness. Participants also have to take a pledge of no engine use. The text of the pledge will be sent to the selected players by email and they must send their acceptance. When a player suspects that his opponent is using engines, he should contact the administrators on DrAmbar@gmail.com and ommprakasshh@gmail.com. The decision of the administrators will be final and cannot be contested. A player using engines will be deemed to have lost all his games in the Championship and will also not be allowed to play in further Engine Forbidden tournaments for period of two years (but can continue playing in Engine Allowed tournaments).

Silent Withdrawals

A player who does not start his games, or stops replying suddenly will similarly be barred from further play in all Engine-Forbidden tournaments for a period of two years. If a player faces a genuine problem such as illness, family problem etc., he should resign in all his games, or send an email/WhatsApp to the administrators. Even sending a WhatsApp message on the AICCF group is sufficient. If this is not possible immediately (e.g. due to emergency), contact should be made as soon as possible.

Entry Fees

There will be no entry fees for the 1st Engine Forbidden AICCF Championship.

Ties

Ties if any will be resolved in the following order:

1. Direct encounter (Results of tied players against each other)
2. Greater number of wins
3. Sonneborn-Berger Score (also called Neustadtl Sonneborn-Berger Score) S.B.Score is calculated by adding the sum of the scores of the players he has defeated to half the sum of the scores of those he has drawn against
4. Koya system (Number of points achieved against all opponents who have scored 50% or more)
5. Toss of coin

Tie-breaking rules will not be changed. They are NOT linked to FIDE or ICCF tie-breaking rules.