♟ 3rd Hadley Wood Rapid

Rules & schedule

3rd Hadley Wood Rapid · Sunday, 29 November 2026

Schedule

13:45Arrival
13:50Pairings draw
14:00Round 1
14:30Round 2
Tea break
15:15Round 3
15:45Round 4
Pizza order placement
16:25Round 5
17:00Tiebreaks

Dinner

We will be ordering a selection of pizzas to share from Pizza Treo. Each player can add one pizza to the order on the pizza order page.

Special rules

1. Gameplay

1.1
Clock move: A move is completed when the clock is depressed; touch move does not apply.
1.1.1
Exception to clock move: If the opponent touches a piece to move it before the player presses the clock, then the player's move was completed when the opponent started moving their piece, and touch move applies to the opponent for this move.
1.2
Illegal moves: An illegal move awards 1 minute bonus time to the opponent. Please administer this yourselves without an arbiter.
1.3
The clock is 10 minutes + 5 second increment.

2. Pairings

2.1
Pairings will be determined by the Swiss system (FIDE Dutch), over 5 rounds.
2.2
The tournament is seeded.
2.2.1
Seeding is by the rating each player gives when signing up. Ratings from different sites and time controls are converted to a chess.com blitz equivalent using the ChessGoals comparison tables; the arbiter may exercise judgement to adjust seedings. Unrated players are seeded by the arbiter on a best-effort basis.
2.2.2
Round 1 pairs the top half of the seeding against the bottom half, in order. The top seed's colour is drawn at random.
2.2.3
Subsequent rounds are paired by score group in the usual Dutch way, with seeding as the order within each group.
2.3
All byes award a full point. No player receives more than one pairing-allocated bye.
2.4
In the event of an even number of players, there will be two byes per round so that the toddler can be entertained. Extra byes go to the lowest-ranked player who has not yet had one.

3. Tiebreaks

3.1
If, at the end of the tournament, there is a tie for 1st place, the winner will be decided by tiebreaks as follows:
3.1.1
If the tournament has overrun, the arbiter may alter these rules to shorten tiebreaks.
3.2
If two players tie:
3.2.1
They will play a 10-minute Armageddon game.
3.3
If three players tie:
3.3.1
They will play a 3-player single round robin of 3+1 blitz.
3.3.2
If after the round robin 2 players are tied, they will play a 3-minute Armageddon game.
3.3.3
If after the round robin 3 players are tied, they will play a round robin of 1+1 bullet.
3.3.4
If there remains a tie after a second round robin, the arbiter will think of something.
3.4
If four players tie:
3.4.1
There will be a 5-minute Armageddon knock-out, seeded by the final standings (Buchholz, then SB score, then black games, then a random draw).
3.5
If five or more players tie, they are disqualified for collusion.
3.6
All Armageddon games are sealed-bid Armageddon with a 1s increment.
3.7
Tied places other than first are not split, unless the tied players all want to play more chess.

4. The toddler

4.1
Players who have a bye or have finished their games are encouraged to entertain the toddler. (If she hasn't met you recently, you might need to give her some time to warm up to you, but after a bit she's happy to play with new people.)
4.2
If the toddler cries:
4.2.1
If either parent is not playing, they give the toddler a cuddle.
4.2.1.1
If neither parent is playing, the non-arbiter parent gives the toddler a cuddle.
4.2.2
If both parents are playing, the cuddle-parent is determined by the following criteria:
[C1]
A parent mathematically unable to place first is always preferred.
[C2]
Otherwise, a parent whose turn it is NOT is always preferred.
[C3]
Otherwise, the parent with a lower rank in the tournament is preferred.
4.2.3
If a parent leaves a game to give the toddler a cuddle on their opponent's turn, their opponent plays their move as normal, and then — if the parent has not returned to the board — pauses the clock.
4.2.4
If a parent leaves a game to give the toddler a cuddle on their turn, their opponent pauses the clock immediately.