Rules for the ACP Tour 2004-2005

1. Purpose

The ACP Tour is a tournament circuit set up by the ACP (Association of Chess Professionals), which aims to regroup all important tournaments in the world, during a one-year chess season. Players taking part in these events will gain points according to a ranking system devised by the ACP. Once the season is over, a given number of best players are qualified for a final event, called the ACP Masters. The winner of the ACP Masters shall be declared the best chess player of the year according to the ACP.



2. Dates

The first ACP Tour takes place from the 1^st of July 2004 until the 30^th of June 2005. A tournament is eligible for the 1^st ACP Tour if the date of its first round is included in this time span.



3. Tournaments
1. The ACP Tour shall include only strong international individual tournaments, the method used in determining their strength is exposed below, see paragraph IV entitled "ACP Points System". Events played at both classical and rapid time-controls will be counted, albeit with an inferior coefficient for rapid events compared to classical ones. Classical events are those where a player has at least 90 minutes (regardless of possible time increments) to complete the game. Rapid events are those where a player has at least 15 minutes (regardless of possible time increments) to complete the game. This means that blitz tournaments, team competitions, national championships and insufficiently strong individual tournaments will not be part of the ACP Tour.


2. The events counted in the ACP Tour can be held according the following formats: round-robin tournaments (RR), Swiss systems (Opens) and knock-out tournaments (KO), the Dortmund system (DS) and Warsaw system (WS).


3. The ACP Board will consider including in the ACP Tour all tournaments of Level E and above (the equivalent of FIDE Category 14 and above, as exposed below). As soon as such a tournament is officially announced, the ACP Board will contact the organizers and propose them to be included in the ACP Tour. If the organizers agree to be fully part of the ACP Tour, their tournament will be counted according to the ACP Points System. In case the organizers decline the proposal, tournaments of level A or B will be counted anyway in the ACP Tour, however the number of ACP points distributed in these events will be divided by two, while tournaments of level C, D or E will not be counted in the ACP Tour. The rationale behind this important rule is the following: the ACP Board has estimated that players taking part in very strong tournaments (above level C), whose organizers do not wish to enter the ACP Tour, should not be completely penalized by not being able to score any ACP points at all. On the other hand, the ACP wants to encourage those organizers who support the ACP Tour, hence the difference in the points distribution.


4. A complete list of tournaments included in the ACP Tour will be published on the ACP website (www.chess-players.org) and updated as the season unfolds. Since tournaments are sometimes announced at a short notice before they begin, the ACP Board may not always obtain an answer from the organizers in time. Therefore, for the first season, it is allowed for some tournaments to be officially announced as part of the ACP Tour once they have already started, considering this is the first time such a circuit is put in place. The criteria for eligibility in the ACP Tour are known in advance (e.g. all tournaments of level E and higher), therefore players are able to plan their events. In the following editions of the ACP Tour, a minimal time notice before the tournament begins will be established. If a tournament organizer fails to announce his participation in the ACP Tour before the notice expires, his tournament will not be counted in the ACP Tour with a full coefficient.


5. The decision to include a tournament before its beginning in the ACP Tour is made by the ACP Board, based on the information it has about the forthcoming event. If an event turns out to be weaker than level E (this may happen with any format in case a player forfeits at the last moment), the ACP Board will still grant the event the minimal status of level E.


6. The ACP Board reserves itself the right to refuse counting a tournament, in case the results appear particularly suspicious. This will avoid pre-arranged tournaments (such have existed in the past) influencing the final players' rankings.


7. In the event of circumstances unforeseen in the rules, the ACP Board shall decide on the matter at hand. Decisions from the ACP Board are final.


8. The present rules apply for the first ACP Tour, they may be amended for future editions of the ACP Tour with the aim of improving the circuit's attractiveness.


4. ACP Points System
1. The tournaments of the ACP Tour fall into 6 different levels according to their strength (R):

   Level                                                  R
   
   1) E                                                           2576-2600
   2) D                                                           2601-2625 
   3) C                                                           2626-2650
   4) B                                                           2651-2675
   5) A                                                           2676 and over
   6) ACP Grand Slam Rapid
   

   R is determined as follows:
   - for RR tournaments

   R = Ra,

   where
   Ra = average elo rating of all participants;
   
   
   

   - for KO tournaments

   R = (2xR1+R2) / 3

   where
   R1 - average elo rating of the top half in the starting list,
   R2 - average elo rating of the bottom half in the starting list;

   - for Open and WS tournaments

   R = (3xR1+2xR2+R3) / 6 + 50

   where
   R1 - average elo rating of top 10 players in the starting list,
   R2 - average elo rating of the next 10 players, from 11 to 20, in the starting list,
   R3 - average elo rating of the next 10 players, from 21 to 30, in the starting list,
   if the total number of players in the tournament is over 90;

   and
   R1 - average elo rating of top 1/9 part of all players in the starting list,
   R2 - average elo rating of the next 1/9 part of all players in the starting list,
   R3 - average elo rating of the next 1/9 part of all players in the starting list,
   if the total number of players in the tournament is 90 or less.



2. Within one level, ACP points are distributed using three different coefficients, according to the type of tournament. In the ascending order of their coefficient, the three types of tournaments are:
   • Rapid tournaments
   • Grand Slam Rapid tournaments
   • Classical tournaments


3. For a detailed presentation of Grand Slam Rapid events, see Annex 1.
   For the detailed tables of the ACP Points System, see Annex 2.
   For an example of calculation using the ACP Points System, based on the first semester of 2004, see Annex 3.


4. Updated players' rankings will be published on the ACP website and shall appear on the 15^th of every month during the whole season.




5. End of season and qualification to the ACP Masters
1. Only ACP members are eligible for participation in the ACP Masters event. A player has to be an ACP member for both 2004 and 2005 in order to have his results counted in the first ACP Tour.


2. For those players who are not yet ACP members in 2004, they may apply for membership before the 15^th of November 2004. Past this date, the results of players who are not members will not be counted for the 1^st ACP Tour.


3. All ACP members will have to renew their membership in 2005, in order to have their results taken into account for the ACP Tour. The deadline for membership renewal is the 15^th of March 2005.


4. At the end of the season, the sum of the best five performances in tournaments of the ACP Tour will be calculated for each ACP member. The eight players who have scored the highest number of ACP points are qualified for the ACP Masters.


5. In case of tie for the qualifying place, the following tie-break system will be applied :
   
   
   1. The player who obtained his ACP points in the least number of tournaments qualifies for the Masters
   2. If the number of tournaments taken into account is equal for several players, the player who qualifies for the Masters is the one who scored the largest number of points, once the worst tournament of each player is withdrawn from the calculation; if it is not enough to make a difference, the next worst result is withdrawn, etc.
   3. If point A and B don't break the tie, a drawing of lots takes place to determine the qualifier.


6. The ACP Masters
1. The ACP Masters will be held over approximately two weeks, between September and December 2005.


2. The ACP Board will consider adding a very limited number of players to the eight qualifiers from the ACP Tour, by granting them wild-cards. This will only be done if such a measure will condition the sponsorship of the event. However, whenever possible, the ACP Board will give preference to a tournament format comprising only the eight qualifiers from the ACP Tour.


3. The exact format and prize-fund are currently being discussed with interested sponsors. All relevant information will be published on the ACP website in due time.

ACP Board

Contact information:
GM Pavel Tregubov
phone: +33-6-72 38 69 68
E-mail: gmtregubov@hotmail.com