Fair-Play Polices
General
Innovative Chess Solutions is proudly committed to ensuring that our tournaments are conducted with the utmost degree of fair-play and integrity. In our experience, most players will faithfully observe the rules and honestly play their best. However, it is an inherent nature of humanity that people will wrong each other, and unfortunately, chess is no exception.
Our goal with these polices is not to pursue revenge or retribution. Rather, our driving aim is to discourage dishonest behavior in the first place, and when it cannot be avoided, to make the victims of such behavior whole. In this policy statement, we desire to clarify what we do to disincentive and detect transgressions of fair-play, and to describe the applicable penalties for misconduct. Finally, please note this statement refers to our online tournaments as the regulations for our in-person events are covered elsewhere.
Fair-Play
A participant is considered to have transgressed the standards of fair play whenever he compasses any dishonest or otherwise sinful act or deed to obtain an unfair advantage over his opponent or the registrants of our tournaments at large. Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, using any engine or program to determine/analyze moves, soliciting or using advice from other persons to determine moves, using a chess book or any other written material (other than notation), obstructing the orderly progress of the tournament, and/or playing in any tournament without having paid the entry fee therefor. Aiding or abetting in any of the foregoing acts transgresses fair-play. For the avoidance of doubt, any violation of the Official Rules of Chess (7th Edition) as complied by the United States Chess Federation is deemed a violation of our fair-play standards, but actions may be considered violations without being included therein.
Detection Efforts
We utilize several innovative methods to detect fair-play transgressions, including:-
- Zoom Call. During the duration of each main event, all participants are required to be on a continuous Zoom call, which are always monitored by an experienced tournament director at all times. By mandating the adequate usage of cameras and prohibiting backgrounds, we can detect if players are receiving advice or consulting chess books.
- Fair-Play Checking Period. No prizes are issued until at least one week after the tournament has adjourned. Due to the immense fair play detection capabilities of our tournament platform, Chess.com, anyone using a chess engine or program to determine moves will likely be detected by Chess.com before that period expires, whereupon such persons are expelled from the platform. We are able to check if anyone has been so expelled due to fair-play, and if so, we will apply appropriate penalties.
- Player List Verification. Shortly after the tournament concludes, we compare the list of registrants’ usernames with the list of usernames of people who actually participated in the tournament. If anyone is included in the actual player list who is not also found in the registration list, we will investigate into the matter. Should we determine that such person did not register for the tournament, we will apply appropriate penalties.
- Investigative Review. If any player reports to us that they believe one or more of their opponents may have transgressed the standards of fair play, we carefully review the compliant, and if deemed warranted, investigate accordingly.
Sanctions
We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to impose such sanctions for fair-play transgressions as we believe are warranted by the facts and circumstances of the case. Some of the available sanctions include:-
- Reprimand: The transgressor and his parents are warned about the violation and advised not to reprise it. Generally, this penalty arises in minor rules infractions where the breech is unintentional, such as forgetting to attend the Zoom call.
- Censure: A permanent note is added to the transgressor’s internal record and a probationary period is fixed, but no further penalty is imposed. If any further breech occurs during the probationary period, usually six months to two years, a graver penalty may be levied for both violations combined.
- Disqualification: Most serious transgressions will incur disqualification from the tournament in which the breech occurred. If a player is disqualified, he will forfeit any prize and will have all of his non-losing games marked as being forfeited. His opponents will receive forfeit wins for any losses or draws they suffered to the disqualified player, for both prize and rating purposes.
- Temporary Removal: If a person was disqualified due to participating in one of our events without paying the entry fee, such person may be removed from our chess.com club until they have paid the entry fee for another online tournament.
- Suspension: A transgressor who commits a serious transgression while in a probationary period may be suspended from participating in our online tournaments for a stated period, in addition to the penalties of disqualification.
- Expulsion: In extreme cases, a transgressor may be expelled from our tournament system, thereby disqualifying such person from participating in any of our tournaments, online or in-person, forever. We hope never to need this sanction.
Conducing Notes
By participating in any of our online tournaments, you and your parents agree to these policies and acknowledge that there is no right to any refund due to the imposition of any sanction, whether mentioned aforesaid or not. All questions as to whether a transgression of our fair-play standards has occurred, and what the appropriate sanction (if any) is therefor, is at the sole discretion of Innovative Chess Solutions, LLC, which reserves the right to amend or abolish these policies at any time by updating this webpage. We hope that this policy statement has well informed you about how we deal with fair-play issues and what you can expect from us in this regard. As always, thank you for your time and attention!