End of Month
Caissa Students Only
EOM – End of Month Tournament Regulation
1. Purpose: the End of the Month Tournament (EOM) has been and is a very important part of our training program for over a decade. It is open only to Caissa Students (students who have taken any of our classes - trials excluded - in the 3 months before the tournament date). We believe this is one of the best ways to prepare for more serious events. Focus is on social chess with a flavour of competition as a friendly atmosphere is a key feature of the EOM.
2. Schedule: seasonal cycle oriented. Every cycle includes 3 tournaments (January/February/March for the Winter Cycle, April/May/June for the Spring Cycle and September/October/November for the Winter Cycle).
3. Eligibility: all our students from Stepping Stones 2 to Step 3 from Sheung Wan, Discovery Bay, private and online students as well as all our school ECA students are invited to join. Trial lessons won't provide eligibility. We aim to run one event per cycle in Discovery Bay and the other two in Sheung Wan.
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The EOM is not intended for players who have several years of experience playing tournaments and/or FIDE rating of any type. Instead, the EOM is to prepare our students for tournaments elsewhere.
4. Fees: entry fees in this event will be donated to Alzheimer's Research (https://www.caissahk.org/support-alzheimer-research)
5. Grouping: the tournament will be organized in two batches. One for Groups A & B (recording is compulsory), another one for Groups C & D (recording is optional). Entries are limited to the first 32 registrations in each batch in Sheung Wan (24 in Discovery Bay).
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The players, Caissa students well known by Caissa trainers, will be assigned to their group based on previous tournament results, the player's Step level or another form of assessment done by the Caissa coaches. Our objective is to make the games as balanced as possible for everybody.
6. Time and Time Control: games are played in Rapid format of 15m or 10m. Group C/D will play 1.30-3.30pm and Group A/B 4-6.30pm.
7. Format: players will be assigned to a group for the whole cycle and play for medals and trophies in their assigned group. On the tournament day each player can face players from another group (from a higher group if the player is doing well, from a lower group if doing not so well). In the unlikely event that a player need to change group during the same cycle, his score from previous events will be adjusted (-1 point when moving up, +1 point when moving down)
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8. Prizes Awarding: for every group, the winner, 2nd place and 3rd place (depending on the size of the group, there could be additional prizes) of each EOM leg receives a medal. The players at the end of the 3 months with the most points will be the Cycle EOM Champions and receive a trophy (best 2 results of the term will be considered).
9. Promotion: term prize winners (and other players as per coaches decision) will be upgraded to the one group up. E.g., A cycle winner in Group C will be promoted to Group B for next cycle. The Group A cycle prize winners are considered to be graduated from EOM, and not eligible to play in future cycles.
