The $16,000 open-to-all chess tournament

What is Freestyle Chess?

In a normal chess tournament there are very strict rules about what you can do or not do during a game. Certainly enlisting outside help – from a human or a computer – is one of the more serious transgressions. In Freestyle Chess everything is allowed. The players are expected to work in teams or with computers. There are no restrictions. Use Fritz or Deep Shredder, consult openings books or chess Informants, call Anand or Karpov and ask for help, if you know them well enough.

After the first PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament last Garry Kasparov wrote in "New in Chess": "Now the promise of computer-assisted chess is being realized in its natural home, the Internet. The PAL/CSS 'freestyle' tournament took place on Playchess.com with different combinations of humans and computers all competing together." The main tournament proceeded as Kasparov has predicted: "Even the strongest computers were eliminated by IMs and GMs using relatively weak machines to avoid blunders. Three of the four semifinalists were grandmasters working with friends and computers. But the fourth 'mystery' player, 'ZackS', had dominated the event..." (issue 5/2005, p. 96f).

Here are the results of the PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament 2005.

When and where?

The second PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament will be played on two weekends: March 18+19 and April 8+9, 2006. It will consist of a main tournament, in which everyone can participate, and the final phase in which the eight top scorers play a round robin tournament for the title and their share of the US $16,000 prize fund. Full details of the schedule and prize fund are given below.

All games will be played on the Internet, in a special room on the Playchess server. Participants need to have an account on the server, which is free for the duration of the tournament. If you are not already a member of this giant Internet community (with 165,000 active members) you can download the software at Playchess.com and set up an account within minutes.

Prize fund

The total prize fund is US $16,000 and has been provided by the PAL Group in the United Arab Emirates, the company that is behind the Hydra chess project. The prize money is divided as follows:

There are special bonus prizes (e.g. for the most beautiful games) that will be distributed during the tournament. Details will be provided when the number and make-up of the participants is known.

Registration

The entry fee for the PAL/CSS Freestyle Tournament is 10 Euro (= US $12.00). This is paid when you register for the tournament. Late entries can pay the amount in Playchess "ducats" (electronic money) on the day of the main tournament.

There is no entry fee for GMs and IMs with bona fide Playchess accounts. These players need to provide proof of their identity before the tournament starts. A title account on Playchess (i.e. one that has a King or Queen symbol) is sufficient, since it has been validated by ChessBase. Otherwise you will be asked to fax a copy of your passport or ID card to the organisers.

To register for the Freestyle Tournament you need to fill out a registry form (the link is given below), giving your name, address and Playchess handle. Some days before the tournament starts you will receive an email with further details.

Registration for the tournament

All times given in the following schedule are in Central European Time (CET), which is used in most European countries, e.g. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia, etc. CET is GMT + one hour. For instance 14:00h (or 2 p.m.) CET is 13:00h London, 8 a.m. New York and 4 p.m. Moscow. Click on the times given in the schedule below to convert to your local time.

Important note: you will need to log in with your correct handle not later than ten minutes before the start of each round. Anyone who is not present in the chess server room at this time can not be guarantied to participate in this round.

Main Tournament – eight round Swiss

Time controls are 45 minutes for all the moves plus a 5 second increment per move. The event is a classical Swiss. The top eight players will qualify for the finals. If tie-breaks are needed these will be played on Saturday, March 25, 2006, at 16:000h CEST.

Participants in the main tournament must be in the playing hall ten minutes before the start of each round.

Finale – Round robin tournament ("all play all")

Time controls are 45 minutes for all the moves plus a 5 second increment per move. Each player plays one game against every other player. If tie-breaks are needed these will be played on the same day, after the regular games have finished.

Participants in the finale must be in the playing hall ten minutes before the start of each round.

The winner of the finals gets the first prize of US $8,000 and the title of "Second PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Champion". The runner-up gets $4,000, the third place gets $2,000. There will be special software prizes totalling US $1,000 for the places 4-8.

Registration for the tournament

Reports on the first Freestyle Tournament