USTA Intermediate Invitational

Tournament rules

- All games will be played on a 6x6 board.

- Time control is 15 minutes + 10 seconds per move.

- Group stage: 2 game match against every opponent in group, alternating starting color.

- Scoring win: 2; draw: 1; and loss: 0. While games are organized in matches, scoring is by game. In a two game match the possible scores are 4-0, 3-1, 2-2, 1-3, or 0-4. Please report the match score correctly as this is automatically used to calculate the standings.

- Schedule: group stage will last 2 weeks (until March 20th). Please play at least your first two matches in the first week (completed before March 13th).

- Playoffs: the winner of each group plus the best overall best second place player will advance to playoffs. Each match in the playoffs will consist of 4 games (semifinals and finals)

- Tiebreaking: the tiebreak is 1 game between the tied players with +3 komi for black; timer of 10 minutes + 5 seconds per move. Players can mutually agree to starting color or, if both don't agree, it is randomly selected.
- Intra-group ties are decided first (to establish #1 and #2 in the group). Then, any tie for the 4th playoff position is decided. A 3-way tie for 4th playoff position is round-robin of tiebreaker games.
- Playoffs are seeded so that overall #1 vs. #4 and overall #2 vs. #3. If, for example, overall #1 is tied, then this requires a tiebreaker game to properly place players.