03. Panamerican Team Championships

Introduction

The Panamerican Team Championship shall be organized by one of the affiliated chess federations in Zones 2.1 to 2.5 to be designated by the General Assembly.

Participation

Each federation affiliated to FIDE in Zones 2.1 to 2.5 shall be entitled to participate with a national team of four players and two reserves.

The players must be entitled by birth, citizenship or naturalization to represent their Federation. Detailed eligibility rules are in Reg. B.04.

A player who has resided for at least three years in a country of which he or she is not a citizen after the date on which FIDE shall have received notification of change of Federation and who proves that he or she has applied for citizenship in that country or intends to do so as soon as the legal requirements are fulfilled may become a team member of a Federation after a thorough examination and clearance of the case by the FIDE President.

A player with dual citizenship may only represent one Federation and is eligible by citizenship to participate in the Panamerican Team Championship on condition that he or she has not represented any other Federation in any FIDE team or individual competition at any time in the preceding year.

The organizing federation may hold in reserve a second team ("B" team), which shall take part in the competition only if the number of federations present is nine or more.

Once the reserve team has played the first round it shall remain in the competition even if the number of participating teams is uneven.

When the organizing federation is represented by two teams, only the results of one team shall be counted for ranking purposes.

Every participating team must play through the entire tournament. However, if a team is forced by circumstances beyond its control to withdraw from the tournament, the treatment of any unplayed matches for scoring shall be settled by the Chief Arbiter and the Tournament Director. Any further measures shall be taken later by the FIDE President.

Every team shall be headed by a captain (in matters related to play) and a chief of delegation (in administrative matters). The tournament organizer shall incur no expenses for any captain or chief of delegation who is not one of the persons listed under 2.1.

Organization

At least five months before the beginning of the Championship, the organizing federation shall submit to the FIDE Continental President for the Americas the draft of the invitation, according to Article 2 of FIDE Competition Rules C.05.

Upon receiving this draft invitation, the FIDE Continental President for the Americas will inform the organizing federation whether he approves the draft, informing him of any modifications he may think necessary.

The organizing federation shall send the invitation letter in its final form to all national federations affiliated to FIDE in the Zones 2.1 to 2.5 not later than three months before the competition. Copies of the invitation letter shall be sent to the FIDE President, to the Continental President for the Americas and to the Presidents of the Zones 2.1 to 2.5.

The national federations intending to participate shall send their preliminary entry to the organizing federation at least two months before the beginning of the tournament.

In the final entry form, the following details shall be given:

The full names and birthdays of the team members and their last FIDE rating published; The full names of the captain and chief of delegation; Any information required for visas.

Playing Conditions

The Panamerican Team Championship shall be played according to FIDE regulations.

The duration of the tournament shall not exceed nine days, including days of arrival and departure.

When there are eight or fewer participants, a round robin competition shall be held.

When there are 9 to 12 participants, the tournament shall be played with preliminaries and final rounds.

For the preliminary phase, teams shall be divided into two groups, with up to six teams per group. Each group shall play a single round robin tournament.

The top two teams of each preliminary group qualify to a final phase, to dispute the top 1-4 championship places.

For the final phase, a single round robin shall be played.

The result of the match played in the preliminary phase between two qualifying teams according to 4.41 shall be carried over into the final phase, so they do not play each other in the final.

Teams whose results are carried forward in 4.44 shall be numbered in the final phase such that, in the Berger table, their carried-over match shall be counted as the first round of the final.

When the number of participating teams exceeds 12, the tournament shall be played as a Swiss System of seven rounds. The Olympiad Pairing Rules (D.II.07 Annex D) shall apply except articles 9 and 13.

The first session of play shall be six hours with two time controls: 40 moves in the first two hours, then 20 moves in one hour, with accumulation of them, before the first adjournment.

The adjourned games shall be played according to schedule. All adjourned games must be completed before the start of the last round of the tournament.

In the last round, games not finished at the end of the first session are adjourned and, after a break of two hours, played to finish.

Financial Regulations

Accompanying persons shall be paid by their national federations.

The board and lodging expenses from the official day of arrival to the night before the official day of departure shall be borne by the organizing federation for the participants specified in 2.1.

Each participating federation shall pay to FIDE the entry fee stipulated in Financial Regulations A.03.

The organizing federation shall provide the arbiters with free board and lodging, and shall pay them a reasonable fee for their services. The organizer is also responsible for the travelling expenses of the Chief Arbiter.

Direction of the Tournament

The organizing federation may form an Organizing Committee and appoint its chairman.

The organizer (organizing federation or committee) shall appoint the Tournament Director, who shall be competent for all matters of organization inside the tournament hall.

In consultation with the organizing federation, the FIDE Continental President for the Americas shall appoint the Chief Arbiter.

The Chief Arbiter is responsible for the tournament technical management. He shall have the task of overseeing and coordinating the work of all arbiters and other technical officials.

The Assistant Arbiters shall be placed by the Tournament Director at the disposal of the Chief Arbiter. They shall be instructed in their duties and supervised by the Chief Arbiter.

The general responsibility of all arbiters is the trouble-free conduct of the playing sessions in the tournament. The arbiters shall ensure overall compliance with the Laws of Chess and supplementary regulations.

Appeals Committee

The Appeals Committee shall be composed of five regular members and two reserves, and elected by the chiefs of delegations.

The following matters may be the subject of rulings by the Appeals Committee: Protests of decisions by the Chief Arbiter or the Tournament Director.

Complaints of improper conduct by participants in the tournament;

Any other matters which the Committee considers important and worth debating.

Any appeal presented to the Appeals Committee must be made in writing. Also, the signatory must pay a deposit of One Hundred Swiss Francs (SFr.100).

If the appeal is granted, this deposit shall be returned immediately to the signatory. If it is refused, the deposit shall be forfeited to FIDE.

Those entitled to lodge appeals for a participant are the chief of delegation or the team captain.

Requests to the Appeals Committee by organizers and officials may be made without payment.

Upon submission of the appeal, the Committee will examine the evidence and, for this purpose, it may take statements from anyone as required, consult the arbiters and organizers, etc. The decision of the Appeals Committee should be reached as quickly as possible.

The Appeals Committee should endeavor to find acceptable solutions in the FIDE spirit. It may resolve disputed issues with or without disciplinary action.

The following steps may be taken by Appeals Committee:

• Admonishment;
• Correction;
• Demand for an apology to the offended party;
• Written warning;
• Fine;
• Conditional or definitive disqualification.

The federations shall take responsibility for their delegation members.

No member of the Appeals Committee shall have the right to participate in a decision concerning his own federation or members of his federation`s team. However, each member of the Appeals Committee is entitled to take part in the discussion on any matter submitted to the same.

Team Captains

The basic duties and rights of a team captain are defined in the FIDE Competition Rules.

The team captain must list the players of his team in a fixed board order (board 1-6), upon the timeappointed by the Chief Arbiter before the start of the first round. The board order cannot be changed during the tournament.

Before the start of a round, the team captain must deliver to the Chief Arbiter a sealed envelope containing a list of his players who are to take part in the round in question. If this is not delivered by the appointed time, the team may only use its top four players.

In the exercise of his functions, the team captain has the right of access to the area reserved for the players.

At the end of the playing session, the captain is responsible for reporting the result to the arbiters and delivering to them legibly written scoresheets of the finished games.

During the games, the captain must refrain from interfering in any way. He is, however, entitled to advise his players to make or accept an offer of a draw. He should not comment on the actual position on the chess board and confine himself to giving brief information which can in no way be construed as an opinion on the progress of the game. The exchange of information should be done in the presence of a controller.

Classification

The final positions of the teams shall be established by the number of game points scored by each team.

When the Swiss System is used, the position of teams that finish with the same number of game points shall be determined by application of the following tie-breaking procedures, in sequence:

1. By the game scores of all the team`s opponents;
2. By the match points;
3. By the results of the matches between the tied teams;
4. If a tie still results between teams in contention for first place, these teams shall play a match against each other at a fast time-rate (15 minutes per players for the entire game).
5. By lot.

When the round robin system is used, the following tie-breaking procedures apply, in sequence:

1. The match points;
2. The match result between themselves;
3. The Sonnenborn-Berger points;
4. If a tie still results between teams in contention for first place, these teams shall play a match against each other at a fast time-rate (15 minutes per players for the entire game).
5. By lot.
   

Prizes

Both the winning team and the team finishing second shall receive trophies. In addition, the wining team shall represent the Continent of the Americas in the World Team Championship (D.II.08 Art. 1.62).

Every member of the winning team (players, reserves & captain) shall receive a gold medal. Similarly, members of the team finishing second and of the team finishing third shall receive silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The players who obtained the best individual results on their respective boards shall receive gold medals. To be eligible, players numbered 1 to 4 should play at least 60% of the games while reserves (numbers 5 and 6) should play at least 50% of the games.

Additional prizes may be offered by the organizer or by the sponsors. Conditions of their award shall be announced to the participants before the start of the tournament.