09. Panamerican Youth Chess Festival

Approved by the 1992 General Assembly.
Amended by the 1993, 1994 ,1995 and 1997 General Assemblies.

Frequency

The Panamerican Youth Chess Festival shall be organized annually under the aegis of FIDE, by a federation entrusted with the task by the General Assembly. The Panamerican Youth Chess Festival shall include as separate competitions: (GA `94) The Panamerican Boys-10, 12,1 14, 16, 18 Championships and the Panamerican Girls-10, 12, 14, 16, 18 Championships.

If the Festival cannot be organized as a whole, the Continental President for the Americas can authorize it to be organized in adequate age-groups.

In the following "he, him, etc" stand for "she, her, etc." as appropriate.

Participation

The participant must not have reached his 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th birthday, respectively, on January 1st of the year in which the tournament is held.

The players placed 1-3 in a previous Panamerican Championship shall have the personal right to participate in the Panamerican Championship of the corresponding age category or a higher age-category if the stipulation of art. 2 is met. This privilege may be exercised once exclusively in the subsequent year following the year of qualification.

In addition to the players mentioned in art. 3, each FIDE member federation belonging to Zones 2.1 to 2.5 shall have the right to send one representative to each Championship. The organizing federation shall have a second place in each Championship and shall hold a substitute player in each tournament to complete the required number of participants. Girls may take the place of boys, so a federation may be represented by a girl in the boy`s section and a girl in the girl`s section.

(GA `95) Subject to the agreement of the organizers, the Continental President may allow additional participants subject to payment of their board and lodging for which their federation shall be held responsible.

Without prejudice to previous regulations on number of participants in this championship, each federation shall be entitled to register any number of participants it deems necessary provided the following conditions are met:

1. payment to FIDE of the approved fee of SFr. 200 per player in advance;
2. payment of the full board and lodge of the additional player(s) to the host chess federation;
3. the additional participants shall not be entitled to any other privileges such as payment of pocket money, etc. (if any), already reserved to the original nominee(s) of each federation (GA97)

At least four months before the beginning of the Festival, the organizing federation shall send an invitation to all member federations in Zones 2.1 to 2.5. The invitation shall be approved by the Continental President. Copies are to be sent to the FIDE President and to the Zone Presidents.

At least two months before the beginning of the Festival each Federation accepting the invitation shall register entries with the organizing federation. The birthdate of each participant must be given and must correspond with the date of birth given in his passport or travel document. Copies of the entries shall be sent to the Continental President. Each federation has to pay to FIDE the entry fee of 100 Swiss Francs per player.

Playing Schedule

Each Championship shall be played in up to 9 rounds. The system may be the Swiss or Round Robin, and so with preliminaries and final rounds, depending upon the number of players in each Championship.

In case any Championship has less than four competitors, it shall not be held and the players shall be entered in the other Championship of the same age-category.

When there are less than six competitors in any age-category (total of boys and girls) the Championships in this age-category shall not be held and the players shall be entered in the corresponding Championship of the next higher age-category.

Participants must be present at the ceremony for drawing of lots that is held in the evening of the official day of arrival.

When a registered participant has not arrived at the tournament venue for the drawing of lots, the procedure of the FIDE Swiss Regulations shall be applied.

The Championships shall be played according to FIDE regulations.

The time limit is 40 moves in 100 minutes, then 20 moves in 50 minutes and finally 10 minutes for the remaining moves. From move 1 30 seconds will be added after each move. The games shall be played using the DGT clocks.

Arbiters

The Continental President shall appoint the Chief Arbiter in consultation with the organizing federation. The organizing federation shall appoint as many Deputy and assistant arbiters as necessary.

A protest against the Arbiter`s decision must be submitted in writing to the Chief Arbiter within two hours after the end of the playing session.

Appeals Committee

Before the beginning of the first round, an Appeals Committee shall be elected by the representatives of participating federations. The Appeals Committee shall consist of five members and two reserves, and shall represent, if possible, seven different federations. No member of the Appeals Committee shall take part in a decision affecting his own federation.

Designation of the Winners

The final ranking order of the players is determined by the number of points scored. If at the end of the tournament two or more players are tied for first place, the tie shall be broken by using the criteria below.

The following tie-breaking criteria shall be used:

1. For Swiss tournaments where the players involved have all played only against rated opponents, after eliminating the lowest rated opponent, find the sum of opponent`s rating. The highest total wins. If still tied, eliminate the rating of the next lowest rated opponent(s) until a decision is possible.
2. For other Swiss tournaments, the sum of progressive scores. The highest total wins. If still tied deduct the first round score, and if necessary the second round and so on.
3. For other tournaments, including round-robins, elimination of scores from opponents in the lowest final score group. The highest total wins. If still tied, eliminate score from the next lowest final score group, and so on.

When the above criteria do not decide, the following tie breaks shall be used in the order below:

1. By FIDE rating
2. By age, for the younger player.
3. By lot.

Financial Regulation

The travel expenses of the participants and 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 covered by the organizing federation for all participants and one accompanying person per federation represented in the Festival.

The organizing federation shall state in the invitation the daily cost of board and lodging for participants and accompanying persons not covered by the art. 15.

Prizes and Titles

Before the beginning of the first round, a list of the prizes to be awarded to the highest placed participants, including special prizes, shall be published together with the rules for their award. The organizing federation shall also award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the players taking the first three places in each Championship.

(GA `93) FIDE shall award the title of FIDE Master to each age-category champion in the boys and in the girls sections. (cf. B.01 Art. 1.33 & 1.62.) In the case of a tie for first place, each of the tied players shall be awarded the title of FIDE Master, subject to a maximum of three players. (cf. B.01 Art. 1.331 & 1.621.) Clear first place in the Boys (Girls)-18 and 16 Championships is equivalent to a 9-round International Master result. (cf. B.01 Art. 1.27 & 1.57.)

The players entered in another section, under articles 7.1 or 7.2, who are placed 1-3 among themselves, shall be entitled to the medals originally provided for their section. Then, they shall be qualified for places in future Championships as mentioned in articles 3 and 18.

(GA `93) The winner of each Panamerican Championship shall have the personal right to participate in the next Panamerican and World Championships of the corresponding age category or a higher age category, if the stipulation of Art. 2 is met. This privilege may be exercised once exclusively in the subsequent year following the year of qualification.

General Provisions

If the Panamerican Youth Chess Festival is not organized, these regulations are valid for any of the Panamerican Championships mentioned in article 1, whether they are organized together or in different venues.