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EmailChessPoint: Game and Tournament Rules

Preliminary remark

Any player who has ever written down a game of chess or played it using a notation can start without breaking any rules. The rules help in acute situations. It is useful to know that there is something to clarify the situation.

Thus you don't have to read the following rules in detail to play along.

By the way - amici sumus - we call ourselves chess friends.

The most important differences to previous and other regulations are the obligation to inform the tournament director about the start of the match and the different regulations for exceeding the time limit.

For the latter see also the following link: The reflection time in EmailChessPoint.

§ 1

These game and tournament rules apply to correspondence chess in EmailChessPoint.

§ 2

The correspondence chess game in the EmailChessPoint is free.

§ 3

No one has a claim to play correspondence chess in EmailChessPoint.

§ 4

It is played exclusively by e-mail.
Plaintext mails are welcome.
Richtext mails are tolerated.
HTML mails and mails with background are unexpected and may be banned in individual cases.

§ 5

Each move mail must contain the tournament number in the subject and the entire game played so far in PGN format in the text body. This shows the header and the course of the move in algebraic notation with the English character names.

The send date is to be specified. The specified date of dispatch becomes binding for the calculation of the reflection period if it is not obviously inaccurate and if the opponent does not object in his immediately following e-mail with reference to the automatically recorded date of dispatch.

It is allowed to include further information about the reflection period and the data required for its calculation in the train mails, if this information is correct.

§ 6

A friendly interaction with each other is the basis of our Interplay. The players are expected to greet each other at the beginning of their game and introduce themselves if necessary.

In individual cases, a player is permitted to request the opponent to refrain from further accompanying correspondence, in particular remarks or contingencies relating to the match. He must then act accordingly himself.

§ 7

The players shall inform the tournament director at the latest on the 10th day after the start of the tournament that all their games are running or not and why not.

§ 8

Responses must be received within 10 days, unless a later reply is announced within the 10 days.

Whoever does not receive such an announcement and has waited 10 full calendar days in vain for a reply, sends the opponent a reminder e-mail that repeats the encore submission. The tournament director will receive a copy (Cc).

Who has waited another 7 full calendar days in vain for the answer, informs the tournament director.

The tournament director will set a reasonable deadline for the opponent to resume play and ask him to send him a copy (Cc) within this deadline. Anyone who fails to continue the game in due form and time in response to such a request will lose the game.

The tournament director can summarize such continuation requests, even when the further waiting period is still running in single games.

Whoever remembers earlier or without giving his last move or without a copy for the tournament director must repeat the reminder in due form and time, if necessary.

§ 9

A valid encore requires that the player has correctly entered the received move, also correctly numbered. The encore must be clearly identifiable. A move is not invalid if it contains chess characters such as "+", "x", "=", "e.p." or not.

§ 10

The reflection period is 40 days. After the 11th, 21st, 31st etc. moves other 40 days are added to the available reflection period.

Each player's used reflection period is added 1 day, starting at 0 days, whenever it is the player's turn at the end of a calendar day. This does not apply to calendar days before the start of the tournament.

The reflection period is exceeded if the reflection period used is longer than the available reflection period.

Overrunning the reflection period will result in loss of the game if the opponent makes a legitimate complaint. However, the game is drawn if a position has arisen from which the opponent is not able to mate the player's King by any sequence of regular moves, even against the worst continuations.

Complaint shall only be admissible in respect of the last move made and only if the player exceeding the reflection period has surrendered that move more than 24 hours after receipt of the last move of the complaining player and if the complaining player could also move instead of complaining.

The complaint is inadmissible if the exceeding of the reflection period can be based on the player's trust in incorrect or misleading reflection periods. The complaint shall also be inadmissible if the train e-mails of both players immediately preceding the time overrun do not contain any information on the period of reflection of the player exceeding the time overrun which has elapsed up to that point. Anyone wishing to lodge a complaint against this may do so. He can complain if the encore is only added after the end of another full day.

The claim to exceed the reflection period becomes inadmissible as soon as the player making the claim makes another move.

§ 11

All e-mails received and sent for a match must be kept for 2 weeks after receipt of the tournament completion e-mail from the tournament director.

All parts of e-mails, including all automatically attached records, shall be kept complete and unseparated.

At the request of the tournament director they must be sent to him.

The non-submission after request is at the expense of the non-submitting player. The tournament director can request and evaluate the e-mails of the opponent in the case of unintentional loss.

§ 11a

Games will come to a standstill if a player has used more than 10 days of reflection time for his move, has not announced a later answer, has not been reminded of his duty to move by the opponent and has not been asked about the progress of the game by the tournament director. The standstill obliges everyone who recognizes it to work towards its completion according to his possibilities.

The standstill ends when the opponent makes up the reminder, the tournament director asks about the progress of the match or the player moves.

The tournament director may count days of standstill as a reflection time for any player involved if the player is at fault for the standstill and the standstill is not due to non-drawing or non-remembering. The attribution of times of standstill shall not interfere with the player's available reflection period to such an extent that he no longer has at least 1 day for each move to be made up to the next time control.

§ 12

Every game must be sent to the tournament director immediately after its completion. For this purpose, the form provided for this purpose and linked in the status field of each running game shall be used.

The obligation to send in a player's entry applies to both players first. It ends when the tournament director publishes the result of the game.

It is allowed to send the notation by e-mail.

The tournament director can reject incorrect notations. Such notations must be corrected immediately by the players.

§ 13

If players leave unanswered questions from the tournament director regarding the progress of their games or do not send in finished games, the loss can be recognized, even against both players at the same time.

§ 14

A player who, for technical reasons, is temporarily unable to send emails or can only send them under considerably more difficult circumstances, or who is temporarily unable to play in a reasonable manner due to exceptional circumstances which could not have been foreseen at the start of the tournament, may, at his request, be granted a time-out for the duration of the difficulty. If the difficulty prevents the application, the time-out can also be applied for after the event and approved after the event.

A time-out does not shorten the holiday entitlement.

§ 15

A player can take up to 42 days off per game year. The 1st game year starts with the start of the tournament. The holiday can be taken for different games at different times.

The holiday starts at the earliest on the day after the opponent is informed.

§ 16

A player may take all or part of his or her holiday as an absence time. An absence time lasts at least 7 days. It leaves the player in all tournaments and games played in the EmailChessPoint. During an absence time and on the day after that no time limits expire against the player.

The player has to inform the absence time to all opponents and all tournament directors in played or registered tournaments.

§ 17

During a time-out, holiday or absence there is no reflection period against the player. The player is allowed to give up any credits during these times.

The time-out of the opponent is calculated according to the general rules.

§ 18

If a player disagrees with a formal decision of a tournament director, the player can appeal the decision within 2 weeks at the revision. A player may complain that the tournament director does not comply with his request to make a decision.

The appeal may uphold, change or overturn an appealed decision. The decision of the appeal is not subject to further appeal.

The appeal has 3 members. Any player or tournament director who may be directly affected by a decision of the revision may not participate in it. Otherwise the revision regulates its internal affairs itself.

§ 19

These rules apply from 1 February 2018. For games started earlier, the rules of the call for entries apply.

§ 11a applies to tournaments started on or after February 1, 2019.

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