How ChessDada Tournaments Work

1. Someone creates a tournament from the lobby. It opens for registration right away.
2. Players join it from the lobby before the start time.
3. At the start time it begins by itself. No one has to press anything.
4. Open the tournament page and leave it open. The server pairs you and your board opens by itself -- you never press START in a tournament game.
5. When your game ends you go back to the tournament page and get paired again.

Arena: the streak bonus

Win two games in a row and you are on fire. From then on every win is worth 4 and every draw is worth 2.

A draw still pays double while you are on fire, but it ends the streak. A loss ends it too. This is the same rule most online arenas use.

Swiss: plain points

Win 1, draw 0.5, loss 0. If there is an odd number of players, one player gets a bye that round -- no game, and a free full point. The bye goes to the lowest player who has not had one yet, so nobody gets two byes while someone else has none.

Ties

Swiss ties are broken by Buchholz -- the total score of all the opponents you actually played. Beating strong players is worth more than beating weak ones. It is the BH column on the tournament page.

In a Swiss tournament every player is paired each round, whether they are at the board or not. So there is a rule for no-shows:

• You have 2 minutes to be at your board once the round is paired.
• If you are there and your opponent is not, you win that game without playing.
• If neither player turns up, the game is cancelled and nobody scores.
• A game won this way does not change anyone's rating -- no moves were played. It only counts for the tournament.

In an Arena there is nothing to miss: you are simply paired again next time you are free and present.

In the lobby, on the Tournament room card, press + NEW.

• You must be signed in. Guests can join tournaments but cannot create them.
• 4 to 32 players. If fewer than 4 have joined at the start time, the tournament cancels itself.
• Start time: from 10 minutes up to 7 days ahead.
• Time control: 1 to 99 minutes, plus 0 to 15 seconds increment per move.
• Arena length 15 minutes to 3 hours. Swiss 1 to 9 rounds.
• You can run one tournament at a time, and there is a short wait between creating one and the next.
• The creator is automatically the first player, and can cancel the tournament any time before it starts.

• In the lobby, the Tournament card shows a small chip -- JOIN, IN, FULL or LIVE. Press it to see every open tournament, who has joined, and when it starts.
• You can join while it says REGISTERING. Once it is running, registration is closed -- you can still watch it.
• Guests can join. But a guest name lives on your device: clear your browser data and you become a new player, so sign in if you care about your standing.
• Every tournament game is rated, exactly like a normal game.
• Leaving a game you are playing counts as a loss, in a tournament just like anywhere else.

A tournament needs players. Every tournament page has a SHARE button: send the link on WhatsApp, or copy it and paste it anywhere -- a group, a message, a post.

Anyone who opens that link lands straight on your tournament, sees the countdown and the players, and can join from there.

Something went wrong, a game did not open, a score looks incorrect, or you have an idea for us? Write to us and tell us what happened -- the tournament link helps a lot.

EMAIL info@chessdada.com

GO TO THE LOBBY