Altounian wins US Championship spot on ICC

Congratulations to IM Levon Altounian (Arizona), who beat Damir Studen (Georgia), 1.5-0.5, to win the 2010 US State Champion of Champions title hosted live on the Internet Chess Club.  

Altounian now goes forward to claim a spot in next month's US Championship sponsored by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

In his youth, Altounian was an incredibly strong Armenian junior player in the early 1990s. He was the U.S.S.R Junior Team Champion in 1991 and the Armenian Junior Champion from 1992-1993 and, as his country's representative, tied for tenth place in the 1993 World Junior Championship. 

Lev is a 6 time California State champion (1996-2003) and has continued this streak by becoming both the 2008 and 2009 Arizona State Champion. He is currently among the top 40 chess players in the country and is highly respected as a player with a profound understanding of the game by the country’s best players. He also qualified to play in the 2002 US Championship in Seattle.

He is also one of the most successful coaches in Arizona. Shortly after his arrival to the state in 2002, the school where he taught, Castlehill Country Day School, became the 2003 National K-5 Champions.  He has coached numerous state champion teams as well as individuals among all age groups. He also coached Landon Brownell who became the 2006-2007 National Individual Champion.

FINAL | Manager: CofC-TD | Sunday, April 11 15:00 EDT

• Download PGN for FINAL

West-Semifinal | Manager: CofC-TD | Tuesday, March 30 18:30 EDT

• Download PGN for West-Semifinal

East-Semifinal | Manager: CofC-TD | Tuesday, March 30 18:30 EDT

• Download PGN for East-Semifinal

West-Qualifier | Manager: CofC-TD | Thursday, March 25 | 20:00 EDT

• View GRID for West
• Download PGN for West

East-Qualifier | Manager: CofC-TD | Wednesday, March 24 | 18:30 EDT

• View GRID for EAST
• Download PGN for EAST

 I. SCHEDULE

All dates are ICC server time, this is New York Time (EDT).

1. Qualification tournaments
• March 24, 18:30: Eastern Conference.
• March 25, 20:00: Western Conference.
2. Finals
1. Semi-Finals:
   • March 30, 18:30 (East 1 vs. East 2)
   • March 30, 18:30 (West 1 vs. West 2)
2. Final:
• April 11, 15:00 (East vs. West)

 II. PLAYING SYSTEM

1. Qualification tournaments

Eastern and Western Conference will be a single round all-play-all tournaments with a time control of 3,0. The games will be unrated on ICC and seedings will be based on USCF ratings. 

2. Qualification to the Finals

In both Eastern and Western Conferences, the top two finishing players from each will qualify for their conference semi-finals, the winners of which will play in a final which will have one player from the Eastern Conference and one from the Western Conference. The outright winner of each conference will have the option of choosing colors for the semi-final match-up (with the exception of armageddon tiebreak)

3. Finals

Each round of the finals (semi-finals & finals) will be played in two rounds, alternating colors, with a time control of 25 minutes initially plus 3 seconds added per move. If a match of two games ends 1-1, there will be two games with a time control of 3, 1 between those two players to determine the winner. Should this tiebreak match also end 1-1, there will be an 'armageddon game': White will receive 5 minutes against Black's 4 minutes, no time increments. Black will advance on draw in that game. The responsible ICC tournament director will draw lots in order to determine colors in this armageddon game.

In the semi finals, pairings will be:

    Eastern Conference 1 vs. Eastern Conference 2 
    Western Conference 1 vs. Western Conference 2 

In the finals, the winner of SF1 will meet the winner of SF2 and colors in the first game will be determined by the responsible ICC tournament director drawing lots. Should a tiebreak match be necessary, colors in the first tiebreak game will always be the same as they were in the first regular game of that match.

 III. PRIZES

Prizes for the tournament are as follows:

• 1st: Round trip flight (US only) to St. Louis 
• Title of U.S. State Champion of Champions
• 2nd: 100 US-Dollars
• 3rd/4th: 50 US-Dollars each.

The winner will be seeded into the O.T.B 2010 US Championship, in St. Louis, 13-25 May 2010.  Each state champion will be eligible for a free 1-year ICC membership (see below).

 IV. TECHNICAL EQUIPMENT, ICC RELATED RULES

1. General

The participants will receive accounts on ICC for the duration of the tournament free of charge - if you play all games without withdrawing, then you will receive a free 1-year subscription to ICC (or membership extension of 1-year). Champion of Champion accounts will have names like "CofC-Alabama" etc. All participants must use the program BlitzIn (2.7) or Dasher (1.3)  to connect to ICC while playing in the tournament - anyone using one of the Mac programs to play MUST get permission from John Henderson (jbhthescots@mac.com) 36 hours before the start of their games. These programs are available free of charge at http://www.chessclub.com.

Players will be prompted to match their designated opponent at starting time. There is no need to issue any additional commands. The tournament will be organized in ICC channel 227, using the semi-automated pairing robot 'pear'. 

Please note that ALL rules and tiebreaks in the US State Champion of Champions tournament will be ICC and NOT USCF. For example, the ICC draw rules are similar to but not entirely the same as that of FIDE, USCF, or other national federations - please familiarize yourself with the subtle differences by typing "help draw" on ICC. Likewise, please review "tell tomato help tiebreaks" to familiarize yourself with ICC tiebreak conditions in the event of players finishing on the same score."

When the tournament starts, the person in charge will be an experienced ICC Tournament Manager called "CofC-TD". Should you have a problem during the tournament, send a tell to him (i.e "tell CofC-TD How do I claim a draw?" etc)

2. Playing games on ICC

During an internet chess game, it could happen that one player loses his connection to the server. In this case, the game is automatically adjourned. The disconnected player should try to return to ICC as soon as possible. When he logs back in, he and his opponent are notified of the adjourned game. Both need to resume the game as soon as possible. In order to prevent games from not being adjourned, all players in the tournament must have their noescape variables set to false.

Please note that ICC has recently introduced a new Flexiable Lag Compensation System. Currently we are working alongside members, helpers, administrators and tournament managers on what the standard lag will be set to for normal day-to-day play on ICC.

However please note that allowable lag will be more strictly limited during  major prize tournaments in order to avoid perceptions of unfairness to other players competing in a true prize-tournament environment. The lag limit will be 500ms for the State Champion of Champions tournament.

For further information: http://www.chessclub.com/help/LagCompensation.

Draw offers and draw claims may be made by clicking the Draw button prior to making a move. The server does not give draws on repetition or by applying the 50-moves rule automatically. The draw must be claimed by clicking the draw button before moving. There is no possibility to claim draw on insufficient losing chances. The ending King, Knight, Knight against bare King is not called draw immediately, but must be played out 50 moves, if not agreed.

3. Miscellaneous rules

The ICC tournament directors may at their discretion make a ruling on a particular game or eject a player from a tournament for any reason including but not limited to: failure to show up on time or to start a game on time, concern that the player's internet connection is not reliable enough for the game to finish in a timely manner, suspicion of chess computer use or suspicion that a player is receiving assistance, or previous history of serious cheating on ICC.

ICC will also have the right to move states to different conferences, if needed - but full playing lineup will be known 36 hours before the start of each conference. 

Participants must supply their real name, full address of their playing location and phone number. They agree that their real name is made public during the tournament.

The games in the finals weekend will be proctored by a person chosen by USCF, St. Louis Chess Club and ICC. Before the finals begin, the presence of the proctor at the playing location will be verified before by the responsible ICC tournament director. In order to achieve this, the following procedure will be used:

1. The player logs into ICC under his account name.
2. The player lets the proctor use his computer and the proctor sends a tell on ICC to the responsible ICC tournament director containing a pre-agreed password.
3. The player takes over the computer again.
4. After the session is finished, the proctor again uses the players computer and sends a tell on ICC to the responsible ICC tournament director, containing a pre-agreed password in case everything was in line with the rules.

In case a player is disqualified from the tournament, the ICC tournament directors can, at their discretion, rule that the game of that player in the running round is lost for him, and won for his opponent. However, results by that player in prior rounds will not be reverted.

ICC TOURNAMENT DIRECTORS
APPENDIX

Division of states into Eastern and Western Conference:

 Eastern Conference (March 24, 18:30 ICC/ET)

 Western Conference (March 25, 20:00 ICC/ET)

ICC in collaboration with St. Louis Chess Club & USCF.