North Shore Chess Club

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2023 North Shore Interschools

NZCF has now agreed to waive the tournament levies of $7 per player for rated events, and charge an Interschool levy of $15 per team (up from $10 last year). We are therefore going ahead with the North Shore Regional Qualifying events with a modest increase of the entry fee per team.
We shall be holding all three Regional Qualifiers at Wairau Intermediate School, with the Secondary on Friday 21st July, the Primary on Monday 24th July, and the Intermediate on Tuesday 25th July.
Please watch this space for updates. We will circulate information to all the school contacts that we have - please, let us know if you want to receive the mail-outs!

Please be aware that these are the only official North Shore Interschools events, providing qualifying places for the officially recognised NZCF National Interschools Finals. Other junior events exist; they are not run under the aegis of the North Shore Chess Club, and you should check carefully what they qualify your players for, if anything.

There are dedicated webpages for each section, and online registration will be available.
Primary:
North Shore Primary Interschools page
Intermediate:
North Shore Intermediate Interschools page
Secondary:
North Shore Secondary Interschools page

2023 Rules for Interschool events

These are qualifying events for the 2023 NZCF National Interschool Championships, to be held in September. The winner of each regional event will represent that region in the appropriate division (Primary, Intermediate, or Secondary). If 20 or more teams compete, a second school will qualify; if 30 or more teams, a third school will qualify. Schools may enter as many teams as they like, but can only win one qualifying place. (NOTE this may be modified if there are limits on numbers of people who can be present. There may need to be a maximum number of teams per school).

Masks: all players and accompanying persons MUST wear masks in the playing venue. No food or drink in the playing venue; please eat/drink outside. Masks will be available but please bring your own if possible.

Tournament Format: Matches are played on four boards (two with white and two with black pieces), so four players are required for each team. We will allow teams with 3 players but not fewer. Teams may have 5 players (with one resting each round) but the rule about staying in the same order applies. There will be six rounds using the Swiss pairing method (Orion software).

Teams and Board Order: The players in each team should be ranked as closely as possible in order of playing strength, with the strongest player on board one, the second strongest on board two, etc. This order must remain unchanged throughout the day. Please indicate the order on the entry form and confirm with the arbiter on arrival. Furthermore, a school’s A-team should be stronger than its B-team, etc. Primary players must be from Years 1-6, Intermediate from Years 7-8, and Secondary from Years 9-13. No team may have more than 5 players listed. Note that all 5 can play some games - one player drops out, the Reserve plays on board 4 and other team members move up.

Playing Times: Teams need to register their presence before 9:00am on the day of the tournament. A players’ meeting will follow and the first round should commence about 9:15am. There will be a break for lunch and we aim to finish by 2:30pm. Digital chess clocks will be used with each player having 15 minutes base time for the game plus additional time of 5 seconds added per move. This time control is similar to that used in the National Finals.

Illegal Moves: We intend to FIDE-rate the Secondary and the Intermediate, though not the Primary this year. Note that this means a slight modification to the NZCF Interschool rules. Rated games require that we play by the official laws of chess, where the second illegal move loses the game. We believe that a very large percentage of the competitors will already be familiar with this, and that it is unlikely to cause any problems.

Adult Support: Visiting school teams must have an adult (teacher, parent, or guardian) present to supervise ALL PLAYERS. We will provide arbiters and make the pairings - anyone who is interested in learning how to do this is during the event should let us know in advance. However, we are not able to supervise the students, and it is the responsibility of their school (not the venue!) to provide sufficient adult supervision. Teams that arrive without a designated adult will not be allowed to compete. Teams whose supervisor leaves during the event will be removed from the pairings.

Entries: Online registration will be available. Schools will be issued with invoices. All entries will be acknowledged and more detailed information will be circulated as soon as possible after the entry deadline (which has not been set yet). Entries will be listed here, in Orion files.

Prizes: There will be no prize-giving at the event - teams are free to leave as soon as all their games are finished. The first three teams will receive gold, silver, and bronze medals, which will be individually engraved with the students' names and sent to schools after the event, for presentation at Assembly. Some regions have trophies which are awarded annually - if you are in possession of such a trophy, please remember to bring it to the event! North Shore has trophies for Primary and Intermediate (not Secondary).

Queries: Please email Helen Milligan