TDM:Universal Triumvirate National Chess Tournament

File:Chess.png
**The Universal Triumvirate National Chess Tournament** is a tournament currently being organized by the Department of Media.

## Background

Following discussions between Head of Media Jackson Eden and Major Executive Charles Sessions, it became evident that the forum had the capacity to hold chess matches. When this was discovered, the feature was near immediately activated, and the Major Executive delivered a short statement on the 2nd of August to the public, declaring the existence of the new feature and that "it is possible for members of the Triumvirate to engage each other in the oldest strategy game in history".

Following the announcement, the first online chess game in Triumvirate history was set up, between the Major Executive and Minor Executive Edward Stenbach. Dr. Stenbach played as black while the Major Executive played as white, the former winning by placing the white king in checkmate in position F3.

## Entering

Every Trimester, the Head of Media will open a thread enabling people to enter the tournament. All entries must be made on this thread, and the deadline for entering is two weeks after the contest is opened.

The tournament has an entry fee of five tri. Citizens may pay for other citizens to enter by proxy if the latter citizen wishes for this to be so. All entry payments are made payable to the Department of Media and held in a "pot".

Once all entrants are declared and the deadline is closed, the Department of Media organizes the entrants into matches and publicizes the tournament brackets for public viewing. At this point, the matches commence.

## The competition

The tournament takes place in tiers and is single-elimination (that is to say, one person is eliminated from each two-person round and the other moves forward). Say for example that Charles Sessions, Edward Stenbach, Jackson Eden, Esteemi Evantsu, Allison Braugh and Anna Antoniou enter the tournament and are organized into three matches thusly:

* Braugh vs. Eden
* Antoniou vs. Evantsu
* Sessions vs. Stenbach

These three matches constitute the first tier of the tournament. Each tier lasts at maximum two weeks, though a winner can be declared earlier than this. Once a winner is declared for all matches (in this case, three), the next tier can begin, and no earlier than this.

Entrant's opponent assignments are made at random by the Head of Media using a random number generator or something of that kind.

If the number of entrants means there is no one for somebody to compete with in a given tier, they will not be required to take part in a match in that tier, instead receiving a "by" to the next tier, where they will be assigned an opponent from the winners of the previous tier.

If two weeks expire and no winner is declared for a certain match, the winner of the undeclared matches is decided on points - each piece captured is valued as follows:

* Each pawn captured is valued at one point,
* Each knight captured is valued at three points,
* Each bishop captured is valued at three points,
* Each rook captured is valued at five points,
* Each queen captured is valued at nine points.

Play continues in this way until there is one single person left - this person is the winner, and receives 50% of the total "pot", the other 50% of which is paid to the Department of the Treasury.

The Head of Media is barred from entering the tournament due to their position.

## Rules

1. It is against the rules to cease play altogether in order to win on points. The Head of Media - who organizes the tournament - will decide what constitutes contravening this rule. Anyone who breaks this rule will be disqualified.
2. Any disagreements between contestants will be settled by the Head of Media, whose decision on matters of contention is final.
3. Standard chess rules apply to all matches.
4. Due to the nature of the plugin used, matches are set up by the competitors themselves. Deliberately failing to set up a match or setting up a match with the wrong person in an attempt to derail the contest or otherwise cause trouble will result in disqualification.

## Next tournament

The logistics of the tournament are currently being set up, the first tournament will probably take place in mid-to-late 2015-III or early 2016-I.