Technical Regulations

TECHNICAL REGULATIONS

The 2026 Canadian University Team Chess Championship (CUCC)

Toronto, Ontario

January 16-18, 2026

1. Governing regulations.

The 2026 Canadian University Team Chess Championship shall be played according to the FIDE Laws of Chess, the FIDE General Regulations for Competitions, the applicable CFC Rules, and the present Technical Regulations. At any time, any circumstance or unforeseen situation not covered by the above regulations shall be referred to the Chief Organizer for a final decision.

2. Sections; eligibility.

There shall be two (2) separate sections: Crown and Reserve. Post-secondary institutions (e.g. universities, CEGEPs) located anywhere in Canada are welcome to register teams for the Championship. Teams registered for the Crown section shall be composed solely of players attending the same post-secondary institution. One institution can field a maximum of two teams in the Crown section. Requests to admit a third team from the same institution will be evaluated by the Organizing Committee at its sole discretion. The Organizing Committee’s decision on all admission issues is final.

Each post-secondary institution may register up to 5 teams in total. Additional teams may be accepted at the discretion of the Organizing Committee.

Teams registered for the Reserve section shall have an average team rating below 1800 (see the Player Ratings section below). Teams registered for the Reserve section should be composed of players attending the same post-secondary institutions, but registrations may be accepted for teams composed of players attending different post-secondary institutions. Such “mixed” teams are not eligible for the team prizes.

Eligible players shall be current full-time or part-time students, faculty, or staff at a post-secondary institution.

3. Team composition; team lists.

Every team shall include four (4) players and up to one (1) alternate. When registering a delegation, every team shall designate a team captain and submit the preferred board order (“starting list”). A captain may be one of the players or the alternate, or another member of this team’s delegation. The registration fees are proportional to the number of players in a team, so registering five players will incur larger charges than registering four. All unrated players shall be entered in the starting list to play on boards lower than any rated player. The board order for every team shall comply with the following condition. For every pair of players (P1, P2) on the same team where player P1’s rating (defined as per Art. 10 below) is more than ninety-nine (99) points higher than player P2’s rating (defined as per Art. 10 below), player P1 shall be assigned to a higher board than player P2. As per the FIDE Regulations the captain is required to deliver at a specific time a written list naming the players in his team participating in each round, If the list is not delivered by the required time, the team list for that round shall be the first four named players in the “starting list”. The times and means required to deliver the lists for each round will be announced at the Technical Meeting. The captain shall communicate the board order and the pairings to his players. In any round, if a team can field fewer players than the four (4) required for the match, these players shall be assigned to top boards, starting with Board 1, in the order they are named in the “starting list”. It is never allowed to “skip” any board; a loss by forfeit due to the incomplete number of players shall always happen on the lowest board.

4. Format & system.

In each section (Crown and Reserve), the tournament shall be played as a five (5) round standard Swiss system event. The teams listed first in each pairing shall have the White pieces on the odd-numbered boards and the Black pieces on the even-numbered boards. In the unlikely event that any of the sections has exactly six (6) teams registered, this section will be played as a five (5) round Round Robin event. If fewer than six (6) teams register in one of the sections, the Crown and Reserve sections shall be merged. Prizes may still be awarded separately based on the teams’ original registration. Pairings will be made by the Pairings Officer using FIDE certified software, under the supervision of the Chief Arbiter.

5. Time control; default time.

The time control per player shall be (90’/end + 30” increment starting from Move 1), i.e. ninety minutes for the whole game plus thirty seconds Fischer increment starting from the first move. 

If a player arrives at the chessboard with a delay of more than sixty (60) minutes from the actual start of round 1, their game will be declared lost by a forfeit. This default time in subsequent rounds shall be thirty (30) minutes.

6. Tiebreaks.

There will be no play-off games. All places in all sections will be determined by computer tiebreak criteria.

Every game in the match is scored as per FIDE rules, yielding 1, ½, or 0 game points. If a team amasses the majority of game points in a match, it wins this match. If both teams score the same number of game points, the match is drawn. Each match is scored by match points. A match winner receives two (2) points, a draw gives one (1) point to each team, a loss – zero (0) points.

At the completion of the event, teams are ranked by the number of match points in the final group standings. If two (2) or more teams score the same number of match points, the tie is broken as follows:

a) Total number of game points.

b) Direct encounter.

c) Buchholz Cut 1.

d) Sonneborn-Berger for Team Tournaments: the sum of the products of the match points made by each opposing team and the match points made against that team.

e) If the tie is still not broken, the team with the youngest player (date of birth confirmed by a government-issued photo ID) shall be placed higher in the rankings.

7. Schedule.

• Wednesday, Jan 14
  • 19:00 (tentative) — Technical Meeting (online)
• Friday, Jan 16
  • Arrival
  • 17:30 — Opening Ceremony
  • 18:30 — Round 1
• Saturday, Jan 17
  • 08:45 — Presidents’ Meeting*
  • 10:00 — Round 2
  • 15:00 — Round 3
• Sunday, Jan 18
  • 09:00 — Round 4
  • 14:00 — Round 5
  • 18:30 — Closing Ceremony
  • Departure

* The President's Meeting is conducted for deliberations of annual university chess and selection of the host for the 2027 Canadian University Chess Championship. 

8. Player conduct.

All participants are bound by the Laws of Chess and shall behave at all times during the tournament in accordance with the FIDE, CFC, FQE statutes and the highest principles of sportsmanship. The players are expected to be present at all official events approved by the Organizer, including the Opening and the Closing ceremonies. The captains are expected to attend the Technical Meeting. If necessary, the Chief Arbiter may call other Technical Meetings. The players are expected to co-operate with the media and be available for short interviews immediately after each game. The players shall comply with the requirements of FIDE Regulations to maintain their dignified appearance at all times during the event.

9. Fair play; electronic equipment.

Fair Play measures will be in place as per the FIDE Anti-Cheating Guidelines. During a game, players and captains are forbidden to have in the playing venue any electronic device not specifically approved by the Chief Arbiter. Such devices are allowed to be stored in a player’s bag, provided the device is completely switched off. This bag must be placed as agreed with the Chief Arbiter and the player is forbidden to use this bag without permission. Accompanying persons or spectators are forbidden to use electronic devices at the playing venue except for photography when explicitly approved by the arbiter.

10. Player ratings

Ratings are used for section eligibility and team pairing purposes, in the following manner:

• For a player who has established a permanent CFC rating – the CFC rating will be used;
• For a player without a permanent CFC rating– the highest OTB rating found (FIDE, CFC provisional, FQE, USCF, …) will be used at the sole discretion of the Organizer. Factors taken into account include the recency of rated tournaments and number of rated tournaments in each system. The rating freeze date is January 09, 2025. No further changes in player ratings after that date will be taken into account for the CUCC.

11. Rating the results

The Crown section will be rated with FIDE and CFC. The Reserve section will be rated with the CFC.

12. Registration cut-off

December 19, 2025 is the last day to register online for a price of $100 per a four-player team ($125 for 5 players). Starting December 20, 2025, the registration fee increases to $120 per a four-player team ($150 for 5 players). For any registration requests accepted after January 09, 2026, a late penalty may be applied and a half-match point bye in Round 1 may be given at the sole discretion of the Organizer.

13. Memberships

Players shall have a CFC membership valid through the last day of the CUCC, or purchase such a membership or a single tournament membership. Players residing in Quebec shall have a CFC or FQE membership valid through the last day of the CUCC, or purchase such a membership or a tournament card. Memberships can be purchased online from the CFC/FQE. Without memberships, team results cannot be rated by Quebec and Canadian authorities, and it is the responsibility of players to ensure they have a valid membership. 

14. Withdrawals

If a player or team wishes to withdraw from the tournament, this player or team shall communicate their request to an arbiter in writing using a prescribed form no later than during the preceding round. Once pairings for the new round are made and published, they will not be changed. Any belated “withdrawal” request will result in a forfeit of the game/match for which the player/team has been already paired. Note that the CFC may, at their sole discretion, rate such forfeited games.

15. Recording the moves

As per FIDE Laws of Chess, Art. 8.1.1: “In the course of play each player is required to record his own moves and those of his opponent in the correct manner, move after move, as clearly and legibly as possible, in the algebraic notation (Appendix C), on the ‘scoresheet’ prescribed for the competition.”

16. Marking the results

When the game is finished, each player shall clearly and unambiguously mark their result on her or his scoresheet as “1-0”, “½-½”, or “0-1” and sign this scoresheet. Then, both players shall cross-sign their opponent’s scoresheets. As per FIDE Laws of Chess, Art. 8.3., “the scoresheets are the property of the organiser of the competition” and shall be left on the table once both signatures have been applied. Further, both players shall indicate their game result in the match protocol in a clear and unambiguous manner. As per FIDE Handbook, §C10, Art. 3.2.1, “the captain shall sign the protocol indicating the results in the match at the end of play”. The captain can delegate this responsibility to the player on his team whose game is the last one left in the match. If players or captains do not follow the required procedure and the match protocols are not executed properly, the result can be entered in any way including “0-0” at the sole discretion of the Chief Arbiter.

17. Playing Venue

As per FIDE Laws of Chess, Art. 11:

• The ‘playing venue’ is defined as the ‘playing area’, rest rooms, toilets, refreshment area, area set aside for smoking and other places as designated by the arbiter.
• The playing area is defined as the place where the games of a competition are played.
• Only with the permission of the arbiter can:
• • a player leave the playing venue,
  • the player having the move be allowed to leave the playing area.
  • a person who is neither a player nor arbiter be allowed access to the playing area.
• During play the players are forbidden to use any notes, sources of information or advice, or analyze any game on another chessboard.
• Players who have completed their games become spectators. Spectators (including accompanying persons) are not allowed to be present in any of the restricted areas specified by the Chief Arbiter when games are underway. Spectators are not allowed to communicate with players anywhere in the playing venue (e.g., in the toilets or in the hallway).

18. Photographs.

The Organizers will warmly welcome you to take photos before the start of every round. All spectators will be asked to turn off and put away all electronic devices five minutes before the scheduled round starts. An official photographer will attempt to take photos during the rounds and to make them available to players and accompanying persons.

19. Appeals Committee.

The Organizer will nominate the Chairman and two (2) other members of the Appeals Committee, as well as two (2) reserve members, all from different universities. All names shall be announced no later than at the start of the Technical Meeting before Round 1. None of the three (3) members of the Appeals Committee shall sit in judgment in a dispute involving a player/team from their university. A reserve member takes the place in such a case. As per FIDE Handbook, §C.11 “Appeals Committee Procedural Rules”, an appeal in a team event can be lodged only by a team captain. All protests shall be submitted to the Appeals Committee in writing not more than one (1) hour after the completion of relevant game, or an alleged occurrence of an infringement complained against. Each appeal must be accompanied by a deposit fee of one hundred (100) Canadian dollars. If the appeal is rejected, the fee shall be forfeited to the Organizer.

The Appeals Committee may decide on the following matters:

1. an appeal against a decision by an arbiter,
2. a protest against a player's or a captain’s behavior,
3. all other matters which the Committee considers relevant.

No appeals are accepted against pairings generated by FIDE-certified tournament pairing software. The written decision of the Appeals Committee arising from any dispute is final.

20. Prizes.

20.1. Main prizes – both Crown and Reserve sections.

The team that wins the Crown section will be declared the 2026 Canadian University Team Chess Champion. The teams that win the first, second and third places in Crown and Reserve sections will be awarded plaques. Players on the teams that won the first in Crown and Reserve sections will be awarded plaques. Players on the teams that won second, and third shall receive medals.

20.2 Individual board prizes – separately for Crown and Reserve sections.

Separately in the Crown section and the Reserve section, players assigned to the same board number in their respective team lists shall be in competition for individual board prizes: plaques for gold, medals for silver, and medals for bronze. For the purposes of this award, the players’ performance ratings shall be compared. The highest performance rating wins. In case of a tie, it shall be broken in order of priority by:

1. number of games played (the highest number wins);
2. percentage score (the highest number wins);
3. final ranking of a team (the player on the highest ranked team wins).

For Boards 1-4, only players who have played a minimum of four (4) games shall be eligible for board prizes. For Board 5, only players who have played a minimum of three (3) games shall be eligible for board prizes.

20.3 Women’s prizes – across both sections.

If at the completion of the competition there are at least five (5) female players across both sections who played at least four (4) games each, the Organizer will plaques for the three best-performing women. Women who played a minimum of four (4) games in their section shall be eligible. The highest performance rating wins, regardless of the section and the board number. In case of a tie, it shall be broken in order of priority by:

a) number of games played (the highest number wins);

b) percentage score (the highest number wins);

c) final ranking of a team (the player on the highest ranked team wins).

20.4 Prizes encouraging women’s participation – across both sections

To encourage and celebrate women’s participation, the Organizer will award the following prizes to the mixed-gender teams (at least 2 female members) taking into account the results in both sections:

- One (1) plaque called “The Best Performing Mixed-Gender Team” will be awarded to the highest-placed team that has both female and male players provided there are at least three (3) mixed-gender teams registered in total.

- One (1) plaque called “The Runner-Up Mixed-Gender Team” will be awarded to the second-highest-placed team that has both female and male players provided there are at least five (5) mixed-gender teams registered in total.

20.5 Additional prizes

The Organizer may establish additional prizes at their sole discretion.