INDIVIDUAL WINTER LONG PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPS Players apply to enter by 1st August each year and are then placed into divisions of up to

At the end of the 2012-13 season, the structure of the Club Championship will change. The current pyramid system (as shown below) will be replaced by a "one-above-the-other" system named "Premiership" then "Championship" then League 1 down to (as things stand) League 6. Promotion and relegation issues at the end of this season will be sorted prior to this being implemented.

PREMIERSHIP
Kevin Bailey, Matt Darville, John Duggan, Dominic Gibbs, Gavin Lock, David Openshaw, Michael Prizant, Nasir Rizvi, Ian Snape, Dan Staples

The bottom 2 or 3 players will be relegated from the Premiership. The winner of Division 1 will be promoted.
The extra space(s) will be filled by appropriate new players or by some of those in the relegation zone retaining their place.

DIVISION 1
Brian Allan, Simon Court, Nick Edwards, Girinath Haridas, Mark Houghton, Paul Jackson, Akshaya Kalaiyahalan, Koby Kalavannan, Frank Kane, Prashast Vir

The bottom 3 will be relegated. The winners of 2a and 2b will be promoted. to Division 1.
If there are any spaces, they may be filled by new players or by players in the relegation zone retaining their status.

DIVISION 2a Keith Barker, Jon-Man Chung, Howard Curtis, Richard Davis, Qaiyum Khan, Lewis Lou, Dave Morgan, Gordon Morse, Bill Upton, Janis Zvaigzne	DIVISION 2b Anantha Anilkuamr, Lana Boztas, David Bryant, David Howes, Barry Miles, Tom O'Neill, Ian Pratley, Victoria Sit, Dominic Warner, Malcolm Winter
The bottom 3 in both division 2 competitions will be relegated to Division 3 level. The winners of 3a, 3b and 3c will be promoted to Division 2 level. If any spare spaces are not filled by new players of appropriate grade, then players in the relegation zones will not be relegated, as deemed appropriate by CCF.

DIVISION 3a Michael Collins, Adam Crafer, Joseph Fry, Daniel Gliddon, Harry Gold, Arthur Meaton, Peter Neary, Keith Selby, Adam Willmott, George Wright	DIVISION 3b Vince Brady, Ian Carden, Steve Levey, James Maguire, Jasper Moore, Arya Nagwani, Mel Rabain, John Trubshaw, Jamie West, Haolin Zhao	DIVISION 3c Hajane Anbukumar, Anantha PP Anilkumar, Lee Bullock, Alexander Dantas, Lucian Heeler, Jenisan Kulendiran, Mayukh Padhi, Seb Richmond, Sandy Smyth, Ian Stoneman
The bottom 3 in all 3 Division 3 competitions will be listed for relegation to Division 4 level. The winner of Division 4 (maybe the top 3 if Division 4 is a Swiss system event) will be promoted to Division 3 level. If any spare spaces are not filled by new players of appropriate grade, then players in the relegation zones will not be relegated (which is more than likely to be the case), as deemed appropriate by CCF.

DIVISION 4
Paul Braithwaite, Stirling Cook, David Gray, Navieinaah Haridas, Ryan Hewitt, Priththy Kamaleswaran, Nishani Kulendiran, William Thompson, Araneiya Vasudevan, Lavanya Vasudevan

The winner of Division 4 will be promoted to Division 3 level - possibly more players depending on the gaps that are created by players leaving in the Summer.

This event is CCF's Winter season (September - April) individual long play club championship. It is the "main event" for the majority of our club members and has a pyramid structure to it as you can see above. We are seeking to develop a FIDE rated line from top to bottom for those that want it. There will again be at least 4 FIDE rated divisions for which all English players must be members of the English Chess Federation. Forms can be found on their web site. Division 3a will only be rated if we can raise enough players with FIDE ratings.

Anyone wishing to play in FIDE Rated Divisions must become a member of the ECF. We have ECF membership forms on the premises for those that need them. The top 3 finishers in the Premiership will all receive CCF International Tournament "Credits" worth £100-£50-£25 (provided the credits are used within 12 months and that players use some of their credits to enter the August 2012 international event for GM and/or IM norms).

The idea is that players can work their way through the club from basic level to International standard without, in theory (!) ever having to play a game away from Coulsdon (obviously we encourage people to play other events but are trying to run an inclusive system for those that want it). Players from any other clubs are welcome but we are going to have to request that priority is given to these internal fixtures where necessary, due to the complex nature of organising them and the difficulty of finding other dates when matches are postponed.

All results in these divisions count towards the umbrella Dicky White Tournament where an ELO type system operates to decide the best player in all internal long play events at CCF during the season. The winner is, basically, the most improved player on the previous season's grade. Anyone entering, whether part of CCF, should in principle be looking to commit to as many of the dates listed as possible and be prepared to play one or two games on other evenings to ensure that matches finish by the deadline, which will be Monday 13th May 2013. PLEASE CHECK THE RULES ON HOW TO POSTPONE GAMES BEFORE YOU ENTER as some people travel long distances to play and are not too pleased if they waste their journey! As such, we have a shut off for cancellation at 5pm on the day (but it is your job to contact the opposing player as CCF will not be able to help you).

Players apply to enter by 1st August each year and are then placed into divisions of up to 10 players (the bottom division runs on a Swiss system and can accommodate any number). Please note that you cannot lay conditions to an entry (ie. which division), but we will always do our best to give everyone what they want without compromising the structure of the competition. Further down this page is an explanation as to how we allocate divisions.

CCF will control fixtures and has the right to change advertised fixtures on the web site up to 5 days before the match without any other notification given. What this means is that from the moment "Coulsdon Chess News" is emailed on the preceding Wednesday, no changes will be done to fixtures without a specific contact with you. But your job is to ensure you know when you are playing.

HOW WE ALLOCATE PLAYERS TO DIVISIONS
We collate the entries on deadline day and then allocate the divisions from the top. In principle, we do not leave and gaps in the divisions, which means that players who join after the deadline will usually have to wait until the following year to get into the main structure of the club championships. This is a guide to help anyone interested to understand how it works.

PREMIERSHIP
Those finishing 1-7 in the Premiership retain their place. The winner of Division 1 is promoted to the Premiership

New and special applications are considered alongside the players finishing 8-10 in last season's Premiership to decide which 2 players have the most logical right to be in that division. If the new applicants fill the remaining 2 places, then 8-10 will all be relegated to Division 1.

The player finishing 8th in the Premiership may retrospectively survive if (see Division 1 explanation for information) there are too many players for Division 1; this would be at the expense of a new player seeking to join the competition.

DIVISION 1
Those finishing 2-7 retain their place in division 1 and are joined by the top players from both Division 2a and Division 2b plus the relegated players from the Premiership

If there are therefore too many players for Division 1 (there could in theory now be 11), we may have to immediately withdraw a place offered to a new player in the Premiership as the mathematics of this will not exactly work if nobody leaves the competition during the Summer and if all players need to be relegated. However, this situation has never happened and is unlikely to. As such, 8th place in the Premiership may not come down.

If there are any spaces left after these calculations, new and special applications are considered alongside the players finishing 8-10 in last season's Division 1 to decide which players have the most logical right to be in that division.

DIVISION 2
20 players are listed for Division 2 for splitting into 2 sections. Players who finished 2-7 last season at Division 2 level (total 12 players) retain their places and are joined by the relegated players (3 maximum) from division 1 (now making 15). The players finishing top in Divisions 3a, 3b and 3c all join them (making 18). New and special applications are then considered in the same way as for higher divisions alongside players who finished 8th to 10th at Division 2 level.

DIVISION 3
30 players are listed for Division 3 for splitting into 3 sections. Players who finished 2-7 last season in Division 3 (total 18 players) retain their places and are joined by the relegated players (maximum 6) making 24. The top player (or top 3 if the competition was a Swiss system last season) from division 4 is (are) promoted making 25 (or 27). New and special requests are then considered alongside those otherwise potentially relegated to ensure 30 players. However, if there are not quite enough players to fill a 4th division, but if there are too many for Division 3, we may leave holes in the Division 3 allocation by offering 27 places and leaving gaps for potential new players joining.

If Division 3a is rated, FIDE Rated players plus those wanting to be rated are drawn into Division 3a. The remainder into Division 3b or 3c. Luck of the draw may have to decide which un-rated players get into Division 3a if there is more demand than places available (should there be enough demand and rated players, we may also FIDE rate Division 3b). A random draw decides the positions in the fixture table and the remaining division allocation.

DIVISION 4
If numbers allow, we will run up to 4 parallel all-play-all divisions, otherwise we will run a Swiss system competition with 1 match per month . Every player will have to complete their allocated match before the next round can be drawn, or else they will default that round.

PLEASE NOTE
CCF cannot guarantee the numbers, if any, of FIDE rated divisions, which are subject to the entries received and whether players are FIDE rated. We need a minimum of 4 rated players in any division before it can be rated under FIDE rules. Players in these divisions must be members of the English Chess Federation.