British Online Chess Championships 2021

2021 Prizewinners’ List
Click here — https://www.englishchess.org.uk/bocc-prizewinners-list-2021/

The 2nd British Online Championships will take place over two weeks from 24th July – 8th August 2021 on the Chess.com platform. The event is being run by the English Chess Federation, in collaboration with the Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Ulster, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man Chess Federations / Unions. The British Online will include separate Championships – Open, Women’s, Junior, Senior and Rating Limited.

Each Championship will consist of a qualifying stage and a finals stage, with a number of separate events at four different time controls (Standard, Rapid, Blitz and Bullet) as shown in the table below. Players may take part in one or more championships for which they are eligible e.g. Open, Women’s, Junior etc., and one or more events within their selected championship(s) e.g. Standard, Rapid, Blitz etc., subject to the entry conditions and playing schedule.

You can find a list of current qualifier entrants here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/british-online-chess-championships-entrants/

You can find a list of direct entrants here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/british-online-chess-championships-2021-direct-entrants/

Joining instructions and a Players’ Guide can now be found here – BOCC Joining Instructions and Players Guide 2021 (updated 27/7/21)

Eligibility for rating-limited events will be based on players ratings in the July 2021 ECF Online list at the relevant time control as the primary reference for online playing strength. Players with no July 2021 ECF Online rating will be allocated an estimated Tournament Rating (TR) based on OTB, FIDE or other lists as per the tournament regulations. Players will be contacted if their July ECF online rating means they need to be reallocated to a different section.

Following the action
Pairings and Results
Pairings and results for the arbiter paired Championship and festival events (all standardplay events and all finals except for the Bullet final) can be found here on chessresults – https://chess-results.com/tnr569793
Commentary
GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan will be providing commentary for the qualifiers and finals supported by a team of guest commentators including GM John Emms, GM Chris Ward, and GM Jon Speelman. Commentary will be broadcast at https://www.twitch.tv/ecf_commentary
Coverage will generally start at 7.00pm for the evening rounds but we will also be covering some of the afternoon events [the commentary schedule can be seen here] and we will publish a full commentary schedule shortly. We will also provide details of where you can follow the games in the finals on Chess.com
Recordings
Recordings of the commentaries will be made available on the ECF YouTube channel here – https://www.youtube.com/c/EnglishChessFederation/videos
Chess.com PGN Broadcasts
You can also follow the games on Chess.com’s chessbomb using these links —
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-online-chess-championship (30th July – 8th August)
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-online-chess-championship-rapid (30th July)
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-online-chess-championship-blitz (29th July)
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-womens-online-chess-championship (30th July – 8th August)
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-womens-online-chess-championship-rapid (1st August)
https://www.chess.com/events/2021-british-womens-online-chess-championship-blitz (31st July)

Click this link for the full schedule – BOCC Schedule 2021

Please note — players should enter events by 18:00 on the day before the event begins

Open Championships
Standard – Qualifiers 24th-28th July; Final 30th July-7th August; Playoff 8th August
Rapid – Qualifiers 27th-29th July; Final 30th July
Blitz – Qualifiers 24th-26th July; Final 29th July
Bullet – 31st July

Women’s Championships
Standard – Qualifiers 24th-28th July; Final 2nd-8th August
Rapid – Qualifier 30th July; Final 1st August
Blitz – Qualifiers 29th July; Final 31st July

Junior Championships U18, U16, U14, U12, U10, U8
Standard – Qualifiers 24th-28th July; Final 2nd-8th August
Rapid – Qualifiers 24th-26th July; Final 27th July
Blitz – Qualifiers 28th-30th July; Final 31st July
Bullet – 1st August

Senior Championships 50+, 65+
Standard – Qualifiers 24th-28th July; Final 2nd-8th August
Rapid – Qualifiers 31st July; Final 1st August
Blitz – 29th July

Rating Limited Championships U2000, U1400
Standard – 24th-29th July
Rapid – 24th July

Rating Limited Championships Open, Under 1700, Under 1100
Standard – 2nd-7th August
Rapid – 1st August

Weekend Open U1800, U1500
Standard – 30th July-1st August

Entry deadlines
Entries made after Thursday 8th July will be subject to a £10 surcharge.

ENTER HERE

Tournament summary and schedule
If any errors appear on this page please contact the ECF office at office@englishchess.org.uk so they can be queried and if necessary rectified.
If you have any enquiries please email manager.british@englishchess.org.uk
A ‘Players’ Guide’ with full joining instructions can be found here – BOCC Joining Instructions and Players Guide 2021 (updated 27/7/21)
You can find a list of current qualifier entrants here – https://www.englishchess.org.uk/british-online-chess-championships-entrants/

For standardplay qualifier events you’ll need to be logged in before the start of the rounds and your game will be started by the arbiter. If you have entered a rapid or blitz qualifier or bullet final event, you should join the relevant Chess.com club(s) at (will appear shortly) and then login to Chess.com on the event days and click on the link(s) to register for the events from one hour before the start times.

Eligibility
In order to participate in these Championships, all players must either:
have a FIDE Nationality of ENG, IRL, SCO, WLS, GCI or JCI; or
have been continuously resident in England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man since 1st July, 2020; or
be a British or Irish citizen.
All players must also be members of their National Federation. English players should be members of the ECF at Supporter level or higher

Age groups and DOBs
Juniors (in all cases on January 1st) — born 2013 or later – U8; born 2011 or later – U10; born 2009 or later – U12; born 2007 or later – U14; born 2005 or later – U16; born 2003 or later – U18
Seniors — 50+ born 1971 or earlier; 65+ born 1956 or earlier

Allocation of ratings in all sections
Where the tournaments are being played as part of the inbuilt structures of Chess.com (see the tournament rules below), the platform’s rating will be used. Otherwise, the ratings used for each tournament will be in the following order of priority depending on time control —

Standardplay Tournaments
Standardplay Ratings – ECF Online; *National Online; National OTB; FIDE OTB

Rapidplay Tournaments
Rapidplay Ratings – ECF Online; *National Online; National OTB; FIDE OTB

Blitz Tournaments
Blitz Ratings – ECF Online; *National Online; National OTB; FIDE OTB

Scotland
*National Online refers to Live Allegro Rating

Where a player has none of these, the organisers will assign an estimate based on all available data on a case-by-case basis, failing which the player will be assigned a rating of 0. National ratings and FIDE ratings will be treated as equivalent i.e. no conversion formula will be applied. The ratings allocated by this process will be used in the calculation of any relevant prizes.
Note – the most recent lists (excluding August 2021) will be used for eligibility and pairings. Players whose rating increases between entry and the event will be moved to the appropriate section. Players whose rating decreases making them eligible for a lower rated section will be offered the opportunity to move.

Prizes
Championship titles will be awarded separately for each event e.g. British Online Open Standardplay Champion or British Online Open Rapid Champion etc. Further details of the prizes will be published shortly, and will include trophies and/or medals for the top 3 placed finalists in all sections. Further prizes maybe awarded and will be announced on this website

Regulations
General Regulations (PDF) | Fair Play Regulations (updated 19/7/21 – PDF) | Fair Play Commission complaints (online form)
Please note that for the Championships finals, excluding the Bullet sections (Open, Women’s, Seniors, Juniors) it will be mandatory to join a Zoom call with the arbiter and players in the event with the players screen shared and players’ webcams on.

Ratings
All games, except the Bullet, will be rated in the ECF Online Rating List.

If you’d like to be kept informed about this event and other online events, visit this online form and get in touch – https://britchess.wufoo.com/forms/ecf-online-mailing-list/

Over-the-board Finals
The ECF hopes to hold over the board finals for Open, Women’s, Seniors’ and Juniors’ Standardplay Championships in early October, subject to Covid-19 restrictions in place at the time. Players who qualify for the online finals will be invited to take part in the OTB finals as well, once we are in a position to confirm the events. We will contact all qualifiers as soon as possible after the Online Championships to confirm details. Play will take place in hotels with accommodation available at the venues. Prices for accommodation, venues, prizes and entry fees will be announced as soon as possible. The current schedule is as below with further details on the British Championships website here – https://www.britishchesschampionships.co.uk/

Open Championship Final – 2nd-10th October
Womens Championship Final – 11th-17th October
Senior Championships Finals – 4th-10th October
Junior Finals – 2nd-3rd October

2022
The 2022 British Chess Championships will be held in Torquay. Players who qualified for the 2020 Championship are qualified to play in the 2022 Championship.