Cedar Rapids Chess Club

The ladder is live in 2026! as with everything at the CR Chess club, participation is free.

The CRCC Chess Ladder is a form of competition where each player is assigned a position (rank). A lower number means a higher rank on the Ladder (better position).

The goal of the laddder is to encourage participation in club and qualify for the CR Championship in December

1. Ladder challenges will be issued at the CR Chess Club, Wednesday nights.  Both players must be present to challenge.  At 6:15 pm, a roll call of active Ladder players will be taken.  At this point players may challenge up to 3 players above them in the rankings that is present.

   1. The challenge has white

   2. The defender has black

   3. Game is G15+10 unless otherwise stated that week. 

   4. The winner of the game is awarded 3 participation points, the loser 1. In the case of a draw, both players score 1 point.

   5. If someone is present and cannot play (i.e. they're the top board and not challenged) then they are awarded 2 points.

   6. A declined challenge is the same as a forfeit.

   7. In the case of a draw, the challenger is moved from their position to one below the player they challenged, pushing down anyone below them.

   8. If the challenger wins, they take the place of the player they beat and push down everyone below them.

   9. If the defender wins, no changes are made to the ladder. 

   10. All ladder movement is resolved after all matches are played in the order of lowest challenge to highest. 

2. Players who are not present for a 3 weeks consecutively (not counting tournament weeks) will automatically move down 1 slot in the rankings.

Tournaments are held monthly on the third Wednesday of the month. 

1. Tournaments are your best opportunity to score points and qualify for the championship in December. 

   1. All participants in a tournament score a flat 5 participation points regardless of how they play

   2.  winners of a quad or other group receive a bonus 3 points (or however many other people are in their group)

   3. Co-winners split this bonus, rounded up

2. There will be 4 swiss style tournaments that provide automatic entry into the CR Championship provided that the player also has 20 participation points

3. Other tournaments will be round robin style, usually quads with a variety of time controls and formats. In the past we've played Fisher random, thematic tournaments based on an opening, Duck Chess, Blitz, Rapid.... 

4. Tournaments are on the 3rd Wednesday of each Month January - November and begin at 6PM promptly.

   1. January 21 - Quads, Double Round Robin 3+2

   2. February 18* - Swiss Style, Fisher Random G15+10

   3. March 18 - Quads, G15+10, Tennison Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3)

   4. April - Duck Chess Quads. G10+0

   5. May* - Swiss Style, G15+10

   6. June - Bughouse Quads; G5+0, double round robin

   7. July* - Swiss Style, Fisher Random G15+10

   8. August -  G10/d2 Quads - Caro-Kann Defense: Fantasy Variation, Maróczy Gambit (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 dxe4 4.fxe4 e5 5.Nf3 exd4 6.Bc4)

   9. September - Quads, Double Round Robin 3+2

   10. October - G5+3 Quads, double round robin; Haloween Gambit (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nxe4)

   11. November* - Swiss Style, G15+10

CR Championship will occur the first two-three Wednesdays in December

1. The top 3 ladder spots by rank at the end of November automatically qualify if they have 20 participation points

2. The defending champion (Nehanraj Ramesh) automatically qualifies if he has at least 20 participation points

3. Winners of the four Wednesday night Swiss Tournaments throughout the year qualify if they have 20 participation points

4. the 6 (or more) highest scoring players in the rankings also qualify bringing the total number of participants to 16.

5. Tournament play begins at 6PM on December 2, 2026 and continues at 6PM each Wednesday until we have a champion

   1. All games are G15+10

   2. Pairings will be decided by SwissSys in accordance with Swiss System USCF tournament rules as best it can be deciphered.

   3. When a player has two losses, 4 draws or a loss and 2 draws (i.e. 2 points off a perfect score) they are eliminated from competion and removed from the tournament.

   4. Rounds continue until there is 1 champion.

   5. In the case that a round knocks out the final two competitors (i.e. they are both + 5 -1 =1 and they draw). Then they shall play an armageddon round of blitz 

      1. they will bid on how much time they will play with as black. The lower bid gets black with  that much time and no increment or delay.

      2. The other player gets 5 minutes and no increment or delay.

      3. The winner is the champion, in the case of a draw, black is the champion.