2021 MCC Australia Day Weekender (22-24 & 26 Jan)

[Thai Ly]

2021 MCC Australia Day Weekender
(22-24 and 26 January 2021)

MCC welcomes the new year with a 7 rounds Open Swiss (Over-the-Board/OTB) tournament – the tournament will be ACF and FIDE rated.

Total limit of 60 players (per MCC’s current COVID protocols – see details in next post)

When: Friday 22 January – Sunday 24 January 2021 and Tuesday 26 January 2021.

Where: Melbourne Chess Club, 66 Leicester St, Fitzroy.

Format: 7 Round Swiss, ACF & FIDE rated.

Time control: 90 min + 30 sec per move. Half hour forfeit time from published start time.

Entry fees: $65 Full Member, $55 Concession / Junior Member (add $15 for Non-Members)
Free entry for MCC Member GMs/WGMs, IMs/WIMs & FMs/WFMs and non-Victorian GMs/WGMs and IMs/WIMs
$10 early bird discount if paid before Monday 20 January.
If you want a round 1 bye you must have fully paid your entry to be paired. Refunds are available if notified 24 hours before the event.

Timetable:
Round 1: Fri 22nd Jan, 7pm
Round 2: Sat 23rd Jan, 1.30pm*
Round 3: Sat 23rd Jan, 6.30pm*
Round 4: Sun 24th Jan, 10.30pm
Round 5: Sun 24th Jan, 3.30pm
Round 6: Tue 26th Jan, 10.30am
Round 7: Tue 26th Jan, 3.30pm

*Rounds on Sat 23rd Jan adjusted to later time to accommodate MCC’ s junior coaching.

Byes: Up to two half point byes for rounds 1-5.

Prizes (provisional): $2100 total
1st: $600
2nd: $400
3rd: $200
Rating 1: 1st-$200, 2nd-$100
Rating 2: 1st-$200, 2nd-$100
Rating 3: 1st-$200, 2nd-$100

Brilliancy prize: $40 book voucher at club bookshop

Arbiter: Alexej Khamatgaleev (0426 731 726, lehak10@hotmail.com).

Organiser: Thai Ly (0421 912 296, melbchessclub@gmail.com).

Online entry and payment via Tornelo: https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/melbo...-day-weekender

[Thai Ly]

MCC’s OTB tournaments (i.e. tournaments played at the MCC’s Fitzroy club premises) will, for the foreseeable future, operate in accordance with all COVID-related restrictions. This means that MCC has a COVID-plan in place (see below, updated for 'COVID Summer') and there will be density restrictions and other COVID-safe policies put into place.

These protocols have already been adopted for MCC’s recent Saturday Allegros.

As such, with the new 'COVID Summer' restrictions, this tournament will be limited to 60 people.
• If there are 50 or fewer entries, then only the main playing area will be used.
• If there are 51 to 60 entries, then the smaller back playing area will also be used in conjunction with the main playing area.

Additionally, a condition of entry is that all persons coming to the club must scan the MCC QR Code (available at the club premises) to sign in upon entering the premises.

To join, we highly recommend you first register and pay for entry through Tornelo. This minimises the handling of cash and allows the tournament organiser to estimate total attendance. Tornelo asks for contact details and will act as a backup electronic register.

We do not recommend players arriving at the club without first registering their tournament entry in Tornelo – failure to do this may result in the player missing out on entry into the tournament, if prior to the start of the tournament the maximum field limit is reached.

For future details about these protocols – please refer to the MCC COVID-plan at the link below:
MCC COVID-plan (updated for 'COVID-summer'): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jSV...ew?usp=sharing

[Thai Ly]

Due to a recent MCC Committee decision, registration of entries and payment of entry fees will now be via Tornelo, for all MCC classical time tournaments until further notice.

Formerly, this function was done through the MCC website. However, this has now changed following the successful use of Tornelo for this function in both the MCC Allegros and for the Greg Hjorth Online Classic.

Please note that Tornelo will not be used for pairing or rating purposes. As the tournament is FIDE and ACF rated, the arbiter will use a compliant pairing program (i.e. Vega) instead.

[Thai Ly]

Just a reminder that you can become a MCC member for 2021 to get discounted entries to MCC tournaments.

MCC memberships for 2021 are now open and can be paid online via the Trybooking website:

2021 MCC memberships Trybooking page

In light of the effect of COVID restrictions over the much of the past year, MCC are providing major discounts for the 2021 memberships, particularly for any member who is renewing their current membership.

The fees are set out below:

2021 MCC Membership Fees
Adult (Renewing) - $85.00
Adult - $120.00

Concession (Renewing) - $62.50
Concession - $75.00

Junior (Renewing) - $42.50
Junior - $60.00

Country (Renewing) - $30.00
Country - $45.00

[Thai Ly]

We had a query last week concerning the mandating of wearing face masks within MCC premises.

In light of the most recent Victorian Government - which was "From 11.59pm, Sunday 17 January 2021, face masks will no longer be mandatory in all public indoor settings. " - MCC has accordingly decided to not require the mandatory wearing of face masks within the club.

This decision is subject to any future changes in the position of Victorian Government.