Bullet Antichess World Cup 2025 Rules

Rules regarding match scheduling and player eligibility:

All of the rules of V, VI, VII, and VIII apply from here: acwc.chessvariants.training/rules/2024
One change is:
* If a player is offline after 10 minutes of the scheduled time, wait for 10 more minutes. This will count as the opponent's break, and if the opponent arrives within this timeframe, the match can be played; but your opponent cannot call a break.

In addition, the following applies:
* The deadline to play a round's match will be a week at max. It will be preponed if all matches happen before the deadline.
* The time control is 0+2.
* A player must have played 1000 rated antichess games on the account they are registering on before they register. In addition, their account must be atleast 6 months old by the day the tournament starts.
* For any player who has had a cheat detected game, or previously banned accounts, the TDs will decide whether to allow them to play.
* BOT accounts cannot play.
* If a player is found to have registered with multiple accounts, they will be disqualified from the tournament and from future tournaments.

Armageddon rules:
Black gets 30 seconds on the clock and draw odds (if draw, black is declared the winner). Both players make a time offer for white, with the lowest offer playing white. In case of identical offers, a coin flip on discord will decide who gets white. There is an increment of 1 second.
Players should not offer anything more than 5 minutes.

Additional Rules for Player Eligiblity:

* If you are chatbanned and still want to participate, appoint someone to schedule your matches on your behalf. But if that person messes up while communicating times to you, it becomes YOUR fault, so appoint someone responsible.
* To register, post "I'm in" on the registration forum (or the person whom you appointed will post). After this, I will ask the participant a question regarding the rules on lichess private chat (to check if they have read the rules). If the participant doesn't respond to the question, they will not be registered. If the participant does not accept messages from other players, they will not be registered.
* If the player has withdrawn/got disqualified from tournaments in the previous 12 months, they have to additionally send a TD the reason why they should be allowed to play, and why they will not withdraw from this tournament.
* If a player narrowly misses out on the eligibility criteria, they may request a TD to allow them to participate. The decision on whether the player will be allowed or not is at the TD's discretion.

Similar to last year, the tournament will kick off with a qualifier round. However, this time we are having a participant cap.

If the following players participate (or the same player on a different account), they will be exempted from the qualifier round: neverplayslowanti, theunknownguyreborn, sam_124, iithearunii, Sharking_State, ChangeOpening, llIVIll, Kotov_Syndrome.

The maximum number of participants for the tournament will be 72.

The top 48 participants will make it to the next stage.

The group stage will consist of 8 groups of 6 players each. The top player from each group will qualify directly to the candidates and the second placed player will play a playoff round against a second placed player of another group for candidates qualification.

For candidates format and rules, please refer to the ACWC rules (link sent above) again. The only changes are in the time control and number of games per match.

Number of games:
Qualifier: 10 games. (Can stop once a player reaches 5.5)
Round-Robin: 20 games. (All 20 to be played).
Playoff: 20 games (Can stop once a player reaches 10.5)
Candidates: 24 games (All 24 to be played)
Semi-Finals: 24 games (Can stop once a player reaches 12.5)
Final and 3rd Place match: 30 games (Can stop once a player reaches 15.5)

Tiebreaks:
The tiebreaks given are in heirarchy (if the first tiebreak cannot produce a winner, move on to the next and so on).

Qualifier and playoff:
1. 2 games of 0+2
2. 2 games of 1.5+0
3. Armageddon Game

Semi-Final:
1. 2 games of 0+2
2. 2 games of 0+2
3. 2 games of 1.5+0
4. Armageddon Game

Final and 3rd Place match:
1. 2 games of 0+2
2. 2 games of 0+2
3. 2 games of 0+2
4. 2 games of 1.5+0
5. Armageddon game

Other General Rules:
1. For any scenario not given in the rules, the Tournament director will make a decision at their discretion.
2. For any situation involving one of the TD as a player, that TD will not take part in the decision process.
3. Last year's finalists are allowed to choose which groups they want to be put into for the round-robin stage. The other participants will be seeded into the groups.

I think many people are getting confused about this, so let me clarify:

The Qualifier is only ONE MATCH, in a knockout format (if you lose, you are out).

If you have any queries about stuff which is not mentioned in the rules, ask on discord:
discord.gg/KF8VxWZgkq

Prizes:
1st Place: $100
2nd Place: $60
3rd Place: $30

Sponsored by @bwmtone, whom we thank.