3rd Cambridge International Open

The English Chess Federation is organising the 3nd Cambridge International Open Chess Tournament from Monday 26th May – Saturday 31st May 2025 at the historic University Arms Hotel in Cambridge. This will be a nine round Swiss system tournament and will provide an opportunity for participants to achieve international title norms. The ECF would again like to thank the hotel for their continued support in hosting this prestigious event.

Rating
The tournament will be submitted to FIDE and the English Chess Federation (ECF) for rating. It is a condition of playing in the Cambridge International Open that the data submitted at the time of entry will be forwarded to the ECF and FIDE as required to enable the games played to be rated.

Allocation of Ratings – FIDE Rating May 2025
The ratings used for tournament will be in the following order of priority based on available rating –

FIDE rating (May 2025);
ECF rating (May 2025);
Where a player has neither of these, the organisers will assign the players in alphabetical order, after rated players.

The ratings allocated by this process will be used for pairings and in the calculation of any relevant prizes.

Obtaining a FIDE Identification Number
All entrants should have a FIDE Identification Number at the time of submitting their entry. Players with a FIDE ID of RUS or BLR will not be eligible to enter events as per the current ECF policy. They may however use FIDE’s fast track procedure to change their FIDE affiliation to FID as a basis for entering and providing they are otherwise eligible.

Entry Requirements
The following players are not required to pay an entry surcharge –

Gold or Platinum members of the ECF; or
Players whose FIDE ID is not ENG.

All other entrants must pay a £15.00 surcharge to take part in the event.

Rating Floor – the tournament will be open to players with a FIDE standard play rating of 1600 and above. Players with a FIDE rating of less than the 1600 rating floor will not be able to enter until after 25th April 2025. Such entries will only be accepted if there is space available at that stage.

Entry Fees
£75.00

ENTER ONLINE

List of entrants
https://www.englishchess.org.uk/3rd-cambridge-international-open-entrants/

Prizes
Place Prizes
1st – £1,500; 2nd – £750; 3rd – £600; 4th – £400; 5th – £300
Rating Prize Bands
2000 – 2200 1st – £200
1800 – 1999 1st – £175
Women’s Prizes (awarded to the highest placed female players)
1st – £250
2nd – £150
3rd – £100

Playing Schedule
Format – Swiss System
Number of Rounds – 9
Number of Half-Point Byes Permitted – 2 (players who receive conditions can only request one half-point bye) but no byes in the last 3 rounds
Time Control – Game/90 + 30’
Default Time – 30 minutes
Schedule –

Round 1 – Monday 26th May 10:30	Round 6 – Thursday 29th May 16:30
Round 2 – Monday 26th May 16:30	Round 7 – Friday 30th May 10:30
Round 3 – Tuesday 27th May 16:30	Round 8 – Friday 30th May 16:30
Round 4 – Wednesday 28th May 10:30	Round 9 – Saturday 31st May 10:30
Round 5 – Wednesday 28th May 16:30

Pairings
Pairing Programme – Swiss Manager
Pairings Published for each Round – As soon as available and no later than one hour before each round
Pairings Method – The Baku Acceleration system will be used only if entries exceed 100.

Defaults
A player who defaults a game without advance notification will not be included in the pairings for the next round of the tournament or any subsequent round unless the Chief Arbiter decides otherwise. Should the player be allowed to continue in the tournament the Chief Arbiter reserves the right to apply a bond of £50, which will be returned at the end of the tournament if the player takes part in all remaining rounds. A player who defaults a second game in the tournament will be expelled from it and shall not have the bond returned.
All rearranged games listed below will be rated by both the ECF and FIDE

Late Pairings
The Chief Arbiter may permit players to enter (or register) after the pairings have been published for Round 1 of the tournament. In general, these players will score 0 points in the rounds they have missed; however, the player may be paired against another player in this category who has entered the tournament, and that game shall be played as though part of the tournament. Should any players remain after this process they will be considered available for any of the pairing procedures below once the default time for the relevant tournament has elapsed.

Re-pairings
A player whose opponent does not arrive before the default time may be offered a re-pairing against someone in the tournament. The player will have the following choices –

Accept the re-pairing;
Decline the re-pairing, and receive a 1 point bye.

If the player decides to accept the re-pairing, then the game will be played as though part of the tournament. The time limit for the game shall be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Accommodation
Players wishing to book accommodation for the tournament at the University Arms Hotel should follow the link so that they can take advantage of the preferential rate which is being offered by the hotel to players at the event –
https://www.marriott.com/event-reservations/reservation-link.mi?id=1735833042247&key=GRP&guestreslink2=true&app=resvlink