The English Online Blitz Championships 2021 will be held on https://www.lichess.org with a group stage on 22nd May and the finals on 29th May and the winners becoming English Online Blitz Champions for 2020.
Eligibility
The Championships is open to all ECF members or supporters, with an entry fee of £5.00 for the qualifier tournaments and entry via the English Blitz Championship club on Lichess.org.
General
The Championships are based on a qualifier stage consisting of two Swiss tournaments, with Open and Women’s finals a week later for players qualifying from the group stage events.
Group Stage
The group stage of the English Blitz Championships will take place on 22nd May, based on two Lichess.org Swiss tournaments at 3|2 time control and starting at 2.00pm and then 8.00pm. Players have the option of playing in one or both tournaments.
The top four from each qualifier will go forward to the open final, together with the top eight on aggregate score. Likewise the top four female players from each qualifier and top eight females on aggregate will go through to the women’s final.
Finals
The Open and Women’s finals will be played on 29th May based on a 16 player knockout format for each competition, with 4 blitz games for each pairing to proceed to the next round (see the diagram further down the page)
Matches with equal score after four games will be determined via an Armageddon time odds match with 5 minutes for white and 4 minutes for black with a draw counting as a win for black. Colours will be determined by drawing of lots witnessed by the players based on the ‘wheeldecide’ web site – https://wheeldecide.com/
Streaming Commentary
GM Matthew Sadler and WIM Natasha Regan will provide streaming commentary for the qualifiers and finals on their Game Changer YouTube channel
