General Structure: All teams will start the tournament with the same internal ELO (an ELO only based on the games of VCP).

The results of the first games will be used to shape the pyramid, and depending on the number of participant teams, a number of ELO-dependant layers will be established. Then, the teams within a layer will meet the teams in their layer, immediately above or below as described further on. A schematic is shown below. The pyramid will place each team in a league of their own, with chances to progress to the upper layer if they perform well or to a lower layer if results do not help.

Once the pyramid is running, each team will play a maximum of 4 simultaneous games within VCP (black and white against two teams. Each of these two teams will belong to the same layer, one above or one below depending on the cycle -see pairings below- and the situation of the team in the layer). The format of the games will be standard chess with 2 days per move.

Pairings: The tournament will consist of uninterrupted series of two cycles of pairings. A first cycle will make teams within a layer to play each other. Once the first cycle is complete, and each team has consolidated a position within the layer, a second cycle of games will start, when depending on the position in the layer, the team will challengue other team in the upper or lower layer. Once the second cycle is complete, the composition of each layer will be re-defined based on the new VCP ELO distribution. Then, the process is repeated with a new series of two cycles starting by the matches between teams of the same layer.

Duration: The tournament aims to run on continuous basis and to maintain the internal VCP ELO classification on monthly basis (however, only VCP ELO standings at the end of a two-cycle period compute to classify the team within a given layer. Other intermediate ELO standings will be provisional). The registration will be opened to new teams periodically (once a series (two-cycles) of games is complete).

Fair Play: This tournament is intended for humans (no chess engines). In the spirit of fair play, there will be a page dedicated to compile and provide a graphical display of the games completed in each cycle (analysed with a popular strong chess engine). The administrators of the teams in play will be encouraged to submit a pgn with the most meaningful comments (in English language) to fill up this page, i.e., highlighting the turning points and the reasoning/planning behind key (wrong or right) decissions based on the discussions available in the archive of each game, and allowing all participants to compare and learn from the perspectives of both White and Black.

Registration: June 2014 start

Note: VCP is only new, so expect updates and further developments in this page.

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