BYLAWS of The Montana Chess Association

A.  Terms of MCA Tournaments

1. A tournament that is "sponsored" by the MCA is defined as one that:

1. is underwritten by the MCA, with the MCA taking any profit or absorbing any loss.
2. is directed by a tournament director appointed by the Board.
3. has the details of its organization and operation (apart from those specified elsewhere in the Bylaws) set by the Board, or by persons the Board appoints to act in its behalf

1. is advertised in the MCA newsletter and on the official website.
2. requires MCA membership or membership of another state’s chess association.
3. conforms to USCF rules unless otherwise announced in advance in the Newsletter and on the official website.

1. The entry fee for all players shall be the same, except for junior players, who shall pay half the regular fee, and the current State Champion(s), who shall be entitled to free entry.
2. A uniform tie-break system for titles and prizes (other than cash) shall be used unless otherwise specified elsewhere in the Bylaws. For Swiss system tournaments the order shall be: 1) Solkoff 2) Cumulative 3) Head-to-Head 4) Average opponent rating. For round robin tournaments the Sonnenborn-Berger tiebreak system shall be used.
3. Prizes advertised must be available to the prize winners at the end of the event. The exception shall be the State Closed, in which the name of the State Champion would need to be engraved on a small plaque for attachment to the trophy. The plaque bearing the winner’s name would then be delivered within 60 days to the new State Champion.
4. Any change in the starting time for a round, as determined by the director, shall be limited to no more than plus or minus one (1) hour from the advertised starting time, except in the case where the director may delay the last round to await the conclusion of games crucial to pairings. Any changes shall be announced before the start of the previous round.

1. The Montana State Open
2. The Montana Invitational
3. The State Closed Championship
4. The Barto Memorial
5. The Triple Header Championship
6. The Montana Postal Championship

B.  Membership fees

1. Membership fees for the MCA shall be $10/year for regular members, and $5/year for junior members (under 18).

2. There shall be a discounted family membership rate of $15/year to cover all members of a family living at the same address. The family shall be entitled to receive one copy of the Newsletter.

3. There shall be a discounted 3 year membership rate. This applies to all membership categories according to the following schedule: Regular memberships - $25; Juniors memberships - $12; Family memberships - $35.

4. First-time players who are also new to the USCF shall have their first year’s MCA membership waived to help with their initial costs.

C.  Awards

1. The MCA shall make appropriate awards for the following:

1. Montana State Chess Champion - to the winner(s) of the State Closed Championship.
2. Montana State Grand Prix Chess Champion - to the winner(s) of the Grand Prix Championship.The winner shall receive a cash prize of either $50.00, or 10% of the MCA treasury balance, whichever is less. This balance shall be figured after all income and payments related to the Montana Open have been accounted for. In the case of ties, the prize fund shall be divided evenly between the winners.
3. Montana State Postal Chess Champion - to the winner(s) of the Montana Postal Chess Tournament.
4. Montana State Blitz Chess Champion - to the winner of the State Blitz Championship.
5. Montana State Quick Chess Champion - to the winner of the State Quick Championship.
6. Montana State Action Chess Champion - to the winner of the State Action Championship.
7. Montana Senior Chess Champion - to the Montana player age 50 or over with the best showing in the Montana Open.
8. Biggest Upset - to the Montana resident (at the time of the game) who wins a game against a higher-rated opponent, where the difference in ratings is the greatest for any game played in a rated open tournament during the tournament season (after a Montana Open to the next Montana Open). The ratings of both players must be established at the time of the game.
9. Greatest Rating Gain of the Year - to the player with the most gain in rating points according to the annual list published by the USCF. The player must have an established rating at the beginning of the year, and must be a Montana resident for at least six months, including either the beginning or the end of the year.
10. Grand Slam Award - to any player who takes clear first place in four Grand Prix tournaments during the course of the tournament season A trophy or plaque shall be awarded bearing the name of the player and the tournaments in which the winner took first place.
11. Junior Champion - to the winner of the Montana Open Junior Division.
12. Contributions to Montana chess by an individual or group that merit special recognition.

D.  Montana State Open/Junior Championship

1. The MCA shall sponsor and sanction an annual open tournament called The Montana State Open. Players from any state are welcome.

2. The regular entry fee for the Montana Open shall be $20 per player in advance, $25 at the playing site.

3. The Montana State Open shall be held during a weekend to be determined by the Board of Directors. In choosing a date the Board shall limit itself to the months of May and June, and shall avoid Mothers Day, Graduation Day for the Montana universities, and Memorial Day. The site of the State Open shall be rotated between the five principal chess cities of the State: Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena, and Missoula, beginning in 1999 with Bozeman, and cycling through alphabetically. If a city is unable to take its turn as host, it loses its turn, and the rotation skips to the next city in the cycle.

4. There shall be a separate section at the Montana Open, called the “Junior Championship Division”, in which all junior resident MCA members are eligible to compete. The winner of this section shall be awarded the title of "Montana Junior Champion." This section shall be non-rated, and USCF membership is optional, though encouraged. Entry fee shall be $10, with free MCA membership included. The Board shall endeavor to publicize this category of championship where appropriate, including Montana’s high schools. In case of ties, all tied winners shall be declared joint champions for that year.

E.  Grand Prix

1. The Grand Prix shall begin after the Montana Open each year, and conclude with the following year’s Montana Open. In any Grand Prix tournament, all Grand Prix points shall be issued to the first ten resident MCA finishers with a plus score, regardless of finish. No tie-breaks shall be in effect for Grand Prix Points, so any tied players split their combined Grand Prix points evenly. Grand Prix points shall not be issued to non-resident members. The Secretary/Treasurer shall compute the Grand Prix points awarded and track the standings, arranging for those standings to be published in the MCA Newsletter throughout the year.

2. Grand Prix points shall be awarded according to the following formula: (N/5) x (11-P) x C x M, where

• N = Number of rounds in the event.
• P = Place in order of finish among Montana resident players (the average place in the event of ties)
• C = Average rating of all players in the event / 1500
• M = Travel Bonus Multiplier. This value rewards players for miles traveled (one way from home) according to the following scale:



• 0-49 miles : M = 1.0
• 50-150 miles: M = 1.33
• 151-250 miles: M = 1.66
• Over 250 miles: M = 2.0

For the purpose of determining the average rating of all players in an event, the ratings used by the director for pairings shall be used, except that players without ratings shall be assigned a provisional rating equal to their performance rating for that tournament. The performance rating is calculated by

A + 400 x (W-L) / N

where


A =Average rating of the unrated player’s rated opponents.
W=Wins and L=Losses of the unrated player against rated opponents.
N =Number of games played against rated opponents (if greater than zero)

3. Grand Prix status shall be limited to sanctioned tournaments that are open, Swiss system events. Furthermore, Grand Prix tournaments must draw 10 or more participants and have time control not faster than game in 90 minutes. Grand Prix events must be announced as such in advance in the official newsletter and website. In the interest of avoiding scheduling conflicts, the Board may see fit to limit Grand Prix events throughout the state to one per month. In resolving such scheduling conflicts, the Board shall give due consideration to tradition and to a fair geographic distribution of Grand Prix tournaments.

4. The winner(s) of the Grand Prix title shall receive a cash prize as described in the Section C of the bylaws.

F.  State Closed Championship

1. The MCA shall sponsor and sanction an annual tournament called The State Closed Championship (or "Closed") following the Montana State Open to determine the State Champion. The Closed shall be a six-player, round robin tournament, and shall be held each year on a weekend determined by the Board, but not later than Oct. 31st. In choosing a site for the Closed the Board shall consider both the convenience of the invited players and a reasonable sharing of the tournament in recent years among possible host cities. There shall be no entry fee. Non-residents are not eligible for the Closed.

2. The MCA shall sponsor and sanction an open satellite tournament, called the Barto Memorial, run concurrently with the Closed.

3. The six players to compete in the State Closed shall be, in order of priority:

1. The previous year’s State Champion.
2. The top two (2) finishers in the Grand Prix.
3. The top two (3) finishers in the Montana State Open.

5. The procedure for determining alternate players for the Closed is as follows: Any player who is unable to attend shall be replaced by the next player in line from the category in which the withdrawing player qualified. A sole State Champion shall be replaced by the third place finisher in the Montana Open. A co-champion shall be replaced by the other co-champion with the best tie-breaks in the previous Closed.

6. When there is a tie in the Closed, the following method of tiebreak will be used to determine who is seeded into the next year’s Closed: a) If the current champion is one of the tied players and he is the sole champion from the previous year, or the only one of the previous year’s Co-Champions, then he shall be the seeded player. b) In all other cases the standard MCA round robin tiebreak (see Section A) shall be used, which also determines who wins the trophy.

7. All players tied for first place shall be listed as co-champions for that year, regardless of tie breaks.

G.  Triple Header Championship

1. The MCA shall sponsor and sanction an open “three-in-one” tournament called the Triple Header Championship in order to determine the State Champion at faster time controls. The three championship sub-tournaments covered by the Triple Header shall be: The State Action Championship (Game/30), the State Quick Championship (Game/15), and the State Blitz Championship (Game/5).

2. Non-resident MCA members may participate in any of the three categories of the Triple Header Championship, but the championship titles of each shall be awarded to the top resident finisher.

3. Tied players in any of the categories shall play in an immediate blitz playoff in order to determine a single champion for that category. Colors for such a playoff shall be determined by lot.

H.  Montana Postal Championship

1. The MCA shall sponsor and sanction an annual, USCF-rated Montana Postal championship. Only resident MCA members may participate.

I.  Miscellaneous

1. The MCA shall set up and maintain an official Internet website, run by persons selected by the Board.

2. The President shall act as the official delegate for Montana to the U. S. Chess Federation and shall appoint any alternate voting members.

3. The State Champion at the time of the previous Montana Open shall be designated as Montana’s candidate at the following Governor’s Cup tournament in South Dakota. In the case of tied champions, the invitations shall be extended in tiebreak order until one of the players accepts. If a champion cannot attend, the Board shall appoint a suitable replacement.

4. The annual MCA business meeting shall be held in conjunction with the Montana State Open. The agenda for the business meeting shall be decided by the members throughout the year and announced in advance of the Montana State Open in the MCA Newsletter and on the official website.

5. The official proxy form will be decided upon by the Board each year and published in the newsletter prior to the Annual Meeting.