Kind Attn all stake holders : National Championship

Kind Attention to all stake holders:

Please be guided by the following decisions regarding National Premier, National Challengers and National Women Challengers.

National Challengers :

It was resolved to revert to the old practice and make National Challenger and National Women Challenger as rated events. It was further resolved to restrict donor/special entries as detailed below:

1. National Challengers : To restrict donor/Special entries to a minimum ELO rating of 2200 as per the last published FIDE FRL before the championship. Players below 2199 ELO are not eligible for participation. The above restriction will be relaxed to the host Association and they will be permitted to field maximum of four players with the minimum ELO rating of 1800.

2. National Women Challengers: To restrict donor/Special entries to a minimum ELO rating of 1800 as per the last published FIDE FRL before the championship. Players below 1799 ELO are not eligible for participation. The above restriction will be relaxed to the host Association and they will be permitted to field maximum of four players with the minimum ELO rating of 1400.

National Premier Qualifications:

Modifying the earlier Rule, the members resolved that from 2017  onwards players with the ELO rating 2650 & above will get preference over the National Challengers while filling up the vacancies caused by the non participation of the top four ELO rated players who are directly seeded along with the National Champion and first nine qualifiers of National challenger in the immediate past year. However, if players with ELO 2650 are not available, players as per Ranking in the National Challengers will be considered.

As far as National Women Premier Qualifications are concerned, the existing Rule to continue.