Tharp Rules

Players should not play any one they have played in the previous five meetings.

The challenger, i.e. the lower rated player, will take black.

After each game, the swing will be calculated:

Add swing to the winner's rating; deduct it from the loser's rating. For a draw the swing is one fifth of the difference between the player's ratings, added to the lower and deducted from the higher.

The swing is rounded to the nearest whole number.

There is no upper limit to the swing but it is not to be less than one.

If a players rating goes below 20, it is increased to 20.

For a final position, a minimum of six games must be played with the final rating being calculated as the average of the player's rating after each of the last six games.

The rate of play will be twenty moves in twenty minutes for each player.

After black's twentieth move the clocks will be stopped and for those who have recorded all their moves an extra ten minutes will be added to their time. The clocks are then re-started for a quickplay finish.

Two minutes are added to a player's clock in the event that their opponent plays an illegal move. If a third illegal move is made by a given player, the controller may rule that player to have lost the game.

(Clocks will only be used for the higher boards as deemed appropriate by the controller)