1. Introduction. Basic Information
2. BLS Statistics
3. Tournaments & Matches
4. Playing a Game
5. Ratings
6. Tournament Winners
7. Types of Time Control (TC)
8. Vacation
9. BL Forum
10. Teams at the BLS
11. Official Competitions
12. Additional Possibilities and Information Available at the Server :
    • BLS Statistics
    • News
    • Tournaments
    • Archives
    • Help Desk
    • Prifile
13. Questions and Suggestions
14. Special Tournaments

1. Introduction. Basic Information.

1.1. We live in the age of scientific and technological progress, when access to any information becomes easier and faster. Now almost any information is affordable to get in a few minutes using the "World Wide Web". And the speed of information exchange increases "by leaps and bounds!" This obviously concerns the game of chess. Correspondence chess by mail becomes less and less popular. Even chess playing by e-mail is passing away! Correspondence chess at servers turns most popular. Server chess attracts not only correspondence chess players, many full-time chess fans enjoy playing at chess servers too.

1.2. The web-site www.bestlogic.ru (the server, or simply BLS) provides just such an opportunity for amateurs and skilled chess players! There is no need to look for an opponent during long time; you can always find an opponent of different strength, from novice players to highly skilled chess players! The server service allows you to play from a few hours to a few months game, and also it can carry competitions with standard time controls used in correspondence chess events.

1.3. The server allows realizing individual tournaments with different formulas, from a round robin to Swiss or Moscow systems. In addition, the server implemented a great opportunity for the organization of team competitions. Anyone can organize a team and take part in the team competition at the server.

1.4. The BLS does not have restrictions on the number of games played at the same time for any user of the server; any player can start and play unlimited number of games! Also the server has no limit on the number of registrations by one user.

1.5. The server forum was created for the convenience of communication between users; you can always find the latest news of the server there, contact the admin with any question, and also find a partner for an interesting dialogue!

1.6. The BLS is rather young by the standards of the Internet, but it has already recommended itself in a positive way and has got its regular users! The server is not static, it’s constantly evolving, and more new opportunities are being created for your convenience!

1.7. With the expansion of the capabilities of our project, this introduction will be brought up to date and changed.

1.9. How to get to enjoy all the services of the website www.bestlogic.ru? It's enough just to register on the server! Sign up and discover the magic world of chess!

Note: You will see in detail at the corresponding page how to pass registration.

Attention! When registering, use only Latin characters and digits!

2. Server Statistics.

2.1. The link "About us - Statistics" provides various general data on the server, and individual information about players.

Note: Detailed statistics on each player can be found in the "Profile - Find a Player", or by clicking on the player's login with an active link.

3. Tournaments & Matches.

3.1. Entrance to the playing area is automatic after you provided the username and password. After login, in order to return to the list of active games, the player needs to click the link "Play" or "Play – My Games".

3.2. Player can simultaneously participate in an unlimited number of tournaments and matches.

3.3. To take part in a tournament, you need to click in the menu "Play" on the link "Select a Tournament". The tournaments, in which this player can participate, are displayed at the Tournament page.

3.4. Tournaments are divided into classes:

3.4.1. Class N

3.4.2. Class F

3.4.3. Class E

3.4.4. Class D

3.4.5. Class С

3.4.6. Class В

3.4.7. Class А

3.5. Chess players are also assigned the same classes. You can play in tournaments of your class and in tournaments two classes below yours.

3.5.1. In order to increase his/her class the player in the tournament of his/her class has to win a tournament with 7 or 8 participants, to get the first or the second place in a tournament with the number of participants from 9 to 12, or to be placed the 1st, the 2nd or the 3d in a tournament with the number of participants 13 or more. The upgrade of the class in tournaments with the number of participants less than 7 is not provided!

Note: The reduction in grade is not performed for players at the BLS, i.e. player in any case cannot lower their class!

3.6. Two time controls are used in standard tournaments; they are 5+1/10 and 10+1/21.

3.7. The games of ranking tournaments start as soon as a participant enters a tournament. All standard tournaments are formed of 5, 7 or 9 players. The tournament is over when all its games are finished.

3.7.1. Information about the start of each game of a standard or any other BLS tournament is sent to players by e-mail, specified in his or her personal data.

3.8. In order to play match games, a player should send a challenge to a specific opponent or make a general challenge. To send a general challenge (any player having specified parameters, may undertake this challenge), you need to link to the "Play - Challenge" and specify the desired settings for your opponent. Individual (personal) challenge can be sent by clicking on the player's login and "Send the Challenge." A player sending general and personal challenges is allowed to use all existing BLS time controls!

3.9. The player gets the challenge at the top of the screen with incoming challenges. Clicking on the link, the challenged player can learn details of the challenge, the nickname of the player and conditions of the game offered. The challenged player can either accept or reject that challenge. After accepting a challenge the game starts immediately.

4. Playing a Game.

4.1. On the game screen, which opens immediately after the entrance to the server (or after clicking on the link "Play=>My Games"), player sees two tables with his/her active games. The first table shows all games where the player must make a move; the second one shows the games with the move of his/her opponents. In both lists, the player can sort games using various parameters, after clicking on the name of the selected column.

4.2. To open a desired game for the next move the player should click the "Move" button or the number of the game in the list. To upload several games for play, you click holding down the "Shift" button.

4.3. The session time is limited to two hours, but if you access the server and check the "Remember Me" option, then the session is unlimited, you can disconnect from the Internet and analyze the position as long as you like.

4.4. Above the graph of the current position, the following information is displayed: the number of the game, the number and the name of the tournament, logins, the remaining time to play and ratings of both opponents.

4.5. To move a piece, click on it and then select the destination field. The piece on the diagram will be moved and marked with a red dot; the initial and destination fields will be displayed in the field of the move.

4.6. If you want to change the move, just repeat the action described above.

4.7. You must have Internet connection, to send the move. Selecting "Submit" sends the move to the server. You have to confirm the move written in the newly opened window; this is done to reduce the percentage of wrong moves. After the move is sent to the server, it is impossible to change the move. At this moment switching of chess-clock takes place.

4.8. A player can exchange messages with his/her opponents. Correspondence should be conducted adhering to generally accepted ethical standards. Insulting an opponent will be sanctioned up to the expulsion from the BLS users.

4.9. Internal correspondence is available for any user.

4.10. There are several cases of a draw position in the game, according to FIDE rules.

The game is drawn when the player to move has no legal move and his king is not in check. The game is said to end in ‘stalemate’. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the stalemate position was legal.

The game is drawn when a position has arisen in which neither player can checkmate the opponent’s king with any series of legal moves. The game is said to end in a ‘dead position’. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the position was legal.

The game is drawn upon agreement between the two players during the game. This immediately ends the game.

The game may be drawn if any identical position is about to appear or has appeared on the chessboard at least three times.

The game may be drawn if each player has made at least the last 50 consecutive moves without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.

The game is drawn upon a correct claim by the player having the move, when the same position, for at least the third time (not necessarily by a repetition of moves):
-positions are considered the same, if the same player has the move, pieces of the same kind and color occupy the same squares, and the possible moves of all the pieces of both players are the same;
-positions are not the same if a pawn that could have been captured en passant can no longer be captured in this manner. When a king or a rook is forced to move, it will lose its castling rights, if any, only after it is moved.

The game is drawn, upon a correct claim by the player having the move, if:
he writes his move in his message to the admin and declares his intention to make this move, which shall result in the last 50 moves having been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture, or
the last 50 consecutive moves have been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.
The game is drawn when a position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of legal moves. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing this position was legal.
The game is drawn when on the board there are not enough pieces to create even a cooperative mate.

A player may, in his turn, require the adjudication of a draw in the game. Is it necessary to send an internal e-mail to the admin, with the obligatory indication of the number of the game.

If the claim is found to be correct, the game is immediately drawn.

If the claim is found to be incorrect, the game shall continue. If the claim was based on an intended move, this move must be made. The admin applies a time penalty imposed on the player who has submitted the claim. The amount of the penalty is equal to 10% of the remaining reflection time in this game, but not more than 5 days; the reflection time may not be reduced to less than one day.

5. Ratings.

5.1. After registration, BLS participants receive a rating of 1900. Exceptions are possible. All subsequent rating changes depend only on the results of the games of the participant.

5.2. Rating is recalculated after each game, following the procedure similar to rating calculation of the Russian Association of Correspondence Chess and the ICCF.

5.3. Changes in the rating-list are made immediately, so participant can see his current place in the rating-list at any moment.

5.4. If a player has forfeited the time, he loses the game.

5.5. Our ratings are valid only at our server and have no direct link to other rating systems.

6. Tournament Winners.

6.1. In rating and other tournaments places are distributed according to the following indicators (in order of priority):

6.1.1. According to the number of points gained.

6.1.2. By SB ratio, this is the amount of points gained by the player, calculated on the following rule: if he wins the opponent, he takes the full number of points scored in the tournament; if draw, then half; if lost, we add 0 points respectively.

6.1.3. By the result of personal game.

6.1.4. By the number of wins.

6.1.5. By the number of wins with black pieces.

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7. Types of Time Control (TC)

7.1. Notation description of TCs, used on the server:

7.1.1. The first indicator is the number of days and nights (we say days further on) given immediately after the start of the game.

7.1.2. If TC is further marked by "+ n", this means that after each move the player gets an increment "n" days to his time. The denominator represents the maximum number of days that can be accumulated by adding increments.

7.1.3. If TC has no "+ n", then the denominator shows, after how many moves the increment will be added to the time of the player in the number of days specified in the numerator of TC. These TCs have a limit of 20 days in accumulated time. The exception is the TC 50/10 where the size of the accumulation time by the increment is not limited.

7.1.4. If TC has "no" (without leave) in the end, this means that the TC does not provide the use of vacation in this game. If "no" is not defined in TC, this allows the use of vacation.

Examples: 30/0no means 30 days for the whole game without the possibility of vacation. 10 +1 / 21 means 10 days plus 1 day after 1 move in the game with possible maximum accumulation time of 21 days, vacation is possible. 10/10 means 10 days for ten moves with a possible maximum accumulation time of 20 days.

Table of TCs used at the server, in days and nights (24 hours)

8. Vacation

8.1. A player can request a vacation at the server. The duration of the vacation is 30 days within one calendar year.

8.1.1. The vacation may be applied only to the games with TC, providing a vacation.

8.1.2. The vacation time is counted in seconds. You can use the vacation as a one-time fee, and by part, the number of parts, during the breakdown, is not limited.

8.1.3. Vacation time is regenerated each year on the 1st of January. Unused vacation time of the previous year is not added to the newly assessed 30 days of vacation; whatever used the player vacation time earlier or not, after the update the vacation time for the current year will be exactly 30 days.

8.2. In order to start the vacation, the player must enter the "Profile=>Management of Vacation" and if any vacation time, press "Take a Vacation". After that, in all BLS games of the player, where vacation is provided, the countdown of his playing time will be stopped.

8.3. To get back from vacation, the player can either go to "Profile=> Management of Vacation" and press "Stop the Vacation," or make the next move in any of his BLS games in which the vacation is provided.

8.4. If a player is on vacation and vacation time is exhausted, the playing time in his games will begin to countdown immediately after vacation time expires.

9. BLS Forum

9.1. To obtain a variety of information and more interesting communication, BLS users visit our forum.

10. Teams at the Server

10.1. The server provides an opportunity to form teams and organize various team events; all the functions for creating and formation of teams, creation and launch of team competitions is almost completely automated.

10.2. Any BLS player may create teams.

Attention! When you create a team at the BLS it is prohibited to use nationalist slogans, propaganda and provocative slogans, and use profanity and advertising in team names and mottos. Otherwise, the administration reserves the right to disband such teams without prior notice.

10.2.1. To create a command, you must enter into "Teams=>Team Building" and fill in the provided form on the next page. After sending the form to the server a team captained by this player is automatically created.

10.2.2. Teams with five or more players, are considered to be formed and may take part in all organized team competition. Teams with less than five players are deemed being created and may not participate in the official BLS tournaments. Such teams may participate only in friendly matches and team tournaments organized by the captain of any other team, with at least 4 boards. Teams with less than 4 players may not take part in any BLS team competition.

10.3. Any BLS player can apply for membership to desired team(s), the number of requests sent at the same time is not limited. But after the player is admitted to one of BLS teams, the other requests will be automatically canceled.

10.4. Any team member may at any time withdraw from the team and join any other team or create a new team, but at the same time he/she can be only in one of BLS teams. If a player, being a member of one BLS team, creates a new team, he/she will automatically be excluded from his/her former team; likewise, if the player accepts an invitation to join a different BLS team.

10.5. The player is informed automatically that he was included to his/her team application form to take part in a team competition; the player can accept or deny this kind of invitation; if the player has not accepted the invitation, it is believed that he refused to participate in this competition.

10.6. The rights and opportunities of team captains.

10.6.1. On team draft, captain can send invitations to join his team, to exclude players from the team, to cap a player to the team, choosing from those who have applied to join the team, as well as to transfer his/her rights of captain to any other member of the team.

10.6.2. On the organization of competitions, team captain can organize matches and tournaments at the BLS using invitations to teams or letting any willing team to join. The captain can receive or send team challenges for a match to a specific team or challenges in a general form. He/she accepts invitations to team tournaments and matches, as well as enters the team for a team tournament organized for every team. The captain organizes intra-team tournaments (only between the members of his/her team). He/she forms the team for matches and tournaments organized at the BLS.

10.6.3. On team management, captain can change the team profile (except its name). The captain communicates with the captains of other teams in the form of the captain's mailings. He/she does a mail merge to players of the team. The captain conducts automated surveys to members of the team, but not more than one interview at a time.

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11. Official Competitions at the Server

11.1. Official personal competitions.

11.1.1. BLS Championship.

11.1.2. BLS Cup, Swiss.

Attention! The winners and prize-winners of the competitions are awarded prizes in rating bonuses.

11.2. Official BLS team competitions:

matches and tournaments.

11.3. Commercial tournaments.

11.3.1. Anyone, a private person or an organization, can organize a commercial tournament; you simply write us about your desire. Contribution in each case is negotiated separately. Commercial tournament organizer may place at all pages of the tournament games promo text and / or banner with the link to the resource advertised. The volume of information text and sizes of banners in every case are discussed separately.

12.1. BLS Statistics.

12.1.1. In the "About Us=>Statistics" you can access a variety of the server statistics.
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12.2. News.

12.2.1. In the "News" you can always read the latest server news.
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12.3. Tournaments.

12.3.1.The menu "Tournaments" provides information about all active BLS tournaments. Information about them is divided into "Your Standard", "Special Tournaments", "Thematic Tournaments", " BLS Championship", "Team Tournaments" and "Team Matches". Tables of all tournaments are shown with active links to the participants and the games of the tournament.
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12.3. Archives.

12.3.1. In the "Archives" you can search games and tournaments by their number; information on team matches and the tournaments is available as well.
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12.4. Help Desk.

12.4.1.This section is under construction. You will find a detailed description of all the features available to users on the server.
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12.5. Profile.

12.5.1. In the "Profile" each BLS player can view & edit his/her personal information. You click the link "Profile=>Your Settings".

12.5.2. Players can enable or disable the receipt of moves made by opponents from their games by e-mail. In case you want to change your e-mail address in the personal data it is necessary to refer to the admin by internal mail (see below), indicating the old and new email addresses.

12.5.3. The BLS surveys players on various topics.

12.5.3.1. When a new poll starts, at the top of the page you will see a message on the number of interviews with the link, clicking on which the player will be able to take part in the vote. The message shows the number of currently active surveys, in which the player was not yet involved.

12.5.3.2. You can also get to the survey page thru the link "Profile=>BLS Polls", where, along with active poll results you can view already completed interviews.

12.5.3.4. Only authorized users can take part in BLS surveys, you may vote only once in each separate poll.

12.5.4. The server has a system of internal mail, which can be used thru the link "Profile=>Internal Mail". Users can view all their correspondence there. We also provide a form to send a message to any BLS player. To send a message, you must enter the user name of the recipient player and the text of the message. Then you send the message by pressing the appropriate button. Information about the new incoming mail of the player appears, if any, at the left top of the page. You have to click an appropriate link of the sender to view the text of the message. There is an option to save both received and sent messages in the archive. User can delete useless messages.
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13. Questions and Suggestions

13.1. The user can appeal through the internal server mail on any issue faced by or suggestions as follows.

13.1.1. On all general and technical questions, to the server administrator, username "Admin".

13.1.2. To organize and conduct competitions, to "Admin" and "helper".
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14. Special Tournaments

Our members can organize special tournaments.

Each tournament must have a name or be timed to some anniversary date. For example: "The tournament dedicated to the 100th anniversary of John Doe" or "Open tournament in honor of the 250th anniversary of the city No name", etc.

Preliminary applications must be sent to BLS administration (Admin or helper), who will determine the feasibility of the tournament.
The preliminary application must specify:
1. Tournament title.
2. Approximate date to start the tournament.
3. Regulations.
4. The preliminary number of participants.
5. Requirement for the participants (for example, to specify a minimum rating).
6. Comments (justification of a particular event).

After that the organizer begins to form the list of participants. You can use the forum and personal correspondence for this purpose.

The formal structures (clubs, sections, organizations, federations) can also hold various events (such as championship of the region, industry tournaments, etc.), using our capabilities.

The tournament organizers can set their own prizes (cash or duffel). All issues related to the prizes are negotiated separately concerning each tournament.

We wish you a nice game and interesting communication on our server! You are welcome!