At first I thought of calling it Hot Horse. I still think it sounds better than The Octagon, but it doesn't have much meaning to me. The Octagon came from the idea of the round table knights. If there were only 8 knights, the round table would be an octagon. And there are 8 pieces in chess. Then I found out chess boxing is a real sport, and UFC has something called the Octagon. So it just felt like the right fit.
I gathered some people I knew to help me polish my ideas, one of them is Shashank, and we built the site for The Octagon. It's being hosted right now. I gathered ideas from here and there and this is the final result. If we do get members that are not close friends, we don’t want them to be bored and quit the club, so we tried to gamify the system a little, although its not complete yet, because I still have many things I want to implement. But we had to do an offline tournament and time was short, so this is the best I could do in that time.
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we completely forgot about the mobile version of the site till the deadline was in a week
The online tournaments system just isn't ready yet, but we are finding a way. Give it a month or two and the arena will be ready. Arranging a payment method was probably the hardest thing. I didn't want to make this QR system, but I can't use a payment gateway for 2 more months. So for now we have this makeshift payment system. A minor issue I had was the stockfish sparring arena we have, the depth sometimes doesn’t impact how well it plays, since even seeing the next 3 moves can sometimes be enough for simple lines, so I had to add a negative skill level besides the depth levels. Manually making every single badge and every single openings/puzzles is very hard too, but I want to learn from the mistakes of *some* chess platforms and rather than having multiple random openings, I want to keep the openings which I think are better for people of my level and below, and follow the trend in recent gambits so that beginners don’t fall for them, the basic opening principles can be learnt anywhere but going into depth into out of the box openings AND current meta is rarely seen.
Official Protocol & Regulations
RULE ZERO:
The one rule above all: The most important thing is having fun. Even though we run competitive formats, at the end of the day we're all just roleplaying as serious tournament pros. Above all, play chess the way you enjoy it. If you have any queries, problems, or just want to chat about chess, email us at: [email protected] .
1.1 Balanced Odds Format: All matches are balanced/odds. Depending on the skill difference between the two players, one player will be given either a point advantage or a point disadvantage. If a player disagrees with the assigned point advantage/disadvantage, they may appeal to the Tournament Organizer before the match starts. Handicaps are locked in 10 minutes before round 1. No appeals mid-tournament. All Organizer decisions on appeals are final.
1.2 Tournament Format: All normal tournaments with at least 15 players will follow a double elimination format. The colour of the player is decided randomly. All games use a 10+0 time control, except Championship Matches which use the Armageddon bidding format. For offline tournaments, all players must download and use the chess.com Chess Clock app. Draws by agreement are completely allowed. For OTB games, if an illegal move occurs, players must pause the clock and call the arbiter. For any issue during an OTB game — illegal move, bathroom break, clock malfunction — pause the clock and call the arbiter. The arbiter will resolve the situation and their decision is final. For online games, the clock must keep running at all times. Since this is a half-casual club, we do not enforce strict over-the-board rules like touch-move or using only one hand to move pieces and press the clock. Players are requested to avoid phone calls or unnecessary distractions during games.
1.3 Disconnects: For online tournaments, if a player disconnects, the match must be resumed from the same position. Both players are required to repeat the exact same move sequence up to the point of disconnection. If the position cannot be agreed upon, the arbiter reconstructs from the chess.com game link. No link = both players get 0 for that game. If a player refuses or fails to follow the original sequence, they will receive a minus 0.5 point penalty for that game.
2.1 The Trophy System: Only winners of offline tournaments receive physical custom trophies. Online tournaments award cash prizes only and do not award physical trophies. Both offline and online tournaments award online trophies.
[Note: the website uses a trophy system to calculate rankings, these are not physical trophies but a score system and will be referred to in blue colour from now on.]
For each online tournament match win, the players receive +2 trophies added to their account. For winning the final match of online tournaments, they receive +8 trophies. For offline tournament match wins and final match wins, players receive +1 and +4 trophies respectively.
2.2 Titles: Except the king, the top 7 players with the highest trophy count receive the titles of Queen, Rook (x2), Bishop (x2) and Knight (x2). Ties for title spots are broken by most recent tournament win.
2.3 Title Benefits: For titled players, a portion of tournament entrance fees will be reduced according to their title's point value and they will receive special privileges for the events we have planned for the future. Rook (5 points) gets 25% (5×5) reduction, Queen (9 points) gets 45% (9×5) off, Bishop (3 points) gets 15% (3×5) off, Knight (3 points) gets 15% (3×5) off, and the King will be allowed to play in the tournaments for free.
2.4 Trophy Persistence: Trophy counts are permanent and do not reset while the player base is small. Players retain all earned trophies indefinitely. Once we reach more than 50 active members, we reserve the right to introduce seasonal resets or leaderboard seasons. If seasonal resets are introduced, the all-time highest trophy counts will be preserved and displayed in our Hall of Fame. Any changes will be announced at least 1 month in advance.
3.1 Candidates Tournament: Every few months, a candidates tournament is held which includes all the titled players except the king. This tournament is played in a single round robin format using the standard FIDE scoring system: 1 point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw, 0 points for a loss. The winner gets the right to challenge the king for his title. If two or more players are tied for 1st place, tiebreaks are applied in this order: 1) Most wins, 2) Head-to-head result between tied players. If players are still tied after both, an Armageddon playoff game will be held with 5 minutes for White vs 4 minutes for Black, draw odds to Black. The candidates tournament matches do not award any trophies to players.
3.2 Championship Match: The championship match between the king and the winner of the candidates is scheduled according to both players' agreements. It is an Armageddon style format with 2 games played. Before each game the players privately submit a "bid" — the amount of time they are willing to play with in exchange for their preferred colour. The player who bids the lowest time plays with the black pieces, with the time they bid, whereas the other player plays with the white pieces with tournament standard time (10 minutes). A draw is considered a win for the player with black pieces.
4.1 Real Prizes: For all normal tournaments with more than 32 players, the top 3 players will receive cash prizes. For all normal tournaments with 15 to 32 players, the top 2 players will receive a cash prize. For all normal tournaments with less than 15 players, and the candidates tournament, only the winner will receive a cash prize. Only offline tournament winners receive a custom physical trophy. Cash prizes for offline tournaments are paid in cash at the venue. Cash prizes for online tournaments are paid via Netbanking /UPI. Players under 18 require parental/guardian consent to receive cash prizes. For online payouts to minors, funds will be transferred to the parent/guardian's account. TDS will be deducted as per Income Tax Act if applicable. The expected total prize pool is 200 times the number of participants.
4.2 Attendance: Players have 15 minutes from the scheduled start time to appear before the game is forfeited. If a player does not show up within 15 minutes, they forfeit the game and their entrance fee is not refunded. Players who no-show multiple times may have trophies deducted at the organizer’s discretion.
4.3 Rescheduling: Individual match rescheduling is not allowed. A full tournament may only be rescheduled if a majority of registered members request it. Requests must be sent to insertemail.
4.4 Entry Fee & Refunds: The standard entry fee for normal tournaments is ₹100. Titled players receive reductions as outlined in 2.3. Entry fees are refundable if you email the organizer at least 2 days before your first game. No refunds after pairings are posted or within 48 hours of start time.
5.1 Fair Play: Players must compete honestly. Use of chess engines or outside assistance during games is strictly prohibited. Accusations of cheating require evidence. False accusations will result in a warning, then trophy deductions for repeat offenses. Players found violating fair play will have all trophies removed, entry fees and prizes forfeited, and will be permanently banned from all future events. The organizer's decision on violations is final.
5.2 Community Conduct: Player profiles, descriptions, and profile pictures on the website must be appropriate for all ages. Violations will result in a ban from the club. Club chat must be kept respectful. Use of inappropriate language may result in warnings, and repeated violations may lead to a ban.
5.3 Final Authority: The Tournament Organizer reserves the right to resolve any situation not covered by these rules. All organizer decisions are final.
