The tournament consists of a Championship and assorted consolation events. The Championship begins with a Block Stage of 80 players and finishes with a Knock Out Stage of 32. All games in the Championship are played to the best of 13 points. (19-point games could be used in some consolation rounds.)

THE BLOCK STAGE

The Block Stage draw begins by placing the players into 8 blocks of 10 players, in the standard “striping” or “serpentine” pattern, ordered by World Ranking DGrade. The draw is then adjusted, by exchanging similarly- ranked players between blocks, to balance the distribution of players by country. These exchanges will be combined with others as needed to preserve the average DGrade (of positions 2 through 9) of each block. A final set of adjustments — exchanges within blocks —ensures that players from the same country do not play against each other in the final block round.

Block matches are for the best of three games. Each player is scheduled to play two matches per day Friday through Monday, and the final block round on Tuesday morning.

When all matches are finished, the players in each block are placed in descending order of matches won. Four players from each block qualify to the Knock Out Stage. Ties affecting which players qualify will be resolved by staging playoffs of single-game matches, per the “Resolution Group” guidelines in SR Appendix 6. These playoffs will be played on Tuesday afternoon.

THE KNOCK OUT STAGE

The draw for the Knock Out Stage will be conducted in a public ceremony at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, just prior to the Tournament Dinner (at the Piankatank River Golf Course’s Steamboat Restaurant, about 5 miles from CBCC). Note that this will be the first World Championship to use the Block Separation by Grade seeding method. As with the old method, it is position-based: block winners (Group 1) are placed in the 1–8 seeding positions, block runners-up (Group 2) in the 9–16 positions, and so on. Unlike the old method, the players in each Group are ordered by DGrade. Another change is that the initial seeding is adjusted as needed to separate players from the same block. The process is fully defined — no pairings arise from deliberate human decision during the draw. Also, there is no random stage. For a given set of block results, only one correct draw is possible.

The first two rounds of the Knock Out Stage will be played Wednesday. Each of these rounds is played to the best of three games. Beginning with the quarterfinals on Thursday, each remaining round will be played to the best of five games.

CONSOLATION EVENTS

Players who are eligible for a consolation event are not required to play. However, excepting the Zed Swiss, a player who begins an event is expected to finish, most particularly in the case of the Plate block stage.

THE PLATE

The Plate is open to players who did not qualify to the main Knock Out Stage. There will be a block stage, probably of single-game matches, followed by a knockout. The block stage will begin Wednesday morning.

THE BOWL

The Bowl is open to players who lose in the first round of the main Knock Out Stage, and will be played as a knockout. The first round will be played on Thursday.

THE SHIELD

The Shield is open to players who lose in the second round of the main Knock Out Stage, and will be played as a knockout. The first round will be played on Thursday.

THE ZED

Starting Tuesday, players who have finished all their scheduled matches for the day may play Zed matches, depending on court availability. This will be played as a flexible Swiss, followed by a knockout if there is sufficient interest.