A temporary variation to WCF Sports Regulations Appendix 2 paragraph 2.3 for the purposes of the 2022 Women’s AC World Championship, the 2022 Under-21 GC World Championship and the 2022 GC World Championship only, has been approved by Members.
1st June update - please note that the AC Women's Championship and the Under-21 GC World Championships will now not take place until 2023. These events are therefore treated as 'new' not 'postponed'. This temporary amendment is therefore no longer applicable to these two events.
For these events, Appendix 2 paragraph 2.3 will read:
2.3 Subject to paragraph 7.4, no player shall be awarded a Ranking Place unless he or she has played a minimum of 10 ranked games in the 24 months ending on the Allocation Date or, if relevant, the date on which a vacancy arises. However, no minimum game requirement applies to the award of Membership Places or Wild Card Places or to entries to any Qualifying Tournament.”
This temporary change is to allow for the reduced numbers of games played by some players due to the pandemic during 2020 and 2021.
** Update 25th February 2022 **
It has recently come to light that this amendment does not fully cover what was intended and is unclear. The Management Committee (MC) minutes from January 2021, minuted that “The agreed alternative was to use the MaxGrade over 24 months and require 10 games in 24 months”.
Two other clauses within Appendix 2 of the Sports Regulations also make reference to the 10 games in 12 months, and as a result, the temporary amendment, as published above, is left ambiguous.
To clarify, the additional relevant clauses in Appendix 2, where 12 months should be replaced with 24 months are:
4.2.3 in the case of the Initial Allocation Ranking List and, subject to paragraph 7.4, the Replacement Ranking List, are based on a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 ranked games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the relevant day and on the highest grade achieved by players in that period; and
7.4 Replacement Ranking List
The Replacement Ranking List may contain players who were not on the Initial Allocation Ranking List provided that they have played a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the date on which the vacancy arises and have informed the S-G by e-mail that they wish to play in the Event.
The Ranking Lists created for the upcoming GC World Championship will be created and applied using 24 months in all 3 clauses.
We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.