2020 USTL Rules

US Chess League State Competition Season 2020 Division 2
Spirit: The US Chess League is an interstate competition between teams representing the 50 States of the US and several Canadian provinces. 28 States are entering the competition this year. While every team is encouraged to motivate their teams to do their best, the League also intends to help teams to grow in size and become more active drawing from players in their state. As teams use different criteria in terms of membership eligibility, admins are asked to inform their teams about the nature of the competition and discourage members with no-state ties from joining matches for this competition. We have never had issues in the past so we are confident that this won't be any different this year. In case of disputes or questions, contact the admin of your opposing team first, then the League admins prior to commenting publicly.
Rules and Regulations
Length of Season 9 (2020): 1 year
Format 9 Rd Round Robin.
Start Date: August 4th 2019
End Date: June 30th 2020 – or earlier if all matches have been decided.
Minimum number of players per team: six (6). No maximum number of players.
Rating Range: Open
Time: 3 days/move, Games to be played concurrently (i.e. change default setting from "1" to "2", see here how to do it.)
Prizes: Trophies for places 1 thru 3.
Player eligibility: All admins understand that this is a competition between players of the respective states and adhere to the common sense principles of such a competition. A player can only play for one team throughout a season regardless of division. Once he plays for a team he has to stay with that team throughout the season.
Last place team will be relegated to Division 3. First place team will be promoted to Division 1.
Tiebreaker will be head-to-head results, and then the differential between match points won and lost across the entire season if the teams remain tied. If by June 30th of 2020, a match has not concluded, the score will be taken at that day to assure a timely conclusion of the season. Uncompleted matches will not be scored for the purposes of determining the result of this tiebreaker.
Teams may not remove players from their roster to obtain a more favorable match up. Team admins may remove players from their roster who exceed a timeout ratio of 25%. Removed players need to be published in the team match thread prior to commencement of match. Example: Player A was removed in accordance with timeout rule: Timeout ratio 55%.
Match scores will be finalized after taking into consideration the account closures of members due to cheating. This will occur prior to announcing the final standings. Here are the rules in regards of what is not permitted: Opening databases without engine evaluation and opening books are permitted in Daily Chess, but the use of engines and tablebases is never permitted. See here for the applicable rules: https://support.chess.com/customer/portal/articles/1444879. If you are not clear about the rules - ask.
Forfeits: In order to claim a forfeit win, please post a note to this forum that challenge has been issued. If the match has not started within a week of the intended start date and no note has been posted, the result will count has a 0-0. For forfeits relating to the minimum number of boards, teams are encouraged to take screenshots showing their own team meeting the requirement to ensure that they are credited with the forfeit win.
Teams are encouraged to use the AutoStart feature when issuing the challenge. When using the feature, set the start time to 7PM PT of the day shown on the schedule.
Unfinished Matches: If a match result has not been determined as of the end date, but it is necessary that the match conclude to determine final standings placement, then the remaining incomplete games within that match will be decided using chess.com’s analysis tool. If a player is leading by a score of 2.0 or more, they will be determined to have won that game. If the difference is less than 2.0, the game will be calculated in the result of that match as a draw.