Official NSPDCL Rules (replaces old rules)
General Format
The NSPDCL will have annual seasons. Each season will consist of ? sections, beginning in October the year before. For example dates we will use the dates for the 2020 season.
Registration and Team Formation
Beginning in October 2019, official team registration and formation will begin. Teams will consist of four players. At registration, each player's current daily rating will be taken and recorded as that player's qualification rating (Q-rating). The average of a team's four players' rating must be 1500 ELO or below [EXCEPTION: See #2]. At any point before play starts for a season, any team captain may request a Q-rating recalculation of any player, and any player may request a Q-rating recalculation for themselves. The admins will then record their daily rating at that point as their new Q-rating. Team registration ends 3 days before the regular season opens, on December 28, 2019.
- Players may only play for one team during the duration of a season.
- If, in any prior season of NSPDCL, a team has been formed and participated according to the standard rules, that team may bring back that identical lineup in any succeeding season regardless of rating limitations.
- Players must have completed at least 10 daily games against humans to participate in NSPDCL. If a player registers (and receives a Q-rating) before they have done so, admins will update the Q-rating to what it was after 10 games completed.
- All players must have daily timeout rates of 10% or lower in the last three months to be allowed to participate.
Divisions/League Format
The league is divided into divisions of four (currently four divisions). The format is RR within a division; each team will play each other team in their division once. The four division winners make the playoffs, which is again a round-robin format.
Regular Season Play
On January 1, 2020, Round 1 of the 2020 regular season will begin. The NSPDCL admins will post news/forums posts with all game pairings for that round.
Players are required to challenge their opponents to games compliant to the specifications (color, time control) of the game. Games must start by one week (168 hours) from when the admins post pairings. Players must post the game links in the game link forums. All games that start after the deadline will NOT count for the league, and instead of a game result, admins will declare a forfeit result.
Games will have a time control of 3 day correspondence chess, on chess.com.
If a correct challenge was sent, but not accepted, before the game-start deadline, the challenger gets a forfeit win. If no challenge was sent, it is a forfeit draw.
Round 2 will begin February 1; the same procedures will apply.
Round 3 begins March 1.
The Termination Date is July 28. On this day through the end of the month, admins will go through all still-ongoing games and adjudicate them, if the result is clear and obvious and there is no reasonable doubt. Admins will decide these together (with computer evaluations); the admins' decision is final.
If playoff teams are not decided by July 31, the admins may decide to push back the opening playoff date by a week or two. This will not, however, affect the second playoff pairings date.
Playoff Play
On August 1, 2020, unless playoff teams are not yet decided, (see above paragraph) the first round of playoff pairings will begin. Again, players will have one week to send and accept game challenges.
The second round of the playoffs will begin on September 1, 2020 (regardless of when the first round started), and the third round will begin on October 1.
The Termination Date will be December 31, 2020, but the NSPDCL champion may not be determined until the next year. Another season will start in the next year, either way.
