Season 3 Division 1

US Chess League State Competition Season 3 Division 1

Spirit: The US Chess League is an interstate competition between teams representing the 50 States of the US. 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. 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 Chess League admins rather than commenting publicly.

Rules and Regulations

1. Length of Season 2: 1 year
2. Format 7 Rd Round Robin + 1 Rd Playoff for 1st to 3rd place.
3. Start Date: July 4th
4. Minimum number of players per team: Eight (8). No maximum number of players.
5. Rating Range: Open
6. Time: 3days/move, Games to be played concurrently (i.e. change default setting from "1" to "2")
7. Prizes: Trophies for places 1 thru 3.
8. 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. Once he plays for a team he has to stay with that team throughout the season.
9. Last place finisher goes down one division.
10. Warnings and Penalties: see here

11. The following amendments are made to the rules for all divisions:

    - Teams may not remove players from their roster to obtain a more favorable matchup.

    We hope that this rule is sufficiently clear. Of course, ineligible players can be removed (and should upon request) and there is little objection if an admin decides to remove a player who has timed out 10 times out of the last 12 matches he played. There also isn't a problem if a team decides to sit out higher rated players if they feel it would result in a less lopsided match. But the goal is to have an inclusive league where players of all rating ranges are welcome.

    - Match scores will be finalized at the time of announcing the standings ahead of beginning of the playoffs and when the results of the playoffs are announced of the group by taking into consideration account closing of members due to cheating.

    Unfortunately, while we have relatively few closed accounts due to cheating we still have some. Currently, I am aware of two matches in Division 2 where scores will need to be adjusted. The closed accounts are also the reason why we won't announce standings until the two cutoff points. If an account is closed after the cutoffs adjustments won't be any longer made as otherwise we will be in an endless loop.

    Last, we like to emphasize that the rules are intended to be a guideline where teams can find the answer to the most commonly occuring question. It isn't intended to be able to address all issues that potentially may come up. For those cases, we will look at them case by case. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation!

Schedule:

Results and Pairings

Good luck to all the teams!