League Standings:Standings will be posted periodically in each thread. Only matches that have been clinched will be shown as a result in the standings.
Prizes:Trophies for places 1 thru 3. Trophies will be awarded by January 1st of the following year.
Player Eligibility: A player can only play for one team in this league throughout a season regardless of division. Once they play for a team, they must stay with that team throughout the season.USTCL admins will post notifications of multi-team players in the division thread a few days before the match is due to start.
Promotion/Relegation: The top two teams in each division (except Division 1) on June 30th will be promoted to the next higher division. The bottom two teams in each division (except Division 5) will be relegated to the next lower division.
Unfinished Matches: If a match result has not been determined by the season end date, but it is necessary that the match conclude in order to determine the divisional composition for the following season, 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 determined to be a draw.
Tiebreakers: The first tiebreaker will be head-to-head results. The second tiebreaker will be theSonneborn-Berger score.Uncompleted games will not be scored for the purposes of the second tiebreaker.
Removal of Players:Team admins may remove players from their roster who exceed a timeout ratio of 15%, or are ineligible due to rule 6. Removed players must be published in the team match thread prior to the start of the match.Example: Player A was removed in accordance with timeout rule: Timeout ratio 55%.Teams maynotremove players from their roster or discourage players from joining a match to obtain a more favorable matchup.
Score Adjustments: Match scores will be finalized after taking into consideration the account closures of members due to cheating or abuse, and also after applying penalties for multi-team players (see rule 6). This will occur prior to announcing the final standings.
Forfeits: There are two types of forfeits that may be awarded.
Challenge Forfeits:In order to claim a forfeit win due to no acceptance of a challenge, please post a note to the league forum thread that a challenge has been issued, and include a link to the active challenge. Challenges expire around 7-8 days after being issued. If a challenge expires, it shall be the responsibility of the team who did not accept the original challenge to send a new challenge, or a forfeit win will be awarded to the issuer of the original challenge.If match registration has not started at least72 hoursbefore the scheduled start time, a forfeit win will be awarded to the challenging team. If no note has been posted, the result will be a double forfeit, and will count as a 0-0.
Minimum Board Forfeits:Forfeit wins will be awarded due to lack of boards, if the match link in registration was provided, and the opposing team did not meet the minimum boards at the match's intended start time. If both teams failed to meet the minimum boards, a double forfeit is awarded (no points for either team). It is important that matches are named correctly and the match start date and other parameters set correctly for this to be detected automatically.
Communications:Team admins should not communicate directly with non-admin members of the opposing team. Please work directly with the opposing team admins and/or USTCL admins through private messages to avoid public conflict and confusion. Please see Team Admin best practicesfor additional details.
Team Filtering Guidelines
Per the spirit of the US Team Chess League (USTCL), teams are encouraged to seek out new members and strengthen their teams. In order to ensure teams are accepting players in a fair manner, the following guidelines must be followed:
Do not remove players from matches, EXCEPT:
Players with timeout of 15% or higher (removal allowed)
multiplayers (removal requested)
Accept all players into your group who have a reasonable connection to your state or province. Players with a reasonable connection may only be denied in the following cases:
new players who have been on chess.com for less than 3 months (denial allowed, not required)
players with fewer than 10 daily games completed (denial allowed, not required)
abusive players (denial recommended)
players who have no connection to your state or province, or are already members of another state or province's club
Do not remove players from your group, EXCEPT:
abusive players (including sabotage of team events, such as resigning without moving)
multiplayers
inactive players (more than 1 year)
closed accounts
Do not deny players access to your group because of:
rating
timeouts (dealt with by allowing removal from matches)
suspected cheating (recommended to report to chess.com)
Updated as of 7/04/2025:
Rules and Regulations
If no note has been posted, the result will be a double forfeit, and will count as a 0-0.
Communications: Team admins should not communicate directly with non-admin members of the opposing team. Please work directly with the opposing team admins and/or USTCL admins through private messages to avoid public conflict and confusion. Please see Team Admin best practices for additional details.
Team Filtering Guidelines
Per the spirit of the US Team Chess League (USTCL), teams are encouraged to seek out new members and strengthen their teams. In order to ensure teams are accepting players in a fair manner, the following guidelines must be followed: