Live Chess World League: Season 4 Rules

1) Preface

The LCWL’s aim is to allow for friendly competition between teams, and to provide fair and balanced matches between national teams. It is expected that the organisers, team representatives, team admins and players conduct themselves in a fair manner and show respect to all people involved in the league, and take no action that may bring the league into disrepute.

Any team admin can ask the organisers for a ruling or clarification on any of these rules or possible situations.

These phrases are used throughout the document, and mean the following:

• “Organisers” - the board of directors and the tournament director, who shall work together to ensure the smooth running of the league.
• “Tournament director” or “TD” - the person responsible for pairings, results, scheduling, and initial dispute rulings.
• “Board of directors” or “board” - the group of elected directors that oversee the running of the league, and who make appeal decisions.

1. Preface
2. Teams
3. Format
4. Matches
5. Negotiating Match Times
6. Fair Play
7. Following Seasons
8. Appeals
9. Penalties

2) Teams

The LCWL is open to any national team (list of LCWL registered teams are in this thread) that the organisers accept into the league. If a national team wishes to join the LCWL, then they can simply ask to apply, providing that there is no representative team from that country already in the LCWL. If there are multiple teams representing a country, then the organisers shall decide which team shall represent the country in the LCWL, and their decision will be final.

Before the commencement of the season, the admins of each team should be familiar with the setting up of live club matches on Chess.com v3. Teams should have completed at least 4 live matches within the LCWL framework (e.g. organised friendlies, mini-tournaments, previous seasons) before the league begins; however this stipulation may be waived by league organisers if they are confident that the teams’ admins are capable of setting up matches correctly and are able to make the minimum player requirements (for example, experience in other Live Chess leagues).

3) Format

The competition will be split into 4 divisions; split based on previous LCWL results. The organisers may take into account factors other than the final placings (e.g. turnout, playoff matches) to decide the composition of each division. The organisers will decide on where new teams enter into the league, and may use playoff matches to help decide this.
Brand new teams to the LCWL will start in Div.3 or below, and every team in Div.1 shall have played in the previous season.

Each round will consist of the following matches:

• Div.1: Rapid 960, Blitz, Bullet
• Div.2 & Div.3: Rapid 960, Blitz
• Div.4: Blitz

Each match within a round will award match points, aggregate scores will not be used.

For Divisions 1 to 3, the competition will consist of 10 rounds, split into 2 stages.
Stage One: In the first stage, teams will play all other teams in their division once for 7 rounds. A team will be awarded 1 match point for a won match, ½ a point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. At the conclusion of the first stage, each division will be split into two halves of 4 teams each (a Championship/Promotion Pool with the top 4 teams and a Relegation Pool with the bottom 4 teams).
Stage Two: In the second stage, each team will play the other 3 teams in its half once again. A team will be awarded 2 match points for a won match, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. Results from the first stage will be carried forward to the second stage and count towards the final division standings. A team in the lower half of a division for the second stage cannot finish above a team in the top half, even if they achieve more points (this is because of the differing strength of opposition in each half).

For Division 4, the competition will consist of an all play all round robin, with 1 match point awarded for a won match and ½ a point for a draw. At the end of the round robin, the top 4 teams in the round robin stage will advance to a knockout playoff to decide the Division 4 title (semi finals will be 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd). If a playoff match is tied, then the team that finished higher in the round robin stage will advance.

At the end of each stage, standings will be decided by the following:

1. Match points scored
2. Direct encounter (match points scored against all teams tied on the same number of match points)
3. Sonneborn-Berger (aka Neustadl score)
4. Average % of points scored in each match (e.g. winning 6-4 [60%] and losing 5-3 [37.5%] will give a score of 48.75%)
1. For the purposes of this tie-break, a forfeit win will count as a 100% score, a forfeit loss a 0% score, and an unplayed draw as 50%.
2. Matches played in the second stage of the tournament will be weighted double in this tiebreak, to reflect their added importance. (applicable to Div.1-3 only)
5. If teams are still tied, the organisers shall select the ranking of the teams in such a way as they see fit. Alternatively, if the league positioning is not of major importance, then the order may be decided by a random draw, or the teams will be declared tied for position.

4) Matches

Matches will be set up under the following parameters:

Match Name: LCWL S4 <Division> <Round> <Format> - <Team 1> vs <Team 2>

• <Division> - Div.1, Div.2, Div.3 (choose the appropriate one; note this applies only to Blitz Open matches)
• <Round> - Rd.<number> (e.g. Rd.4)
• <Format> - Rapid 960, Blitz, Bullet (choose the appropriate one)
• <Team 1> and <Team 2> - the full names of the teams, as they appear on Chess.com (e.g. Team of the Czech Republic, not just Czech Republic)

Game Type:

• Rapid 960: 960 Chess
• Blitz & Bullet: Standard

Time Control:

• Rapid 960: 10|2
• Blitz: 5|2
• Bullet: 1|1

Rating: Left blank (i.e. Open rating range)

Players per club: Left blank (i.e. a minimum of 1)

It is the responsibility of both teams to ensure that the match parameters are correct. The minimum players should always be left out the match settings as it allows for players who have an opponent to have a game, even if the result will be a forfeit for the LCWL.

The following minimum players are required (note these are different to the match settings):

• Div.1: 20 players
• Div.2: 15 players
• Div.3: 10 players
• Div.4: 5 players
• Any Chess960 match will have a minimum of 5 less than specified above (as 960 is a new format for the league).

If a team does not bring the minimum number of players, they will lose by default, but the players that have turned up and have an opponent will still have the opportunity to play (but the games will only count towards a friendly, and not to the LCWL). Teams claiming a forfeit win should have evidence (e.g. screenshots of registered players, agreement of opposing admin) that they reached the minimum players, and it is the teams’ responsibility to provide this evidence. If both teams do not reach the required players, the result will be a double default. Defaulted matches will not be replayed, unless the organisers agree that there were exceptional circumstances involved.

5) Negotiating match times

Pairings will be announced and assigned to a schedule. Once this has been announced, the admins from each team should start negotiating a time to play their match. The match should preferably be played within the scheduled period; however teams may play their match outside the scheduled week with the permission of the organisers. It is the responsibility of both teams to make a fair effort to schedule their game. The recommended negotiating format is as follows:

1. One team should offer at least 2 time slots (preferably 3 time slots) to play their match. Offers should be realistic (e.g. at a convenient time for both teams, not during any national holidays etc.).
2. If no slots are accepted by either team, then the teams should offer additional time slots. Each offer should bring teams closer towards an agreement. Teams should also be aware that a level of compromise might be needed to ensure a match is played.
3. This continues until a time has been agreed by both teams.
4. Team admins should also agree to meet in Live at least one day before the match (if possible) to create the match, and should also circulate the match link to team members.

If a game cannot be scheduled within the allocated time slot, then the organisers may take any of the following actions:

1. The match may be scheduled for another period (e.g. the free weeks made available).
2. Declare the match an unplayed draw, if both teams have made a fair effort to schedule the game and are unable to reschedule their match for another period.
3. Declare the match a forfeit win for one team and a forfeit loss for another, if one team has not made a fair effort to schedule the game
4. Declare the match a forfeit loss for both teams, if both teams have not made a fair effort to schedule the game

All matches must be played by a final deadline. This will be announced by the organisers with the pairing schedule, and deadlines may differ for different stages and divisions. Any matches not played by the deadline will be declared a default as above.

6) Fair Play

If a player’s account is closed for any reason after the match is completed, then the board score will be amended as if the closed account had lost 0-2.

Each player shall play for only one team for the duration of the season, and their chosen team shall be decided by the team for which the player first plays an LCWL S4 match. If a player, after playing for one team, then plays multiple games for another team, then the scores will be adjusted as if the multi team player lost all games, for all teams he has played for.
After the first spotted match for a multi team player, the team’s admins will be notified. The penalty will only be applied after a player plays in a match for an additional team, after their admins are notified. This is because it is difficult for team admins to spot multiple team players during the 1hr signup window.

If both players on a board are subject to penalty, the board score will be declared as 1-1, and the match score amended as appropriate.

Final match adjustments will be made at a time specified by the organisers in the schedule; these may differ for each stage of the tournament (these will usually be one week after the deadline for those matches). Once the final match adjustments have been made, no more score changes will be made for those games.

It is the teams’ responsibility to promote maximum participation in the matches. Teams must not restrict participation unless there is a fair reason for doing so (and these reasons are few and far between). Teams should not remove players, or ask players to leave the match or not sign up, to gain a more favourable matchup (e.g. removing lower boards where a team is outrated). Under no circumstance may a team restrict players from playing for the team by ratings or strength. This includes setting a minimum rating for entry into the team (teams however may require a minimum number of games to be played prior to acceptance, and this is acceptable).
Teams may remove players if they have a history of deliberately timing out or prematurely resigning games; however they must announce this, and be able to prove that the player is eligible for removal under this rule.

7) Following Seasons

At the conclusion of the season, all division champions will be promoted into the next division up for the next season. Teams finishing in the bottom places may be relegated to lower divisions in order to facilitate this.

As the league is constantly welcoming new teams, additional promotion and relegations between divisions will vary depending on which new teams enter the league (dependent on number and strength). Playoff matches may be scheduled at the request of the organisers to decide these.

8) Appeals

If a team does not fully agree with a decision made by the TD, then they must first ask the TD for the explanation for their ruling. If the team still disagrees with the decision, then they may take the decision to the Board for a second opinion.

The appeals process is as follows:

1. After receiving the explanation from the TD, the appealing team must make their case for the decision to be overturned in one clear and concise post, in the appeals thread.
2. The team on the other end of the appeal (if there is another team involved) shall be allowed to state their case, also in one clear and concise post.
3. The Board shall then debate the case, and then board members will vote on whether the original decision should be overturned, taking into account the rules of the tournament. Any board member whose team is directly involved in the dispute, or will directly benefit from the decision, will not be allowed to vote.
4. A majority of the voting Board members is required to overturn the decision. A tied vote will result in the original decision standing.

The tournament director may also directly send the dispute to the board without the need for either team to request this; in which case the above process will be followed (with each team being allowed to state their case). All decisions made by the Board are final, and will not be debated any further.

If a team makes multiple spurious appeals that have very little chance of being overturned, then the Board may restrict that team from making further appeals.

9) Penalties

League organisers may apply any of the following penalties to teams for breach of the previous rules where no penalty is already specified (in order of severity):

• Warning (if multiple warnings are accrued in a season by a team, a more severe penalty may be applied for later offences)
• Adjustment of the match score
• Point deductions
• Loss of the match (declared a forfeit)
• Disqualification from the tournament

Penalties will be applied in such a manner that ‘the punishment fits the crime’. Example: A team making a minor breach of the rules will not be disqualified; instead a warning or score adjustment would be a more suitable penalty. However, repeated breaches will be punished more harshly.