Welcome to the Vintage Patzer’s competitive ladder!

What is the Vintage Patzer’s ladder? The ladder is a way for members of the group to play games against each other in a friendly, competitive environment. There are two ladders available--one for Rapid time control games, and one for Daily games.

Is this a tournament? No! Tournaments put participants into small groups of players that play each other to determine who moves on to the next round. At the end of each round, players are eliminated from the tournament, and after several rounds a winner emerges.

A ladder is a system where players issue challenges to other players in an effort to reach higher positions on the ladder. There is no elimination, so you can play as long as you like. Each ladder has a season, and at the end of the season the player in the number one spot on the ladder is declared the winner!

How does the ladder work? Participating in the ladder is easy! If you’d like to play, send a Chess.com message to @PhoebusX and let him know that you’d like to participate. Your name will be added to the player list, and your initial spot on the ladder will be determined randomly at the start of the season. Once the season starts, players can challenge each other and begin their quest to climb the ladder.

Here is a quick summary of how ladder play works:

Challenge a player up to 10 rungs above you on the ladder by posting a challenge message in the “Ladder Season One” pinned forum topic.
Agree on a date/time to play and enter it on the Challenge form here: https://forms.gle/ZmeDM98X5qWQEQBh8.
Play your game and record the result on the Ladder Results form here: https://forms.gle/Wbmieaij9DvfQrkF6.
The ladder admin will update the results on the Rankings list here: https://tinyurl.com/y85oqfh5 (Rapid) or here: https://tinyurl.com/y8tn39ee (Daily).

Can I join a ladder after the season starts? Yes! You can join any time, but if you join after the official start of the season, you will be placed at the bottom of the ladder (which gives you plenty of room to move up!).

How do I challenge another player? Once the season begins, take a look at the official ladder ranking list for the time control(s) you’d like to play and find a player above you on the list that you’d like to challenge. Then, post a message to the “Ladder Season One” forum topic challenging that player to a game. Use the forum or private messages to arrange a date and time to play your game (or you can start a Daily game at any time). You can message a player by finding them in the group Members list and clicking the message icon:

Once you have a date and time for your game, enter it on the Ladder Challenge Form located here: https://forms.gle/ZmeDM98X5qWQEQBh8. The form will ask for your name, your opponent’s name, which ladder you want to challenge on (Rapid or Daily), and the date and time of your game. For Daily games, enter the Date the game started and 12:00 AM for the time.

Please be conscious of differences in time zones when arranging times for Rapid play, as we have members from around the world! Here is a site that can help you determine convenient times to play based on locations across the globe: https://www.worldtimebuddy.com. For the purpose of filling out the form, please convert the time to GMT (you can add a row for GMT to the worldtimebuddy list to make this easier):

When your game is finished, the winner enters the result on the Ladder Results form, located here: https://forms.gle/Wbmieaij9DvfQrkF6. This form will ask you to identify the game played and the result.

Then the ladder administrator will update the ladder ranking, moving the winning player up the ladder and the losing player down the ladder:

The Rapid Ladder Rankings can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y85oqfh5, and the Daily Rankings here: https://tinyurl.com/y8tn39ee.

How often can I play? It’s up to you! Play as much or as little as you like (note that you have to play at least one game per month to maintain your position on the ladder).

How do I know who to challenge? You can challenge anyone up to ten rungs above you on the ladder. For example, if you’re ranked 14th on the list, you can challenge anyone ranked from 4th place to 13th place. You can challenge your friends, or someone close to your rating level, or anyone who’s spot on the ladder you want to take!

What type of games can we play on the ladder? We’re creating two separate ladders: one for those interested in real-time, live games, and one for those interested in Daily games. Real-time games will use the Chess.com 30 minute Rapid time control (each player gets a total of 30 minutes to make all their moves); this ensures that all games can be completed in one hour or less. Daily ladder games will use the 2 Day time control (each player has two days to make a move).

Note that ladder games are rated, and will affect your Chess.com rating for that time control group!

How do I set up the game? First, add your opponent to your Friends list by finding them in the group’s Members list and clicking the Add Friend icon:

When it’s time for your game, go to Play > New Game:

For a Rapid game, select the 30 min Rapid time control. For a Daily game, select the 2 Day option.

Then click Play a Friend and select your opponent from the list (but make sure your friend is online first!).

Make sure that “RATED” is set to yes, “I PLAY AS” is set to “Random,” and SETUP is Standard:

then click Play.

Where can I find the Ladder Challenge form, Results form, and Rank Listings? Here are links to the shared Google documents:

Challenge form: https://forms.gle/ZmeDM98X5qWQEQBh8
Results form: https://forms.gle/Wbmieaij9DvfQrkF6
Rapid Rankings: https://tinyurl.com/y85oqfh5
Daily Rankings: https://tinyurl.com/y8tn39ee

Can I play on both ladders? Sure! The minimum amount of time required to play on the Rapid ladder is one hour (one game) per month, and one move per month for the Daily ladder.

What if I want to play with different time controls? We’ve tried to accommodate the needs of players who like both Daily and “live” time controls, with an emphasis on longer games. Since this is a group for busy adults with jobs/families/school etc., the goal for Rapid games is to keep the “live” game commitment to one hour or less per game. Daily game time controls should allow players to play at least 3-4 games per season minimum. Of course, you can always play more if you like!

Where are the complete and official rules for the ladders? Here are the official ladder rules. Note that these may change over time as we fine-tune the system.

Rules

Initial positions on the ladder are determined randomly at the start of the season. After the start of the season, new participants are added to the bottom of the ladder.
You may challenge anyone 10 or fewer rungs above your position.
Ladder participants are limited to one active challenge at a time (per ladder).
Refusing a challenge drops the challenged player 5 rungs on the ladder.
Consecutive challenges of the same player are limited to 2.
If the lower-ranked player wins, the lower-ranked player takes the higher-ranked player’s spot on the ladder, and the higher-ranked player moves down one rung.
If the higher-ranked player wins or the game is drawn, there is no change in the players’ rankings.
No-shows or showing up for a scheduled Rapid game more than 30 minutes late count as a loss.

Season Length and Continuation

Daily ladder: 12 months
Rapid ladder: 6 months

If you have any questions, please post below or message me @PhoebusX.

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