2018 WCL: Rules

World Cities League (WCL) Rules (October 2017)

1. General principles

• The World Cities League (WCL) is a team match tournament between city teams on chess.com. Its main purpose is to give chess.com members the opportunity to compete with players from other cities in a friendly sphere.
• The board of the WCL consists of the admins of the chess.com group “World Cities League HQ”. All details of the league organisation not specified in the rules are under the discretion of the board. The board will let its decision be guided by the principles of inclusion (make matches happen!) and fair play.
• One single team per city is invited to this tournament. If there are several teams for a city, the best ranked one on the team match leaderboard is invited first.
• Region teams can participate if there are no participating teams from cities within the respective region. When conflicts between overlapping regions and cities arise, the board decides on a case-to-case basis.
• All teams should mention a city in their name. The suggested text for the team profile description is: “This team represents [city or regional name] in the World Cities League.”

2. Set-up of the league

• The WCL is played out on an annual basis, with the first round starting in November and the last round starting in August. The year of the season is the year in which the last round starts.
• 2018 is a transition season in which the number of teams in Divisions 1 and 2 will be reduced from 14 to 12. This gives the following divisions:
  • Division 1 with 14 teams (will be 12 in 2019).
  • Division 2 with 14 teams (will be 12 in 2019).
  • Division 3 with 20 teams in two parallel groups.
  • Division 4 with all remaining teams (currently 30) in several parallel groups.
• All (groups in) divisions play a Round Robin tournament with approximately equal time between rounds.
• After the finish of season 2018, teams are promoted and relegated:
  • Four teams are relegated from Div. 1 to Div. 2.
  • Two teams promote from Div. 2 to Div. 1.
  • Six teams are relegated from Div. 2 to Div. 3.
  • Two teams promote from Div. 3 to Div. 2.
  • Eight teams are relegated from Div. 3 to Div. 4.
  • Four teams promote from Div. 4 to Div. 3.
• The Chess960 World Cities League (Chess 960 WCL) and the European Cities League (ECL) follow the rules of the WCL closely. They have their own formats and schedules as described in Appendix F (Chess 960 WCL) and G (ECL). Schedules are set up to complement the WCL so that city matches are ongoing throughout the full year.

3. Announcement of rounds and match challenges

• Date and time of the start of a round are announced by a news item in the WCL HQ group two weeks in advance.
• Match challenges should be issued (by either of the teams) and accepted as fast as possible, but one week before the start of the round at the latest. See Appendix A for the necessary match parameters.
• If for unforeseen reasons the match challenge is accepted later than one week before the start of the round, the match start can be delayed by one week at most (so that there remains one week for registering players). This is under the discretion of the WCL board and must be co-ordinated by message exchange.
• If a challenge is not accepted at the announced start of the round, the team that has received the challenge loses by forfeit (match result: 1 for the challenger, 0 for the challenged).
• If neither of the teams issues a challenge until the announced start of the round, both teams lose by forfeit (match points: 0 for both teams).
• If the match starts and ends regularly, match points are allocated 1-0 for the winner or ½-½ in case of a draw. The match result may be corrected for several reasons, see Sections 4-6.
• If a team misses the start of a round under extraordinary circumstances (to be recognised by the WCL board), it can once per season recur to the "Second chance option". This means that the team can issue a challenge within one week after the start of the round that it has missed. The match must start earlier than the following regular round of the respective division.
• Teams are not allowed to lock their rosters before the scheduled start of the match.

4. Minimum number of players

• In each division, there is a minimum number of players for each match
  • for Division 1: 15 players (WCL), 12 players (ECL), 15 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 2: 12 players (WCL), 10 players (ECL), 8 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 3: 7 players (WCL), 5 players (ECL), 5 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 4: 5 players (WCL)
• If one of the teams fails to register the required number of players before the announced match start, one of the following options applies:
  • If the number of players is less than half of the required players, the match is counted as a forfeit win of the complete team.
  • The complete team can agree that additional players register after the deadline. If it does not agree, it must provide evidence (screen shot) that the players have been added too late.
  • The match can be started with less players than required. In this case the complete team gets 2 bonus points for each lacking player. (To start the match with less players, both teams need to lock their rosters.)
• If both teams fail to register the required number of players, the responsible WCL admin will take an ad hoc decision in the spirit of the rules in the previous bullet point.

• Due to technical changes in chess.com, it is currently not possible for teams to lock their registration with less than the player minimum. Therefore the rule is:
  • A team that does not reach the player minimum at the scheduled date, loses the match by forfeit.
  • A forfeit loss can be overruled if both teams agree to start the match with the required number of players later. A delayed match start may not be later than the start of the following round.

5. Foreign flag players

• The flag of the country the city is located in is considered the home flag of the team.
• All players with a different flag than the home flag are considered “foreign flag players”. This also applies to the international flag.
• The number of foreign flag players is limited to 25% in each cumulative (possibly incomplete) block of 12 players (i.e. max 3 players on boards 1-12, max 6 players on boards 1-24 etc. and max 25% in total).
• Foreign flag players in excess of these maximum are considered irregular players and their results are corrected according to Appendix D. The players identified as irregular are successively #2, 4, 6 etc. (and if this is not sufficient, #3, 7, 11) of all foreign-flag players of  a team.
• A violation of the foreign flag player rule must be claimed in the forum of the respective league/division. It is not checked automatically.
• For a number of teams additional flags are recognised as home flags. These teams and the additional home flags are listed in Appendix C.
• If a team thinks that its characteristics warrant its addition to this list of exceptions, it can send a request to the WCL board. Granting this request is under discretion of the WCL board.

6. Multi-team players

• Each player is only allowed to play for one team during one season in one league.
• A player who has played at least twice for each of more than one team is considered an irregular multi-team player and his game results are corrected according to Appendix D.

7. Match result correction for closed accounts

• If players’ accounts are closed -- either by chess.com or by the players themselves -- these players are considered irregular players and their results are corrected according to Appendix D.

8. Removal of players

• In general, admins are not allowed to remove players from the rosters of their teams.
• As an exception to the general rule, admins may remove players in the following cases:
  • Players with a timeout percentage of at least 25%.
  • Players with a different home team.
  • Foreign flag players in excess of the foreign flag maximum.

9. Final results of a season

• For a season starting in November, the cut-off date for promotion and relegation is October, 15th. The match results at this cut-off date determine promotion and degradation of teams for the following season.
• The final standings of the season will be determined after all games of all matches have been finished or ultimately on December, 31st. Promotion and relegation decisions will be unaffected by this.
• The ranking of the teams both at the cut-off date as in the final standings will be determined by the following criteria in descending order:
  • Number of match points.
  • Neustadtl (Sonneborn-Berger) score.
  • Results in the direct encounters of the tied teams.
  • Total game points balance (total points scored less total points scored by the opponnts in all matches).
  • Random draw.

10. Rule changes

• Rule changes appear as updates in the forum thread “WCL rules” and are announced as a group news item.
• Rule adjustments are preferably performed at the start of a season, but might also take place during the season.
• Rules can be discussed in the forum thread “WCL rules: discussion”.

Good luck to all teams in their matches and to all players in their games!

Appendix A: Match parameters

• Match Name: WCL[year] R[round]: first team vs. second team (for example, WCL2017 R1: Team Moscow vs. Team Zagreb)
• Game Type: Standard Chess
• Days per Move: 3 days
• Rating Range: none
• Minimum Games: 0
• Players per Club: min: differs by division, see below; max: leave free
• Concurrent Games: 2
• Start Date: [as announced by WCL board]
• Start Time: 09 AM 00
• AUTO-START: off
• Games are RATED: on

Appendix B: Team power

Wildcard granting and team allocation to the parallel groups of one division is based on past performance in the WCL or other city team competitions. If information of this sort is not available, a tentative indicator of the team strength is calculated: Average rating of the group + number of members of the group.

Appendix C: Foreign flag exceptions

• Teams of English cities (London, Bristol, Birmingham, Solihull, Hastings): British and English flags count as home flags.
• Teams of Scottish cities (Glasgow): British and Scottish flags count as home flags.
• Teams of Catalan cities (Barcelona): Spanish and Catalan flags count as home flags.
• Teams of French cities (Paris, Bordeaux, Metz, Montauban): French, Monaco and Guadeloupe flags count as home flags.
• Team Sevastopol: Ukrainian and Russian flags count as home flags.
• Team Prishtina: Kosovo and Albanian flags count as home flags.
• Team Tabriz: Iranian and Azerbaijan flags count as home flags.
• Vatican City: Vatican and Italian flags count as home flags.
• Team Bijeljina: Flags of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia count as home flags.

Appendix D: Match result corrections

The following players are considered “irregular players”:

• Players whose account is closed by whatever reason.
• Excess foreign flag players (see Section 5).
• Multi-team players (see Section 6).

The results of irregular players will be corrected in the following way:

• Irregular player against regular player: 0-2.
• Irregular player against irregular player: 1-1.

Appendix E (Chess960 WCL): To be added

• The Chess960 WCL is played out on an annual basis in addition to WCL, with the first round starting in April.
• League will be played in 3 divisions
  • Division 1 with 10 teams (last 4 teams are relegated to Division 2)
  • Division 2 in 2 paraller groups with 10 teams (top 2 teams are promoted to Division 1, last 2 teams are relegated to Division 3)
  • Division 3 with 10 teams (top 4 teams are promoted to Division 2)
• Match Name: 960 WCL[year] R[round]: first team vs. second team (for example, 960 WCL2018 R1: Team Moscow vs. Team Zagreb)
• Minimum players: Division 1 (15+), Division 2 (8+), Division 3 (5+)

Appendix F (European Cities League):

F1) Set-up of the league

• The ECL is played out on an annual basis in addition to WCL, with the first round starting in November and the last round starting in August. The year of the season is the year in which the last round starts. Season 2018 will be transitional with start in February, but last round in August
• League will be played in 3 divisions
  • Division 1 with 12 teams (last 2 teams are relegated to Division 2
  • Division 2 with 12 teams (top 2 teams are promoted to Division 1, last 4 teams are relegated to Division 3)
  • Division 3 in 2 parallel groups depending on number of participants (top 2 teams are promoted to Division 2)
• Match Name: ECL[year] R[round]: first team vs. second team (for example, ECL2018 R1: Team Moscow vs. Team Zagreb)
• Minimum players: Division 1 (12+), Division 2 (10+), Division 3 (5+)

F2) Merging of WCL and ECL matches

• If both teams play in the same division of WCL and ECL, than WCL match is counted for ECL by default too (all rounds of 2018 season will be considered - included already started matches of R1/R2/R3 of WCL)
• If both teams agree, then they can setup separate match as per ECL schedule
• Setting up of the match on ECL schedule with proper name is considered as agreement to play separate match for ECL

Feel free to comment on these rules. Except for severe problems, rules will not be changed before the end of the 2018 season. Revision will take place before the start of the 2019 season.

Great job, thanks for your effort.

Last year for instance we Prishtina where allowed to have players even with albanian flag cause we are same nation.Maybe you forgot to add that in rules

?

Greece and Cyprus is the same nation too.

I would prefare the international flag not to be considered as “foreign flag players” but as neutral.

...especially when the name of your team matches the location in your profile

I have a question regarding multi team player...I have 2 players in our team that represents also other team. Is it OK to leave them in my team If I will make sure they will not participate in matches for my team? Or I need to kick them out of this team? Thanks.

The rule is only about players who actively participate in the WCL matches. Multi-team players are only a problem if they are listed here:

https://chess.bounceme.net/chess/multiplayers.php#WCL2018

 Actively participate = do play league matches. But they can still be a part of my team, but can't play WCL matches for 2 different teams... this is how I understand this. The link is not working for me

I will regularly post a copy of the list from chess.bounceme.net here:

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/2018-wcl-multi-team-players

Can I create all matches in advance? 

So it will be more accurate to create send callenges to all rounds without neccesity to wait new round announcement.

The rules don't forbid sending out challenges in advance, so you may try it. However, teams are not obliged to accept challenges that arrive before the announcement of the round and many teams will actually not feel like doing so.

Ok, thanks

eventually they will have to accept them.

Yes, after the announcement of the respective round.

Can we include a comment on the spirit of the league for inclusiveness and a rule that forbids player removal unless TO% is above 25?

It’s not perfect but it should make some disloyal strategies more difficult.

Removal of players is not allowed except for the specific reasons given in Section 8.