LCML Regulations

LIVE CHESS MEDITERRANEAN LEAGUE REGULATIONS  (second edit May 10, 2021)
This edit includes new versions of rules: 1.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 5.1

1. General principles

(new version) 1.1. LCML is the organizer of live chess competitions among Chess.com teams representing Nations of the Mediterranean area and neighboring Countries.
1.2. Players, team administrators and all participants must maintain a civil and respectful behavior throughout the competition. Use of offensive, derogatory or discriminatory language may lead to espulsion.

2. Country and team representation

2.1 A single Nation shall be represented for the entire competition by a single team. The team name must remain unchanged for the duration of the competition. The team name must contain a clear reference the name of the country to which it belongs.
2.2 In case of renounce of a team during the competition, that team can be replaced, upon request, by another team from the same Country.
(new version) 2.3 Each team must be represented by a “captain”, who shall be an admin of that team. Derogation to this rule is possible upon request, provided that the captain has full decision power on issues related to LCML participation.
(new version) 2.4 The “LCML Board” is composed, for any LCML tournament, by the captains of the participating teams together with the tournament director (TD). Each member of the board may submit relevant matters for the board's judgment. The board takes decisions upon simple majority; if the votes are even, the TD choice prevails. Votes on a specific issue are expressed normally within 48 hours after the issue is posed, unless some board member asks for a delay.

3. Matches (new version)

3.1 Each LCML tournament is launched by means of a specific call and has its own Rules of Play, which are issued together with the call. The Rules of Play specify, among others, the kind of tournament, the time control, the minimum number of players, the score rules and the rules of formation of the leaderboard. All communications related to the tournament must be posted in the page of the tournament call.
3.2 Each round of the tournament is announced by a specific call. All communications related to a tournament round must be posted in the page of that tournament round.
3.3 All matches played must have an accessible link publicly available after it has been played. The match link shall be posted by the captain of the winning team to the LCML home page. If, for any reason, the link to the game is not available, the match will not be valid for the LCML championship.
3.4 Each player can play for only one team in a single tournament. Double play is absolutely forbidden. Evidence of double play can have as a consequence the exclusion of both teams from the competition.
3.5 Teams cannot invite international players for the purpose of playing in LCML tournaments, as LCML is a league of national teams. Team captains must be vigilant so that this eventuality never occurs.

4. (article cancelled)

5. Pairings

(new version) 5.1 The pairings of all tournament rounds are drawn and announced by the TD. Once the pairing is announced, team captains shall get in contact to agree upon the date and hour of the match, taking into account the deadline fixed by the TD.
5.2 The match should be played within the expected date; however, teams can play their match out of the scheduled period with the permission of the organizers.
5.3 If a match does not take place within the expected date and teams have not asked the permission of playing the match out of the scheduled period, that match will be recorded as lost by forfait by both the teams.
5.4. A match can be declared drawn by agreement if both teams are unable to fix a date, informing the organizers about their decision. A single team cannot ask for a draw by agreement more than twice in the whole competition.
5.5 A match can be declared won by forfait by one the teams and lost by the other, if there is evidence that the former team proposed one or more match dates and the latter team did not answer.
5.6 If a team loses two consecutive matches as by rule 5.5, it will be excluded from the competition and all its results will be erased from the tournament records.

6. Fair Play

6.1 It is abslutely forbidden the use of chess engines during the matches. Any evidence of such an unfair behaviour by a player may cause the exclusion of the team from the competition, at the discretion of the organizers.
6.2 All teams shall promote the maximum participation to the matches. Team administrators should not remove players, or ask players not to register or to leave the match, to gain a rating advantage on boards.
6.3 In the event that a player has been banned or has closed the account for any reason, all its games will be counted as lost. The match result can vary accordingly.
6.4 A player can play for only one team for the entire duration of the competition. If a player plays in more than one team during the competition, all the games played in all the teams in which he played are registered as losses.
6.5 It is in the responsibility of team captains to inform all players that multi-play in not allowed. Team captains may appeal the organizers to derogate rule 6.4 in case the player makes a definitive choice of the team to play for.

7. Appeals and penalties

7.1 A team may ask the organizer about any issue regarding the management of the competition. The organizer will try to give an answer to any problem rised. In case a collegial decision was needed, the Board will be asked to assume a decision.
7.2 A team may appeal directly to the LCML Board for decisions involving other teams, for example in case of violation of fair play rules. In this case, the appealing team must produce a well detailed description of the disputed fact. The Board will discuss the issue and make a decision upon majority. A member of the Board whose team is directly involved in the dispute will be excluded from the vote.
7.3 The Board may decide to apply penalties to teams violating the present rules. Penalties will be commensurate with the violation. Penalties can go from a simple warning to the disqualification from the competition.
7.4 All decisions taken by the Board are final and cannot be discussed further.

8. Amendments

8.1 Amendments to the present set of rules can be made at any time by the organizer or by the Board. The amendments are communicated to all teams before they enter in place.
8.2 Team captains can suggest amendments to the regulations. In this case, the final decision about adopting the amendment proposed is taken by the Board.

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LIVE CHESS MEDITERRANEAN LEAGUE REGULATIONS  (first edit March 13, 2021)

1. General principles

1.1. LCML is an yearly competition of live matches among Chess.com teams representing Nations of the Mediterranean area. The list of nations whose teams can apply for membership is annexed hereby.
1.2. Players, team administrators and all participants must maintain a civil and respectful behavior throughout the competition. Use of offensive, derogatory or discriminatory language may lead to espulsion.

2. Country and team representation

2.1 A single Nation shall be represented for the entire competition by a single team. The team name must remain unchanged for the duration of the competition. The team name must contain a clear reference the name of the country to which it belongs.
2.2 In case of renounce of a team during the competition, that team can be replaced, upon request, by another team from the same Country.
2.3 Each team must have a main referent and a deputy referent appointed for the competition. The main referent (“captain” of the team) assumes the role of “coordinator” of the LCML.
2.4 The first six team captains that register for the LCML are appointed as members of the “LCML Board”. The members of the Board are changed upon rotation every 3 months. The Board is completed by the LCML organizer, therefore the Board is made up of 7 people.

3. Matches

3.1 The competition will be either a Round Robin or a Swiss tournament, depending on the number of registered teams.
3.2 Game timing is 10 minutes with no increment. Timing can be modified upon decision of the majority of coordinators.
3.3 Each team will be awarded 1 point for a match won, 1/2 points for the draw and 0 points for the defeat.
3.4 The ranking of the competition is formed considering in succession:
a. Match points (sum of the points achieved in all played matches)
b. Game points (sum of the points achieved in all played games)
c. Sonneborn-Berger score
d. detached ranking
e. seniority of enrolment

4. Minimum number of players

4.1 Each team shall guarantee a minimum of 10 players in each match
4.2 If a team does not reach the minimum number of players, it will lose the match by forfait. Registered players can, anyway, play their games in the match; the result of the games will have no validity for the LCML ranking for the team that loses by forfait.
4.3 Teams can claim a victory by forfait as long as they provide a proof that they have deployed the minimum number of players and the opponent did not (e.g. screenshots of players deployed or agreement made with the administrator of the opposing team).
4.4 If both teams don’t reach the minimum number of players, they both will be assigned 0 match points and 0 game points.
4.5 All matches must have an accessible link available after the game. The match link shall be posted by the captain of the winning team to the LCML home page. If, for any reason, the link to the game is not available, the match will not be valid for the LCML championship.

5. Matches

5.1 The pairings and dates of all matches will be established and announced by the administrators. Once the pairing is announced, the captains of each team should contact the captain of their opponent team to fix date and hour of the match.
5.2 The match should be played within the expected date; however, teams can play their match out of the scheduled period with the permission of the organizers.
5.3 If a match does not take place within the expected date and teams have not asked the permission of playing the match out of the scheduled period, that match will be recorded as lost by forfait by both the teams.
5.4. A match can be declared drawn by agreement if both teams are unable to fix a date, informing the organizers about their decision. A single team cannot ask for a draw by agreement more than twice in the whole competition.
5.5 A match can be declared won by forfait by one the teams and lost by the other, if there is evidence that the former team proposed one or more match dates and the latter team did not answer.
5.6 If a team loses two consecutive matches as by rule 5.5, it will be excluded from the competition and all its results will be erased from the tournament records.

6. Fair Play

6.1 It is abslutely forbidden the use of chess engines during the matches. Any evidence of such an unfair behaviour by a player may cause the exclusion of the team from the competition, at the discretion of the organizers.
6.2 All teams shall promote the maximum participation to the matches. Team administrators should not remove players, or ask players not to register or to leave the match, to gain a rating advantage on boards.
6.3 In the event that a player has been banned or has closed the account for any reason, all its games will be counted as lost. The match result can vary accordingly.
6.4 A player can play for only one team for the entire duration of the competition. If a player plays in more than one team during the competition, all the games played in all the teams in which he played are registered as losses.
6.5 It is in the responsibility of team captains to inform all players that multi-play in not allowed. Team captains may appeal the organizers to derogate rule 6.4 in case the player makes a definitive choice of the team to play for.

7. Appeals and penalties

7.1 A team may ask the organizer about any issue regarding the management of the competition. The organizer will try to give an answer to any problem rised. In case a collegial decision was needed, the Board will be asked to assume a decision.
7.2 A team may appeal directly to the LCML Board for decisions involving other teams, for example in case of violation of fair play rules. In this case, the appealing team must produce a well detailed description of the disputed fact. The Board will discuss the issue and make a decision upon majority. A member of the Board whose team is directly involved in the dispute will be excluded from the vote.
7.3 The Board may decide to apply penalties to teams violating the present rules. Penalties will be commensurate with the violation. Penalties can go from a simple warning to the disqualification from the competition.
7.4 All decisions taken by the Board are final and cannot be discussed further.

8. Amendments

8.1 Amendments to the present set of rules can be made at any time by the organizer or by the Board. The amendments are communicated to all teams before they enter in place.
8.2 Team captains can suggest amendments to the regulations. In this case, the final decision about adopting the amendment proposed is taken by the Board.

ci sarebbe da allegare la lista delle nazioni che possono partecipare, giusto?

On first look, "10 minutes with no increment" is not ideal - why not give at least a second or 2 of increment, it prevents more games to be decided by timeout even for faster controls, while playing for 20 minutes and than win/lose on time make little to no sense. It is not possible to spend the same time for thinking for a game with 20-30 moves or game with 100+ moves and by choosing "no increment" it is forsed to either decide on time or have ridiculous premove finish of nice rapid chess game.

With the only one format being played, maybe we can have even 15|2, but choosing between that and 10|2 (or some 3rd option) can be the subject of voting between participants.

When I have more time, I would like to read complete rules text more carefully and give some more comments.

Thank you iski for your comment. There will no problem to set the standard timing to 10+2 or even 10+5. The final decision will be taken before the tournament start, taking into account all comments received on this topic by registered members.

I believe that we need one more amendment - Each player absolutely need to be able to play for only 1 participating club in a signle season!

Also, teams have to pay attention and do not intentionally invite international players for the purpose of playing in this league - this is a league of national teams, and we have to keep it that way.

Part about organizers and board members is not very clear to me, do we know which team captains are appointed as board members at the moment? Perhaps they need to be promoted as admins or coordinators (if SA is reserved for organizers only)?

You are full right. I'm going to amend the general regulations. Also, the composition of the board will be published soon. 

Dear all, here below you may find the new version of  the LCML general regulations (2nd edit May 6, 2021), amended as by art.8.1.  

If no further observations are made within Saturday 8/5/2021 24:00, the new regulations will come into force on Sunday 9.

LIVE CHESS MEDITERRANEAN LEAGUE REGULATIONS (2nd edit May 6, 2021)
This edit includes new versions of rules: 1.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 5.1

1. General principles

(new version) 1.1. LCML is the organizer of live chess competitions among Chess.com teams representing Nations of the Mediterranean area and neighboring Countries.
1.2. Players, team administrators and all participants must maintain a civil and respectful behavior throughout the competition. Use of offensive, derogatory or discriminatory language may lead to espulsion.

2. Country and team representation

2.1 A single Nation shall be represented for the entire competition by a single team. The team name must remain unchanged for the duration of the competition. The team name must contain a clear reference the name of the country to which it belongs.
2.2 In case of renounce of a team during the competition, that team can be replaced, upon request, by another team from the same Country.
(new version) 2.3 Each team must be represented by a “captain”, who shall be an admin of that team. Derogation to this rule is possible upon request, provided that the captain has full decision power on issues related to LCML participation.
(new version) 2.4 The “LCML Board” is composed, for any LCML tournament, by the captains of the participating teams together with the tournament director (TD). Each member of the board may submit relevant matters for the board's judgment. The board takes decisions upon simple majority; if the votes are even, the TD choice prevails. Votes on a specific issue are expressed normally within 48 hours after the issue is posed, unless some board member asks for a delay.

3. Matches

(new version of the article)
3.1 Each LCML tournament is launched by means of a specific call and has its own Rules of Play, which are issued together with the call. The Rules of Play specify, among others, the kind of tournament, the time control, the minimum number of players, the score rules and the rules of formation of the leaderboard. All communications related to the tournament must be posted in the page of the tournament call.
3.2 Each round of the tournament is announced by a specific call. All communications related to a tournament round must be posted in the page of that tournament round.
3.3 All matches played must have an accessible link publicly available after it has been played. The match link shall be posted by the captain of the winning team to the LCML home page. If, for any reason, the link to the game is not available, the match will not be valid for the LCML championship.
3.4 Each player can play for only one team in a single tournament. Double play is absolutely forbidden. Evidence of double play can have as a consequence the exclusion of both teams from the competition.
3.5 Teams cannot invite international players for the purpose of playing in LCML tournaments, as LCML is a league of national teams. Team captains must be vigilant so that this eventuality never occurs.

4. Minimum number of players (article cancelled as regulation pertain to the Rules of Play of the single tournament / season)

5. Pairings (new title)

(new version) 5.1 The pairings of all tournament rounds are drawn and announced by the TD. Once the pairing is announced, team captains shall get in contact to agree upon the date and hour of the match, taking into account the deadline fixed by the TD.

5.2 The match should be played within the expected date; however, teams can play their match out of the scheduled period with the permission of the organizers.
5.3 If a match does not take place within the expected date and teams have not asked the permission of playing the match out of the scheduled period, that match will be recorded as lost by foreait by both the teams.
5.4. A match can be declared drawn by agreement if both teams are unable to fix a date, informing the organizers about their decision. A single team cannot ask for a draw by agreement more than twice in the whole competition.
5.5 A match can be declared won by forfeit by one the teams and lost by the other, if there is evidence that the former team proposed one or more match dates and the latter team did not answer.
5.6 If a team loses two consecutive matches as by rule 5.5, it will be excluded from the competition and all its results will be erased from the tournament records.

6. Fair Play

6.1 It is abslutely forbidden the use of chess engines during the matches. Any evidence of such an unfair behaviour by a player may cause the exclusion of the team from the competition, at the discretion of the organizers.
6.2 All teams shall promote the maximum participation to the matches. Team administrators should not remove players, or ask players not to register or to leave the match, to gain a rating advantage on boards.
6.3 In the event that a player has been banned or has closed the account for any reason, all its games will be counted as lost. The match result can vary accordingly.
6.4 A player can play for only one team for the entire duration of the competition. If a player plays in more than one team during the competition, all the games played in all the teams in which he played are registered as losses.
6.5 It is in the responsibility of team captains to inform all players that multi-play in not allowed. Team captains may appeal the organizers to derogate rule 6.4 in case the player makes a definitive choice of the team to play for.

7. Appeals and penalties

7.1 A team may ask the organizer about any issue regarding the management of the competition. The organizer will try to give an answer to any problem rised. In case a collegial decision was needed, the Board will be asked to assume a decision.
7.2 A team may appeal directly to the LCML Board for decisions involving other teams, for example in case of violation of fair play rules. In this case, the appealing team must produce a well detailed description of the disputed fact. The Board will discuss the issue and make a decision upon majority. A member of the Board whose team is directly involved in the dispute will be excluded from the vote.
7.3 The Board may decide to apply penalties to teams violating the present rules. Penalties will be commensurate with the violation. Penalties can go from a simple warning to the disqualification from the competition.
7.4 All decisions taken by the Board are final and cannot be discussed further.

8. Amendments

8.1 Amendments to the present set of rules can be made at any time by the organizer or by the Board. The amendments are communicated to all teams before they enter in place.
8.2 Team captains can suggest amendments to the regulations. In this case, the final decision about adopting the amendment proposed is taken by the Board.

Thanks, this is good.

I am only not very sure about board making decisions about breaching of Fair-play, as I believe that by playing on this website we are all subject to their Fair-play policy and reviewed by paid experts who can make that decision of disqualification (closing of account) much better than any board made out of national team captains. All we can do is to provide enough time for reported cases to be reviewed and resolved before the final results are announced, and to help in reporting of that particular case directly to chesscom staff.

Maybe I just did not understand the rules well, but either way it need to be explained better to avoid such confusion.

Chess.com is undoubtely the most trustable arbiter about violation of fair play rules. This is true, in particular, in case of cheating. Anyway, cheating is not the only form of unfair play. For example, it may happen that a team repeatedly and purposely insults or taunts each team it meets. That's why we state that "A team may appeal directly to the LCML Board for decisions involving other teams, for example in case of violation of fair play rules. 

This means that, apart from the cases that are intercepted by chess.com, the LCML adopts a strong fair play policy and that the board is the guarantor of the sriousness and honesty of the League.

Oh ok, so it is a misunderstanding and we are speaking about Board regulating other forms of potential violations of Fair play, not the cheating by players in games (which is already monitored by chesscom staff)?

Yes, I confirm.