LCML Season 1 - Rules of Play (new)

LCML SEASON 1

RULES OF PLAY
(new release May 11, 2021)

1. LCML Season 1 is run in two parallel round robin tournaments (Div. A and Div. B). Pairings of each turn of the tournament (also called "Day") and the deadline for completing that turn are announced by the Tournament Director (TD) on the home page of the LCML site and published on a dedicated page. As soon as pairings are published, team captains must contact the captain of the opponent team and negotiate the date/time of their match. The date of the match must be set within the deadline. Derogation to this rule can only be asked by captains upon valid motivation. Day 1 has been used only to split teams in two divisions.
2. Captains shall launch the challenge as soon as the system allows for doing it, i.e. not earlier than 7 days from the foreseen date of the match (see https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-to-launch-a-challenge-a-tutorial for details). When the challenge is accepted, the captain who launched the challenge shall post a note on the page of the Day containing the link to the match.
3. Matches shall be named as “LCML S1 Rn Team A vs Team B” where n is the number of the Round (1 for the first round, 2 for the second, etc.); time control shall be 10+5 (10|5), that means 10 minutes per game + 5 seconds per move; a different time control can be agreed between teams, provided it is >=10 min.; all other parameters (game type, rating, players per group) must be left at their default values.
4. If a team does not respond to the challenge, the captain of the other team shall inform the Tournament Director before the deadline. The Tournament Director will try and contact the captain of the missing to have explanations. In case of no response in due time, the active team will win the match by forfeit, getting 1 match point and full game points. If no claim is issued and the match is not launched at the deadline, both teams will loose the match by forfeit (0 match points, 0 game points for both teams).
5. Games are played over an unlimited number of chessboards. At the start of the match, both teams must have at least 8 players (in Div.A) or 4 players (in Div.B) ready to play. If a team comes with less than the minimum required, that team will loose the match by forfeit (0 match points). The games shall be played anyway, since board points are valid.  Each team will be credited 2 game points for any board where the opponent is missing.
6. IMPORTANT If the match starts with less than 8 boards (in Div.A) or less than 4 boards (in Div.B), due to the fact that a single team brought less players, the team that brought a regular number of players shall provide evidence of this fact. The easier way to do so, is to take a screen shot of the list of players few minutes before the game starts. No derogation to this rule is possible. Failing to provide evidence of the number of players ready to play can cause the application of rule 5 also to the team that brought a regular number of players.
7. Standings are made considering, in order: 1) match points; 2) board points; 3) difference between won games and lost games; 4) buchholz score.
8. After Day 1, teams are divided in two Divisions: Div.A is formed by the teams that undertake to bring a minimum of 8 boards at next maches, Div.B by the teams that undertake to bring a minimum of 4 boards at next maches. From Day 2 on, the two Divisions will play two separate round robin tournaments.