Preparing LCML Season 2

Dear chess friends,

I would like to open Season 2 of the LCML next month, January 2022, taking into account the lessons learned during Season 1. In preparation of the new tournament launch, I would like to collect your opinions reguarding the following points:

1) should we have only one Division instead of two? In case of one division, less experienced teams can play friendly matches on their demand without affecting the standings.

2) should we fix a certain day of the week (such as Monday) to play the games? (Sundays and Saturdays are full of matches usually)

3) shall we revise the minimum number of chessboards required for a match? (in S1 we had 8 for Div.A and 4 for Div.B)

4) shall we reduce the time interval from one tournament Day and the next one? (in S1 we had 3-5 weeks that seems quite long to me)

Every comment is welcome!

Regards

TMK

Hello from Team Turkey,

2) I strongly agree. Dates can be flexible (any day of the week) as long as opponent teams agree on one.

4) Reducing the interval seems good.

Regards.

1) 2 divisions is better with lower requirement for lower one (eg. only 2 boards - chess.com minimum)

2) no - it should be allowed for teams to negotiate the best day and start time to play

3) answered partially in 1, I guess that Div.A can stay with 8 as minimum, but to review the rules for match scores (for example in case that both teams registered less than 7, we should at least count result on boards as final - we can discuss more about this later)

4) 3-5 weeks is good enough, because most teams are participating in other Live leagues, and this will give enough time for matches to be played (just look at S1 number of matches that were not play - so it is definitely not like they were all being completed much sooner than required limit and teams had to wait for next round, but exact opposite, more like teams were required to play too often, although we can agree that once a month for 1 match is not really too often)

Hello to all,

I am one of the last arrivals, but I dare say one thing.

I'm absolutely agree with point 2.
Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days for matches. 

Probably Friday could be acceptable

All admins that were here for Season 1 know very well that noone here asked teams to play matches on Saturday or Sunday - but they ended up choosing those days (naturally, as most players are free to play on weekends).

So there is absolutely no reason to restrict teams to play only on Monday or only on Friday, if both sides can easily find 1h free during weekend (to be more precise - 1h in 3-5 weekends!)

If some team is busy on weekend, that can be stated in negotiation for match, but solution will most likely be to play on another weekend, usually there is no need to forse less comfortable playing time during Monday-Friday (just ask yourselves why Saturdays and Sundays are busiest - because when given free choice to teams, that is what they end up selecting!)

Of course - reason why it will not be good to forse less comfortable playing time is very simple.

We did not really have very good participation in Season 1 - so changes made for Season 2 should be in trying to make it better, not worse

So if Saturdays and Sundays are best for better participation, then teams should not be prevented to play on those days

Then, following the comments received so far, the following decisions are taken for Season2:

1) We maintain 2 Divisions, but the minimum boards requirement for Div.A will be 7 boards intstead of 8 and for Div.B will be 3 boards instead of 4 (lowering the requirement also in Div.A can help those teams that reached hardly the minimum boards an S1)

2) teams can negotiate to have their match on any day of the 3+ weeks following the announcement; there is the possibility to fix the date of the match even 3 weeks before (I will explain the team captains how to do it), so it will be easier to schedule the matches.

@iksnicamod ... please explain your suggestion to revise the match scores; now the general rule would be:

Games are played over an unlimited number of chessboards. At the start of the match, both teams must have at least 7 players (in Div.A) or 3 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.

With "Each team will be credited 2 game points for any board where the opponent is missing." we can count final scores even if both sides fail to reach required minimum (all we need is screenshot proof of registration from admins).

For example, if it was 5 vs 6 in registration and final score for example 4.5-6.5, Team B will get 2 additional points for 1 board missing from Team A and with final score 4.5-8.5 they can win match (if we count that 7.5 is required to get 1 match point).

We need to rely a lot on help from team admins for this - to provide screenshots, but IMO it will be more fair and interesting that way instead of counting so many double forfeits as in Season 1.

If teams are 5 vs 6 in registration, the match is played over 5 boards and the total game points is 10. In a "minumum 7 chessboards" scenario, team B will have 2 points added to the final score due to the missing board in team A. Therefore, according to the rules of S1, both teams will "loose" the match (0 match points), and game points will be assigned depending on the result on the field (f.i. if they ended up 4 to 6, game points will be 4-8; if they ended up with 5.5 to 4.5, game points will be 5.5-6.5) (as by examples 4 and 5 in https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/how-points-are-calculated-examples).

If I understand well your point, you propose to assign the match point according to the game score, even if both teams failed to reach the minimum requirement (in the above examples, the match result would then be 0-1 in both cases). Right?

Yes, we can discuss if you must get above 7 board points to score match point or any win.

If we give the match point to the team that scored +7 game points even if it fielded less that the required 7 boards, it may happen that a team playing only with 4 very strong players would get 1 match point at every turn and win easily the tournament. I think it wouldn't be fair.

That makes sense, let's then change rule from +2 points for missing board - we can award +3 points

that way 7 vs 4 in registration, even if score is 0-8, final score would be 9-8 and win for club with enough registered boards

Nice trick!     I think it's feasible, a duly reward to the teams that are "teams".

I'm going to upgrade the rules accordingly. Thank you for your contribution.

Dear chess friends, the rules of play for Season 2 have been published (https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/lcml-season-2-rules-of-play). National teams wishing to participate to LCML S2 are invited to send a confirmation post on the LCML home page.

Season 2 will be a great tournament! Thank you for your participation.