The Phoenix Chess League (PCL) aims at providing to competitive clubs new types of competitions, that are not usually found in other leagues, with simplified access and light rules and regulations.
Specific rules and regulation for each competition of the league will be posted in dedicated topics.
The league is open to all clubs that are at least two months old, represented by administrators having an account for at least three months.
Registration to competitions:
To enter any competition, all teams must first be registered with their representatives in the "Clubs and Admins" topic.
To enter a specific competition, clubs registered in the league must explicitly post in the dedicated competition's topic during the registration period. Out of the registration period, requests to join will be assessed on a case by case basis.
Once the registration period is over, clubs are requested to follow the specific challenging protocol described in each competition's topic.
General philosophy:
As a general rule, we will try to use common sense and sportsmanship to favorize content over form. It means that when good will is involved from all parties, an effort will be made to get matches opened and played and not to enforce rules more than necessary.
We expect respectful and responsible behaviour from all league members.
Tie breaks:
In general, Sonneborn–Berger score will be used for tie breaks.
- For daily match competitions, average points scored per player in matches will be used at second level.
- For vote chess competitions, direct confrontation result will be used at second level, and highest accuracy in confrontation as third in case of a draw.
Repartition of teams in groups:
As a general philosophy, and unless written otherwise in the competition's rules, teams are placed in groups based on their perceived strength. Results of past seasons (if any) are also take into account for allocating teams in different groups. There is usually a top group, and possibly several groups below. Teams managed by a same admin are dispatched to different groups as much as possible.
Adjudication of matches:
- For round-robin, swiss or knock-out competitions based on daily games, a cut-off date is set six months (matching day of the month, e.g. 26th of April for a last start 26th of October) after the start of the last match of a competition at 1 to 3 days per move, and 9 months for slower ones.
- When the date is reached, the scores of on-going matches will be compared and adjudicated if a team has scored an amount of points equal to the number of players per team to which is added a security margin of 4 points.
- If adjudication can't be reached on a score basis at the first cut-off date, an extension of 1 month for competitions at 1 to 3 days per move, and 2 months for slower ones will start. At the end of the period, on-going matches will be counted as void and current scores will be used to adjudicate the result.
- Adjudications results will be announced to contact admins and open for appeal for 7 days before final results are announced.
- Rationale: after 6 months (or more, as first round would have most likely started more than one year before that) it's most likely that all relevant FPV closure would have already happened. 4 points would account for a reverted result of 2 FPVs of players that would have won their games.
Note: R&R are a work in progress and might evolve based on experience and feedback from league players.
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