WCL 2024: rules

World Cities League (WCL) Rules (updated October 2023, changes in italics)

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 the World Cities League. 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 July. The year of the season is the year in which the last round starts.
• The WCL consists of four divisions, with Divisions 2 and lower containing several parallel groups. The normal division size is 10 teams. Groups in Division 4 may be smaller, depending on the total number of participating teams.
  • Division 1 with 10 teams.
  • Division 2 with 20 teams in two parallel groups.
  • Division 3 with 30 teams in three parallel groups.
  • Division 4 with all remaining teams in several parallel groups.
• All (groups in) divisions play a Round Robin tournament with one round per month. The normal starting date of each round is the first Wednesday of each month.
• After the finish of each season, teams are promoted and relegated:
  • Two teams are relegated from Div. 1 to Div. 2.
  • Two teams promote from Div. 2 to Div. 1 (one per group).
  • Six teams are relegated from Div. 2 to Div. 3 (three per group).
  • Six teams promote from Div. 3 to Div. 2 (two per group).
  • Ten teams are relegated from Div. 3 to Div. 4 (three per group + the worst 7th ranked team).
  • Ten teams promote from Div. 4 to Div. 3 (the top two from each group).
• 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 may be replaced by a new match with a starting date that leaves 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.
• Teams are not allowed to lock their rosters before the scheduled start of the match.
• Unaccepted challenges may be cancelled after the announced start date of the round.

4. Minimum number of players

• In each division, there is a minimum number of players for each match
  • for Division 1: 20 players (WCL), 15 players (ECL), 15 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 2: 15 players (WCL), 12 players (ECL), 11 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 3: 10 players (WCL), 9 players (ECL), 8 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 4: 5 players (WCL), 7 players (ECL), 5 players (Chess 960 WCL)
  • for Division 5: --- (WCL), 5 players (ECL).
• 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.
• Forfeited matches may be cancelled after the announced start date of the 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 1 in each cumulative (possibly incomplete) block of 4 players (i.e. max 1 player on boards 1-4, max 2 players on boards 1-8, max 3 players on boards 1-12 etc.)
• Foreign flag players in excess of these cumulative maxima are considered irregular players and their results are corrected according to Appendix D. Foreign flag players are checked from top to bottom: The players on the highest possible boards are considered regular, the rest irregular.
• 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%.
  • Multi-team players.
  • 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 September, 30th. The match results at this cut-off date determine promotion and relegation 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 opponents 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 below.

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 city vs. second city (for example, WCL2017 R1: Moscow vs. 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: see below
• AUTO-START: off
• Games are RATED: on

Start time:

• Recommended starting time of the match is 16:00 UTC (translate to your time zone).
• Deviating starting times are accepted if they are on the same calendar day.
• If teams disagree about the preferred starting time, the team on the left hand side of the pairing ("home team") may decide and formulate the challenge.

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: British and English flags count as home flags.
• Teams of Scottish cities: 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.
• Teams Sevastopol and Makeevka: 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.
• Province of Ulster: British and Irish flags 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):

• 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 2 teams are relegated to Division 2);
  • Division 2 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 2 teams are promoted to Division 2, last 3 teams are relegated to the newly created Division 4 with 7+ players minimum);
  • Division 4 all other teams in one or several parallel groups (top 1 team is promoted to Division 3, 2-3 places are promoted to the newly created Division 4 with 7+ players);
• Match Name: 960 WCL[year] R[round]: first team vs. second team (for example, 960 WCL2023 R1: Team Lviv vs. Team Zagreb)
• Minimum players: Division 1 (15+), Division 2 (10+), Division 3 (5+)
• Ultimate deadline for the season is June 30th

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 July. The year of the season is the year in which the last round starts.
• League will be played in 5 divisions in 2024:
  • Division 1 with 10 teams (15+ players);
  • Division 2 with 10 teams (12+ players);
  • Division 3 with 10 teams (9+ players);
  • Division 4 with 10 teams (7+ players);
  • Division 5 all the other teams (5+ players);
• Promotion and relegation will be managed as described here.
• Match Name: ECL[year] R[round]: first team vs. second team (for example, ECL2024 R1: Team Kyiv vs. Team Lviv)

F2) Merging of WCL and ECL matches

• If both teams play in the same division of WCL and ECL, then the WCL match is counted for ECL by default too (all rounds of 2024 season will be considered).
• If both teams agree, then they can set up a separate match as per ECL schedule.
• Setting up of the match on ECL schedule with proper name is considered as agreement to play a separate match for ECL.

Thanks to @-Blackburne- for careful reading and a number of corrections.

Given some discussion about new teams without a clear city/region relationship, we plan to adjust the rules for next (2025) season as follows:

1. General principles

• [...]
• All teams must have the respective city or region in their name. The suggested text for the team profile description is: “This team represents [city or regional name] in the World Cities League.”
• All chess players from the respective city or region must have the opportunity to participate in WCL matches. Filtering the access of members on the basis of minimum rating, minimum succes rate or minimum of games played is not allowed for the WCL teams.

These adjusted rules mean that the following two current members of the WCL can only continue participating if they change their club name:

• "Glory of Red Green" (Dhaka)
• "Fianchetto Chess Team" (Krakow)

3. Announcement of rounds and match challenges

Third bullet has been clarified (no substantial change):

If for unforeseen reasons the match challenge is accepted later than one week before the start of the round, the match may be replaced by a new match with a starting date that leaves one week for registering players. This is under the discretion of the WCL board and must be co-ordinated by message exchange.

Would you consider (in the next season) requiring matches to be set up with a minimum number of games of 5 or 10? This will reduce cheating as it would only allow players who have some game history.

That's for sure not used to reduce cheating but to reduce number of games lost on timeout if someone joins by mistake, even without previous experience in daily games

National teams leagues has 10 minimum as requirement, and frankly it's easier for new players to at least be able to play some daily matches in WCL until they are ready for WL matches with 10 completed games

Yes, indeed, as @iksnicamod writes: We have considered a minimum for games played by each participant (as it exists for the World League). But we found accessibility of WCL matches for everyone more important. The WCL is set up as a low-threshold league where everyone is encouraged to participate and requirements are low.

So far, we have not received any signals that this low-threshold set-up leads to cheating or other frequent problems systematically.

Ok thanks. Accessibility is a very strong reason to keep it as it is... Like you say.

Hello. I'm from Australia-Brisbane. I would like to suggest a future league with 1 concurrent/simultaneous game and 2 days per move.

Reasoning:

If I'm playing a superior player, there is a temptation to copy moves until they offer a draw. And vice versa, an opposing player could use this tactic on me.

960 is a wonderful form of chess. 1 game at a time is optimum.

2 days per move to not unduly increase the time for match completion.

@Igroki789: Given the scarce admin capacities, it's unlikely that the current admin team will set up a new league.

If you are prepared to manage this league yourself, you might open a forum thread and ask for possible participants. My guess is that most teams and players prefer the current mode (two parallel games à 3 days per move).

current mode is in line with other major team competitions on chess.com so it's not a good idea to experiment with different settings (mostly bad would be to use different time control, not sure how changing to 1 game at the time can impact long term aside from the fact that we will have to wait much longer for final results)

There are other leagues like One World League with different time controls.

I have some doubts about that rule (multiplayer rule).So according to curent rule,one player can play for 3-4 teams and still be unpunished.That should be changed.In my opinion term multiplayer is when player plays for more than one team (even once),like in every sport.I hope to see it changed as fast as it can be,cause I see a lot of players playing for 3-4 teams without problem.Bye