Is it against Fair Play for a group of friends to play together?

There's nothing specifically in the Fair Play Policy saying that an account must belong to one individual player, although it is implied. Here are the relevant points..

• All of your moves must be your own
• Do not cheat in any way
• Do not get help from any other person, including parents, friends, coaches or another player

I'm interested in playing chess with a group of players, and seeing how well we do out in the wild. But could this get the account banned, or even my main account??

Chess.com explicitly states that no account sharing is allowed:

https://support.chess.com/article/434-can-i-share-computers-with-another-member

I believe if it's an unrated game you should be fine.

Additionally, the Fair Play policy also states:

• Do not allow anyone else to use your account
• Do not use anyone else's account

I think it would be more fun to see how far we could get as a "team" in the ratings.

Yeah, but that's all dependent on how you define "your". If the account is NOT an individual account, but belongs to the "team", does that count as sharing?

The post on sharing computers is related, but I don't think specifically applies.

Are there admins who can provide a clear answer?

The problem is all your moves have to be your own. It would be more fun, I would agree  but not fair.

Another point is that it is very much part of chess practice, and history, for groups to take on other groups or individuals, most often in correspondence games though. I'm thinking e.g. the famous "Kasparov vs. The World" game.

I think its a violation but Ive seen Naroditsky vids where he coaches students during live games. Opponents get ratings back I believe

Any reasonable interpretation of those rules means one thing: no account sharing.

I think the issue is, if the account belonged to a team, then they wouldn't be sharing and the moves would all come from the team therefore not breaking terms. However, if chess.com wanted this to happen they'd probably implement some kind of team accounts that only played each other. 

I think they idea of an account belonging to a team is where it's going to be an issue.

I think you've got to be a partner of chess.com to do the rating-refund thing, same as with speed runs.

yeah just do it as casual and see what ratings you are able to beat. Doesnt have to be rated. Chessbrah often do team chess, unrated vs viewers. Do it like that, versus the unrated pool or some other friends

I tried to get a chess.com account for my library patrons. I even spoke with some admins, & they said they were considering how they could do a group account. That was a couple years ago, so I guess they never worked it out.

To me it sounds like what you are interested in is speed vote chess. This is a thing that is entirely within the rules. One team plays against another and each has a few minutes to vote on the next move and the move with the most votes is the one that gets played.

If you're talking about a game where a group of players come together to play against ONE player, and the other player doesn't know about it, and it's rated, yes I would consider that cheating.  Chess is a game of mind vs. mind.  What mind can come up with what tactics and ideas at the moment.  Multiple minds give an edge.

OK, thanks for everyone's responses. Seems the consensus is that it would not be deemed fair play to do this unbeknownst to opponents, if rated. If not specifically outlawed in the policies, it's frowned upon by the community. Appreciate everyone's input.

If the site finds out an account is being used by multiple people, it will get closed.

Hello old friend

Late to this thread but why not find another group and float the idea to them?  If its all upfront and stated beforehand I don't see what the issue would be.

Chess Boot Camp vs. Sullen Dingleberries -  Team Death Match!