Live Chess Tour Official Rules
The Chess.com Live Chess Tour is an online chess competition hosted by Chess.com and administrated by Jared Martin (@jaredjm).
A. SEASONS
A season consists of twelve weeks, each with a main event on Saturday and a minor event during the week. Players are awarded points based on their performance and participation during these events. At the end of the season, the player with the most points is crowned Chess.com Live Chess Tour Champion.
B. EVENTS
MAJOR EVENTS
There will be twelve major events during the season, including:
- 2 1|0 Bullet Arenas
- a 2|1 Bullet Arena
- 2 3|0 Blitz Arenas
- 2 3|2 Blitz Arenas (standard)
- a Chess960/FischerRandom 3|2 Blitz Arena
- 2 5|0 Blitz Arenas
- and 2 15|10 Rapid Swisses.
MINOR EVENTS
The minor events are not yet confirmed but they will likely include some of the above time controls as well as 960 tournaments, live team matches, etc.
C. POINTS
HOW TO EARN POINTS
To earn points, all you have to do is play in an official Live Chess Tour tournament. These will be held in the Chess.com Live Chess Server. No registration is necessary; if you play in an LCT event, your results will be automatically counted and entered into the leaderboard.
POINT SCALE
Each time control is weighted differently. Here is what each game will earn in major events (minor events will have less points):
| TIME CONTROL | GAME PLAYED | DRAW | WIN | PODIUM |
| (you get this bonus just for playing the game, no matter the result) | (you get this many points for each draw) | (you get this many points for each win) | (1st/2nd/3rd/4-5/6-10) | |
| 1+0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 10/5/3/2/1 |
| 2+1 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 10/5/3/2/1 |
| 3+0 | 0.5 | 1.25 | 2.5 | 30/15/9/6/3 |
| 3+2 | 0.7 | 1.75 | 3.5 | 30/15/9/6/3 |
| 5+0 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 30/15/9/6/3 |
| 15+10 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 50/25/15/10/5 |
D. SCHEDULING
GENERAL
Every week in the season will, as mentioned above, have one major and one minor event. The major event will be on Saturday GMT, but the time of day that each is scheduled for will change throughout the season, like this:
Week 1: 00:00 GMT (8:00 PM FRIDAY EST)
Week 2: 2:00 GMT (10:00 PM FRIDAY EST)
Week 3: 4:00 GMT (12:00 AM EST)
Week 4: 6:00 GMT (2:00 EST)
Week 5: 8:00 GMT (4:00 EST)
Week 6: 10:00 GMT (6:00 EST)
Week 7: 12:00 GMT (8:00 EST)
Week 8: 14:00 GMT (10:00 EST)
Week 9: 16:00 GMT (12:00 EST)
Week 10: 18:00 GMT (14:00 EST)
Week 11: 20:00 GMT (16:00 EST)
Week 12: 22:00 GMT (18:00 EST)
SEASON ONE
Season One has started and is playing now.
EDITS for Season One and the indefinite future: the start times for Weeks 4, 5, and 6 will be moved to 2:00 AM UTC (10:00 PM EDT) to aid member interest.
