Rules, regulations, recommendations, details and joining instructions for the 2024-2025 World Chess League Season
Joining instructions:
1. Set up Chess.com account
https://support.chess.com/article/671-how-do-i-create-an-account
2. Set up Chess.com club:
https://support.chess.com/article/125-how-do-i-create-a-club
3. Invite team members to join your Chess.com club:
https://support.chess.com/article/329-how-do-i-invite-someone-to-join-my-club
4. If you have titled players who are not recognized by Chess.com please take them through this process to get them recognized:
https://support.chess.com/article/661-does-chesscom-offer-benefits-for-elite-or-titled-players
5. Email director@worldchessleague.live to confirm you would like to enter and that you accept all the rules, and confirming your Chess.com username to receive a free 3 month trial Diamond Chess.com membership!
6. Add this account to your club:
Peter Hornsby (worldchessleaguelive) - Chess Profile - Chess.com
7. Make that account admin:
https://support.chess.com/article/212-how-do-i-add-remove-or-change-a-club-admin
8. Add: https://www.facebook.com/peter.hornsby.585/ who will then add you onto the Captain’s group chat.
The games are not FIDE or ECF etc. graded (though will be rapid-play rated on Chess.com) and entry is free for everyone, Therefore in lieu of entry fees, please consider donating to Oxfam, our partner charity here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/2020chess
Then await an email announcing your game!
** Deadline to enter for round one of the 2024-2025 World Chess League season is 11pm UK time on the
31st August 2024 **
(Team registration is subject to approval from the Tournament Director)
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Tournament format and rules:
All teams will be pooled into one Swiss group:
World Chess League 2024-2025<!-- --> | ScorchChess (scorchapp.co.uk)
The pairings for round one will be announced on the 1st September.
The Tournament Director will then set up the game links and match-times/dates to take place on the following days:
Swiss stage:
Fixture 1: September 21st or 22nd
Fixture 2: October 19th or 20th
Fixture 3: November 16th or 17th
Fixture 4: December 7th or 8th
Fixture 5: January 11th or 12th
Fixture 6: February 8th or 9th
Fixture 7: March 8th or 9th
Fixture 8: April 26th or 27th
You must play your matches at the time you have been given by the Tournament Director. These will be announced via email to all teams within 24 hours of each round (fixture) concluding. The draw may be altered after this point subject to any fair-play checks from Chess.com.
If you do not like the time you have been allocated, you must:
1. Contact your opponents to request a change, the time being before the deadline for the Round to be completed. This deadline is 11pm UK time on the latest date for the fixture to be played, for example the deadline to complete fixture 1 is 11pm UK time September 22nd.
2. If they agree contact they both need to contact the Tournament Director who will create the new game link.
3. If they do not agree, you must accept an 8-0 default loss for the Round.
Play-offs (knock-outs):
The top 8 teams will qualify for the play-offs.
- This will be decided by total match points. If there is a tie to qualify, teams will be split firstly by head-to-head if/where possible, net game points, total game points, then by number of players fielded (highest wins), then the drawing of lots.
- At the conclusion of the Swiss stage, Chess.com will undertake a 'Fair Play Check' on all relevant players.
Qualification for the play-offs is only confirmed after that point.
- Then the draw for the quarter finals of the play-offs will be announced:
1st vs 8th
2nd vs 7th
3rd vs 6th
4th vs 5th
This will take place on the weekend of the 12th and 13th July 2025.
The semi-finals, third-place play-off and finals will then take place to conclude the season on the
27th and 28th July 2025.
If there are any draws, the team that finished highest in the Swiss stage will be declared the winners.
- Each player that plays in the play-offs must have played (or registered on the top four boards in the event of a default) at least twice in the Swiss stage, with the exception of one 'special allocated' player that only has had to played once.
- Prizes will only be issued, and winners declared, after Chess.com have completed a further 'Fair Play Check'.
The timings of all these play-off matches will be set by the Tournament Director on the above dates, however if both captains agree to a different time, as long as it is completed within schedule, that will be permitted.
If any team fields an ineligible player in the play-offs, the whole team automatically loses the match with a 8-0 scoreline. Furthermore, if any player is banned for any reason from Chess.com after the knock-outs have started, the whole team is eliminated from the knock-out stages.
Re-instatement of other teams may hence take place where possible, at the discretion of the Tournament Director.
Further rules:
By taking part you and your whole team consent to all of these rules and decisions/judgements made by the Tournament Director and you forfeit the right to take any legal action, whether international or domestic, against the Tournament Director and/or the World Chess League for any reason.
All Chess Standard matches are to be played on Chess.com. You must ALL agree to ALL of the Chess.com policies, players AND captains https://www.chess.com/community (this is what you did by acquiring a Chess.com account) which you commit to doing so by partaking in this tournament.
You must enable the Tournament Director to be at least a junior administrator for your team on Chess.com so the matches can be set up.
For each match, each player plays 2 games per round against the same opponent back to back. It's 1 point for a team win, 0.5 for a draw, 0 for a loss.
The same is true at an individual level between teams, so whichever gets the most individual points wins the match.
The time control is 10 minutes + 5 second increment (unless both captains agree to another rapid-play time control). All matches are Chess.com rapid-play rated.
All players must agree to play on camera for the Play-Offs and any other match if requested by the Tournament Director.
The Tournament Director takes no responsibility for the distribution of prizes which are provided by the sponsors, the respective team captain must contact them directly to claim and arrange it.
You must have at least 4 players for each match to avoid team or board defaults:
-If four players show up on one team, and less than three players show for the opposing team, the opposing team loses
8-0 by default.
- If four players show up on one team, and three players show up on the other team, the team with four players has 2 default game points for the match (2-0).
- If two players show up on one team, and one/none of the other team show up the score is 4-0 to the team that has two players.
-If three players show up on one team, and one/none of the other team show up the score is 6-0 to the team that has three players.
-If three players show up on one team, and two players show up on the other team, the team with three players has 2 default game points for the match (2-0).
-If both teams only field 2 or 3 players, the match will be treated as 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 match with no board defaults. Captains can agree to these matches if they wish, if they both contact the Tournament Director in advance via email.
- If both teams field more than 4 players, it will be treated as a 4 vs 4, 5 vs 5 , 6 vs 6 match and so on.
- If both teams field less than 2 players, the match is declared void and no points will be awarded.
-If both teams do not complete the results before the deadline the match will be declared void and both teams will get 0 points and risk expulsion from the competition.
However, forfeits/defaults will only be able to be claimed if the opposition emails the Tournament Director at director@worldchessleague.live within one hour of the match finishing to make a claim, unless the
Tournament Director happens to witness it.
Proof has to be demonstrated through taking a screenshot for example if it looks like your/some of your opponents are not going to show up you need proof to claim the default win/win on boards, so it is required that you take a screenshot and send it to via email to director@worldchessleague.live within 2 hours of the match finishing to make a claim, such as 2 seconds before the match starts as evidence.
https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/46435/how-to-take-a-screenshot-on-any-device
No player is allowed to play for more than one team. If this happens then default losses will be issued to the player in the second/third etc. team they play for. The only exception to this rule is for the Tournament Director himself.
The Tournament Director reserves the right to change the team name in certain circumstances: For example, if Bloggs University win the tournament but don't field any students from Bloggs University, it would not be appropriate for that name to be used.
Furthermore, no teams from Russia will be allowed to participate in the competition until further notice due to the ongoing war against Ukraine.
If a team defaults more than one match, they can be expected to be removed from the competition. Any team that is removed from the competition, or withdraws, will not result in the alteration of scores from their previous matches.
All teams and usernames must be of a respectful name, and abuse of any nature inside or outside the tournament (such as, but not limited to, accusing someone of cheating publicly or privately) to or about anyone will not be tolerated, if this happens sanctions will be applied at the discretion of the Tournament Director.
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You need to use the same account throughout the whole tournament unless granted permission in advance by the Tournament Director with the approval of Chess.com (this cannot be done retrospectively), if this has not been granted you/the player concerned will be defaulted in losses for all your games across the tournament for the second/third etc account that is used.
Titled players also MUST use their main account (not the anonymous/training one) or else they shall receive the same punishments.
A team is not eligible to win any prizes or qualify for the play-offs unless they reveal all their named players who take part and their usernames to go with them. It's an anti-cheating deterrent. Evidence shows that it's far less likely if people have their real names related to the tournament they are playing in:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/youll-amazed-when-you-find-out-how-tornelocom-online-chess-cordover/
You will need a stable internet connection to play. If you disconnect (either to the internet or to the Chess.com server) and lose time or the game that is unfortunate but nothing can and will be done on our side.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the correct people are in your club and that no imposter plays deliberately or by accident in your team match. If they do, whatever the result is will have to stand, alongside accordance to all other tournament rules.
Multiple teams:
At the Tournament Director's discretion, clubs may be allowed to enter more than one team. No switching is allowed between these teams and if there are switching it will result in default individual losses as a penalty for the second/third etc team they play for.
Team captains will need to declare before 1st September their intentions to how they plan to split their all players, listing them in Chess.com rapid-play rated order for example:
A team:
1. Player One: 2300
2. Player Two: 2200
3. Player Three: 2100
4. Player Four: 2000
SPLIT
B team:
1. Player One: 1900
2. Player Two: 1800
3. Player Three: 1700
4. Player Four: 1600
No Grandmaster's (GM's) are allowed to play for 'B' teams, however they can always play for 'A' teams regardless of Chess.com rapid-play ratings. Therefore, any new player to the list (apart from GM's) cannot play for the 'B' team if they have a Chess.com rapid-play rating higher than 1900, on the basis of the example above.
Glitches:
Glitches: These may happen, unfortunately nothing can be done about them in the event so whatever Chess.com says the result is, the result is. Apologies in advance if this happens to you. You cannot explore other sections of the Chess.com website during your games.
The only exception for this is if a server upgrade or crash takes place affecting both teams stopping the game or preventing it from taking place. The teams can agree to a 4-4 draw, or the Tournament Director will mandate and arrange a full replay between the teams (but not the exact players) within 7 days.
If there are problems it is recommended to refresh the page. This usually happens if you play your second game as white after the first move, you may need to refresh page and make move again.
You can report glitches here:
How do I report a bug or make a suggestion? - Chess.com Member Support and FAQs
Anti-cheating policies:
We hope never to need it but we do have world anti-cheating experts with state-of-the-art technology on a panel if there are any issues. You cannot use any computer or human or any other assistance during your games. We can also, at our discretion and with his permission, (not on the panel) have games analysed by THE world expert on anti-cheating measures Dr. Kenneth Regan:
If a player is banned from Chess.com for any reason, regardless whether it was related to the tournament or not, all their games for this season only will be declared default losses.
Reasons for bans have to remain confidential for the guilty and the victims. This applies to organizers as well as players, Chess.com are in no way obliged to pass information for why someone is banned 'even' to the organizers, though they have been extremely helpful in striking a balance. There may be safeguarding implications, so you must accept this.
If you suspect cheating you must report it to the Chess.com platform chess.com (email support@chess.com) and through this procedure:
https://support.chess.com/article/209-how-do-i-report-someone
You also must send an email to director@worldchessleague.live
If you/one of your players are banned from Chess.com you must inform director@worldchessleague.live within 24 hours and should you wish email support@chess.com copying in director@worldchessleague.live to appeal.
A player being banned does not interpret an opinion from the World Chess League or the Tournament Director that the player in question is indeed guilty of cheating, such judgement is deferred to Chess.com for the sake of the tournament and you accept by entering this tournament that you forfeit the right to take legal/libel action against the Tournament Director of these grounds.
If the appeal is successful the player will be re-admitted and the results reverted back to what they were. Being issued a new account by Chess.com is not the same as a successful appeal.
Players banned may be allowed to play again in the tournament after a suspension at the discretion of the tournament Director. Rehabilitation is a virtue in all walks of life and Chess is no different. Results will not be changed if someone is banned on another platform. If you have however been banned twice on Chess.com for any reason you will be banned from playing any World Chess League tournament for life.
If a player is banned and they play again in the league, regardless of in which season, without permission from the Tournament Director all games they play will be declared as default losses for their team.
Chess.com will put players in Chess.com rated order automatically, so if you've just joined chess.com you must play at least 5 rapid play rated games first so it will be a fair reflection and place you in the correct position within your team.
If you do not, for example having a new titled player on board 4 with a 400 rating to ‘sandbag’ the opposition sanctions will be applied, whether by accident or otherwise. If it is the bottom board, then the result is 'wiped' if any positive results are obtained by the 'new' player. If it higher than a bottom board, then it is set to default losses for that player, and potentially ones below that as well.
Recommendations:
Check junk email and Facebook message requests regularly. You are all strongly encouraged to become ‘Facebook friends’ with each other to make this much easier.
Make sure to press re-match after your first game and refresh the page if necessary if you clock doesn’t start after making a move or if your first move is not registered.
If you are wary of being falsely accused of cheating, it is recommended to film yourself playing your matches and save it which could exonerate you if there any disputes.
Please sign up to Chess.com with your account joined to the club you are in at least half an hour before your game is due to start! Then click on the relevant game link and click ‘join match’, which is a green button. If you are late the match will start without you and will count as a forfeit.
You will need a stable internet connection to play. If you disconnect and lose time or the game that is unfortunate but nothing can and will be done on our side.
Also, it is required that you take screenshots of any issues at the time and save them for later.
It is recommended to play your games on a computer, though if you have to use the phone you must use Chess.com through the browser NOT the app as it will not work otherwise.
Safeguarding:
This tournament takes safeguarding very seriously but the Tournament Director and the World Chess League.Live takes no legal responsibility for safeguarding, so parents and/or legal guardians will have to take responsibility and decisions associated with that. Note that Chess.com is a third-party platform so consider carefully before you join.
Other stuff:
Your contact details can be transferred to third parties such as sponsors and you may be emailed about other Chess events. Your games and player names may also be featured on commentary and in reports. Any online images of you may be used in promotional material for the tournament and you forfeit any right of anonymity in taking part (i.e. we may publish or announce ‘Joe Bloggs’ is playing in this tournament under this username).
I hope this all makes sense and sorry for the information overload and thanks for your understanding.
We have lots of teams enjoying themselves already and we're sure it will continue to expand and continue to be a lot of competitive fun!
Peter Hornsby,
Founder and Tournament Director of the World Chess League.Live