Rules, regulations, recommendations, details and joining instructions
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:
How do I add, remove, or change a club admin? - Chess.com Member Support and FAQs
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 liu of entry fees, please consider donating here to raise money for charities fighting COVID 19:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/2020chess
Then await an email announcing your game!
Note: It is possible to late join at the tournament director's discretion, and play catch-up matches against other late joining teams. However, any points scored in catch-up matches cannot be used to qualify for the play-offs.
Tournament Format:
All teams will be pooled into one Swiss system for 10 Rounds which will take place from September 2022 to July 2023.
You must play your matches on one of these dates, which are set in advance by the Tournament Director:
Round 1: Friday 9th, Saturday 10th or Sunday 11th September
Round 2: Friday 7th, Saturday 8th or Sunday 9th October
Round 3: Friday 11th, Saturday 12th or Sunday 13th November
Round 4: Friday 9th, Saturday 10th or Sunday 11th December
Round 5: Friday 20th, Saturday 21st or Sunday 22nd January
Round 6: Friday 24th, Saturday 25th or Sunday 26th February
Round 7: Friday 10th, Saturday 11th, or Sunday 12th March
Round 8: Friday 31st March, Saturday 1st or Sunday 2nd April
Round 9: Friday 28th, Saturday 29th, or Sunday 30th April
Round 10: Friday 30th June, Saturday 1st or Sunday 2nd July
You must play your matches at the time you have been given by the tournament director.
You will have weeks to arrange and organize your team accordingly.
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.
2. If they agree contact the Tournament Director who will create the game link
3. If they do not agree, you must accept an 8-0 default loss for the Round.
Play-offs: Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August 2023
All teams scoring 8/10 match points or more will qualify for the Play-Offs.
The structure of the Play-Offs are as follows using the formula:
If 5 teams qualify, 5th will play 4th. If 6 teams qualify, 6th will play 5th, then the winner plays 4th and so on. If 3 teams qualify, 2nd will play 3rd to play for a place in the final vs. the 1st placed team. If 2 teams qualify they play against each other, and if only 1 team reaches 8 points they are declared champions.
The winner of that will play the team that finished 1st for the first semi-final, with the team that finished 2nd playing the team that finished 3rd in the other semi-final.
Each player must have played three times in the league to be eligible to participate, excluding one ‘wildcard’ who only has to play twice. If someone misses out on a league match who is in the top 4 boards and a screenshot is taken, this counts towards the 3 game requirement.
If any team fields an ineligible player in the play-offs, the team automatically loses the match.
Your team finishing higher in the league will put you at an advantage in the play-off format because if there is a draw in a match in the play-offs the team finishing higher in the league will be declared the winner.
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 against the Tournament Director and/or the World Chess League.Live 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.
The game links will be set up by the Tournament Director, and you must enable him to be an administrator for your team on Chess.com to play in the tournament.
After all the games have been completed by the deadline the draw for the next Round will be made. The Tournament Director reserves the rights to amend/change pairings if necessary (this may happen, for example, for politically sensitive reasons).
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. All matches are Chess.com rapid-play rated.
Team tiebreaks: Head to head between teams, then net game points, then total game points.
All players must agree to play on camera for the Play-Offs and any other match requested by the Tournament Director.
the World Chess League.Live takes no responsibility for the delegation of prize money announced as being provided by the sponsors, you must contact them directly to claim and arrange it.
You must have at least 4 players for each match.
-If four players up on one team, and less than three players show for the opposing team, the opposing team loses 8-0 by default.
- If three players show up on one team, and less than 3 of the other team show up the score is 6-0 default to the team that has 3 players.
- 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 2 players.
-If one team has 3 players and the other team has 4 players, the team that has 4 players can claim or will be awarded by the Tournament Director a 2-0 board default.
-If both teams only field 2 or 3 players, the match will be treated as 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3 match. Captains can agree to these matches if they wish.
-If both captains 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 1 hour 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
With regards to defaults, if your team defaults a match, your team can expect to be removed from the competition.
No new players are allowed to join for Round 10 for teams that wish to play in the play-offs, if this happens the player concerned will have all their matches from this round set as losses if they qualify for the play-offs.
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.
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, 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.
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 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, if not you/the player concerned will be defaulted in losses for all your games across the tournament for the second account that is used.
A team is not eligible to win 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 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, whilst respecting all other tournament rules.
‘B’ teams: In very limited circumstances, a team may be allowed to enter a ‘B’ team. No switching is allowed between ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams and if there are switching it will result in default individual losses as a penalty for the second team they play for. No GM's are allowed to play for 'B' teams. Stronger players should play for the 'A' teams, the Tournament Director will judge if there is any overt 'gaming the system' by placing them in 'B' teams and sanctions may be applied accordingly. You therefore cannot split your team strength across the teams.
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/crash takes place affecting both teams stopping the game. Then, either the teams can agree to a draw or a full replay. If not, the tournament director will adjudicate the score.
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. At the tournament director's discretion, this punishment may also extend to all players who played below that board in that match.
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 please be understanding.
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 immediately 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.Live 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.Live 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 in will be written as default losses.
Chess.com will put players in Chess.com rated order automatically, so if you've just joined chess.com you must play several (3) 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. 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.’ 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 may also be featured on commentary and in reports, please let us know if there are any issues with the latter point. 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