Shropshire Online Rapidplay League Rules
As agreed at the SCA AGM 10/12/20. Amended to include Part One as agreed at SCA AGM 24/7/23
PART ONE
This competition will be governed in accordance with the competition rules of the Shropshire Chess Association – available
here.
PART TWO
1. All games must be played online. Arenas will be hosted on the Lichess Platform.
2. All games must be played according to the laws of chess as published in ‘
The Official Laws of Chess‘ updated by FIDE on 1 January 2018.
3. It is the responsibility of the League Controller to decide which and how many teams shall play in each arena, how many arenas are held and to publish a fixture list before the start of each season,
DISCONNECTS
4. If a player disconnects during an arena, that player should attempt to reconnect as soon as possible. If that player is unable to reconnect they will lose that match and be unable to score further points for their team on that night.
If the lichess server restarts mid-arena or there is a global connection outage, the arena positions at the end of the night will still stand.
TEAMS
5. Division 1 and 2 teams must nominate 4 players with the league controller at the start of the season.
A player registered before the start of the season must be one of the nominated players where;
– that player played fewer than 4 games in the Shropshire league in the previous season and;
– that player resides outside the county.
A player registered after the start of the season must play a minimum of 2 arenas where;
– that player played fewer than 4 games in the Shropshire league in the previous season and;
– that player resides outside the county.
If there are fewer than 2 arenas remaining in the season a player cannot be registered where;
– that player played fewer than 4 games in the Shropshire league in the previous season and;
– that player resides outside the county.
Players nominated to a higher team cannot play for a lower team.
Nominated players must play for their team in at least two arenas in a season. If this proves impossible on account of unforeseen circumstances (e.g. illness), the League Controller has discretion to accept an alternative nominated player for the remainder of the season. Normally, the alternative nominated player will be expected to play for the balance of games not played by the original nominated player. Any appearances of the new nominated player for a lower team prior to acceptance by the League Controller shall be disregarded.
6. If a nominated player plays for a lower team then all results achieved by that player for the lower team will be forfeit and that team shall be penalised one arena point for each affected arena night.
7. A member of a club may only be nominated for one team for that club. If a player is a member of more than one club, he/she may only play for one club within a division. If a team in the second or third division uses a player who normally plays for another Shropshire club in a higher division during that season, then it is permitted only on condition that the player has a current July ECF standard grade of below 1710 for Div 2 and below 1560 for Div 3.
8. If an ungraded player has had a grade in the previous 5 years then that grade is to be used provisionally. Where a player has a previous “3-digit” grade in the previous 5 years that grade should be converted to 4-digit using the formula (7.5 * three-digit-grade + 700). If a player has no previous grade then that player has the maximum flexibility subject to the League Controller’s approval.
9. A reserve may be drawn from a lower team, as follows:
– any players regardless of whether they are nominated or tied to one team may be used as reserves for a higher team as follows (rules 9a to 9e). Players who are not nominated to a team may also play for a lower team.
a) Players graded below 1710 can play for any of their club’s teams in Division 1 without restriction, providing that the lower team, for which the player normally appears, and the higher team for which the player wishes to appear as a reserve, are not both in Division 1, in which case the restriction in sub-paragraph d will apply.
b) Players graded below 1600 can play up into any of their club’s teams in Divisions 1 and 2 without restriction, providing that the lower team, for which the player normally appears, and the higher team for which the player wishes to appear as a reserve, are not both in the same Division, in which case the restriction in sub-paragraph d will apply.
c) Players graded below 1450 can play up into any of their club’s teams in Division 1 and 2 without restriction.
d) If a player plays for a higher team, then (unless sub-paragraphs a, b or c apply) he / she becomes a member of that senior team for the remainder of the season. Where a reserve wins by default the result will count as an appearance for the senior team.
e) If this rule is breached all results achieved by that player for the lower team after the first appearance for the higher team will be forfeit and that team shall be penalised one arena point for each affected arena night.
ARENA DETAILS
10. Arenas will start at 7.30 pm.
11. Each arena will last 2 hours.
12. The time control for games in division 1 shall be all moves in 3 minutes plus a 2 second increment. Time control for games in division 2 and 3 shall be all moves in 5 minutes plus a 3 second increment.
13. All arenas will follow the format as determined by Lichess. Berserk mode and win streaks will be disabled:
https://lichess.org/tournament/help?system=arena
14. Although teams can be of any size, only the scores of your top 5 players will count towards the team score.
15. All games will be ungraded.
LEAGUE TABLE
16. The team placing last in an arena will score 1 arena point. The team placing second-to-last will score 2 arena points and so on. Any team not entering any players in an arena will score 0 arena points.
17. Arena points will be added up over the season and the team with the most arena points at the end of the season will be declared the league winner.
18. At the end of the season the top 2 teams in the lower divisions will be promoted, and the bottom 2 teams in the higher divisions will be relegated, subject to the provisions of rule 3.
FAIR-PLAY RULES
19. If lichess bans a player for cheaRng then all matches played by that player throughout the season will be scored as a loss. This may result in arena points being recalculated. That player will be banned from the league for the rest of the season. If a successful appeal is made to lichess that players’ results will be reinstated. This decision can also be appealed to the Shropshire appeals commiOee.