MINNESOTA HIGH SCHOOL CHESS LEAGUE RULES Revised 10/31/17
The Minnesota Online High School Chess League is an organization in which teams from around the state compete online in team matches; it is intended to promote both competition and learning in chess among high schoolers.
1. Players on teams. Teams will consist of four players. Each team will consist of players who play on Boards 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each team’s Board 1 will play the opposing Board 1, each Board 2 will play a Board 2, and so on.
2. Teams from schools. If a school has enough players, it may elect to have more than one team participate in the league. The school must designate its teams “A”, “B”, “C”, etc., from the strongest to the weakest teams. If a coach instead intends to create teams of approximately equal strength, these must be labeled “A1”, “A2”, etc., or something similar. The Director will try to prevent teams from the same school from playing each other but this will not be guaranteed.
3. Board order. Players must play in rating order from Board 1 to Board 4. Unrated players may play on any board. Exceptions to the rule of rating order can be made if there is a reasonable justification presented to the Director. For example, if a player is provisionally or otherwise inaccurately rated, this player can be moved to a different spot in the lineup. Or, if players are similarly rated and the coach wishes to switch their order at the beginning of the season, this is permitted; however, once the board order has been set, the board order must remain constant throughout the season.
4. Substitutions during the regular season. The Director realizes that there are ways in which players can be switched between teams from the same school to gain an improper competitive advantage; however, the Director also realizes that substitutions between teams must be allowed to prevent teams from forfeiting games. The following rule is designed to bridge the gap between these two issues. After a coach has submitted regular season core lineups to the Director (see rule 15), players who have been listed as core players for team A may not play for any other team. Players who have been listed as core players for teams lower than A may be placed on the higher teams, but only if a member of the higher team is absent from the match. Player who have been listed as alternates may substitute for any team, but only if the core players they are replacing are absent from the match. If other disputes arise regarding teams gaining improper competitive advantages, the Director should be contacted and the disputes will be investigated.
5. Substitutions during the playoffs. To ensure that teams from the same school do not gain improper competitive advantages during the playoffs, substitutions of core players from team to team are not allowed during the playoffs. However, if an initial core player has indicated that he or she is unavailable to play during at least one playoff match, the coach has the option to designate a different core player in place of the unavailable one. Alternates (players not marked as core players in any team) may still substitute on any team during the playoffs.
6. Match scores. If a team’s four players score at least 2.5 points, that team wins the match and receives one match point and game points equivalent to their point score. If a team’s four players score 2 points, that team ties the match and receives half a match point and two game points. In case of a double forfeit on one or two boards, the scoring rule above still applies.
7. The season. The season will consist of seven regular-season matches and three playoff matches.
8. The regular season. The seven regular-season matches will be paired by the Swiss pairing system, using match points as the metric for pairing. A team’s average rating (see rule 15) will be used throughout the season for pairing purposes.
9. Tiebreakers in the regular season. Teams’ standings in the regular season will use the following set of tiebreakers for the purpose of seeding during the playoffs. The first tiebreaker is match points, the second is game points, the third is Sonneborn-Berger score with each opponent’s season match point score multiplied by the individual match score (as used in the Olympiad 2016), the fourth is modified median, and the fifth is Solkoff. If teams are still tied, an Armageddon blitz playoff will be arranged to determine seeding.
10. The playoffs. The top eight teams by points and tiebreaker will qualify for the “premier playoffs”. In the premier playoffs, a no-elimination knockout format will be used. The first round will be identical to a standard knockout tournament, i.e. #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, etc. The second round will pair the winners of the 1-8 and 4-5 matches as well as the winners of the 2-7 and 3-6 matches against each other, but it will also pair the losers of 1-8 and 4-5 and the losers of 2-7 and 3-6. In the third round, teams that won their first two playoff matches will play for 1st and 2nd places, teams that won then lost will play for 3rd and 4th, teams that lost then won will play for 5th and 6th, and teams that lost both will play for 7th and 8th. Teams below 8th place from the regular season will also play a no-elimination playoff with the format to be determined based on the number of teams competing.
11. Tiebreaking playoff matches. In the case of a 2-2 tie in the playoffs, the higher-seeded team will advance.
12. Time controls. The time control for regular-season and playoff games will be game in 30 minutes with a 3 second increment.
13. Schedule. The schedule will be as below. Matches will be scheduled to start at 3:30pm.
Regular Season
Round 1: November 3, 2017
Round 2: November 17
Round 3: December 1
Round 4: December 15
Round 5: January 5, 2018
Round 6: January 19
Round 7: February 2
Playoffs
Quarterfinals: February 16
Semifinals: March 2
Finals: March 16
14. Cost. The cost to enter the league will be $20 for the first team from a school, $10 for each additional team. This money will cover the cost of trophies and medals as well as the cost of food at a party to be held after the conclusion of the league.
15. Submission of teams to Director. School coaches are required to notify the league Director by email of how many teams they will enter by Wednesday, November 1. Coaches should provide a list of four core players for each team who they believe will generally be the players playing for that team. These four players’ average rating will be used throughout the season as that team’s rating, absent unexpected circumstances. If coaches wish to add teams after the first match, they can add teams before the second or third match; these teams must be submitted by the Wednesday before the match. These additional teams will be given half-point byes for the missed round(s) (see rule 19).
16. Submission of lineup to Director. School coaches are required to provide a list of players who will be playing each match to the Director by email by each Thursday before the Friday match at 5:00pm. Last-minute changes until 12:00pm on Friday to these lineups are permitted if an emergency prevents a player from attending a match, but a continued pattern of these last-minute changes may result in the Director disallowing the change and instead choose to forfeit the player(s). Pairings will be published and sent out by the Director on Friday morning.
17. Match venue. Matches will be played on the website lichess.org. Each player must create an account with their school name and last name; the format will be “Schoolname-Lastname”; e.g. “Blake-Wahl”. School names may be abbreviated to allow for more space for last names. Players should also join a lichess team that will soon be created. Players should NOT play games outside of the league using their lichess account. League games should be unrated (“casual”). All of these restrictions are put in place to help players and coaches find correct accounts, and the ban on outside games is to help the Director to verify results.
18. Forfeits. If games are not started by 3:45pm, or if players play the wrong opponents, forfeits may be administered at the discretion of the Director. Such infractions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. If a player does not show up when he or she is scheduled to play, the remaining players must be moved up boards to fill higher-board holes and to forfeit only the last board.
19. Half-point byes. Teams may request up to two team half-point byes for any regular-season rounds. These byes must be requested two match dates in advance. These byes will apply to the whole team; the team will receive half a match point and two game points for each bye.
20. Rescheduling. Teams may request up to one match rescheduling in the playoffs. Rescheduling may involve either individual players or the whole team. Rescheduling must be requested two match dates in advance. The Director will work with both teams to find a date and time that works for both parties, but preference will be given to the opponent of the team who requested the rescheduling.
21. Player eligibility. Players are only eligible to play for schools which they are eligible to play for in USCF team tournaments. In special cases, when a school is unable to regularly field four players, home-schooled players or players from middle or elementary schools who live in the correct school district are allowed to play for the team.
22. Alternates. If players are present and wish to play, but all teams from their school are full, they are designated as alternates. The coach should submit their names along with their team rosters and the Director will attempt to pair them for the round against other alternates.
23. Awards. There will be trophies given to the top three teams and to the best scoring player on each of Board 1, 2, 3, and 4. (A player is counted as having played on the lowest board they ever played on.) There will also be an award for the best scoring player who at least once played as an alternate. (Players who have played as alternates are not eligible for board prizes.)
24. Fair play. This league is just for fun and it is expected that no players will attempt to cheat. However, coaches must carefully monitor students to ensure that there is no communication with chess engines or other students while games are going on. Students should not watch other students’ ongoing games, but if they do, coaches must make sure that no communication, including facial expressions and noises, occurs. Penalties for cheating may include suspensions of players, forfeiture of games, and in egregious cases, banning of teams.
25. Uncontrollable circumstances. So-called “mouse-slips”, when a player moves a piece to an unintended square, will universally stand. No take backs are allowed. Internet and computer problems are the responsibility of the player, coach, and school to resolve, and no matches involving Internet or computer problems will be replayed.
26. Application of rules. All players in all League games agree to be bound by these rules.
27. Other disputes. All disputes not covered here will be submitted to and reviewed by the Director, who reserves all rights to act equitably and in the best interest of the League.
The Minnesota Online High School Chess League is an organization in which teams from around the state compete online in team matches; it is intended to promote both competition and learning in chess among high schoolers.
1. Players on teams. Teams will consist of four players. Each team will consist of players who play on Boards 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each team’s Board 1 will play the opposing Board 1, each Board 2 will play a Board 2, and so on.
2. Teams from schools. If a school has enough players, it may elect to have more than one team participate in the league. The school must designate its teams “A”, “B”, “C”, etc., from the strongest to the weakest teams. If a coach instead intends to create teams of approximately equal strength, these must be labeled “A1”, “A2”, etc., or something similar. The Director will try to prevent teams from the same school from playing each other but this will not be guaranteed.
3. Board order. Players must play in rating order from Board 1 to Board 4. Unrated players may play on any board. Exceptions to the rule of rating order can be made if there is a reasonable justification presented to the Director. For example, if a player is provisionally or otherwise inaccurately rated, this player can be moved to a different spot in the lineup. Or, if players are similarly rated and the coach wishes to switch their order at the beginning of the season, this is permitted; however, once the board order has been set, the board order must remain constant throughout the season.
4. Substitutions during the regular season. The Director realizes that there are ways in which players can be switched between teams from the same school to gain an improper competitive advantage; however, the Director also realizes that substitutions between teams must be allowed to prevent teams from forfeiting games. The following rule is designed to bridge the gap between these two issues. After a coach has submitted regular season core lineups to the Director (see rule 15), players who have been listed as core players for team A may not play for any other team. Players who have been listed as core players for teams lower than A may be placed on the higher teams, but only if a member of the higher team is absent from the match. Player who have been listed as alternates may substitute for any team, but only if the core players they are replacing are absent from the match. If other disputes arise regarding teams gaining improper competitive advantages, the Director should be contacted and the disputes will be investigated.
5. Substitutions during the playoffs. To ensure that teams from the same school do not gain improper competitive advantages during the playoffs, substitutions of core players from team to team are not allowed during the playoffs. However, if an initial core player has indicated that he or she is unavailable to play during at least one playoff match, the coach has the option to designate a different core player in place of the unavailable one. Alternates (players not marked as core players in any team) may still substitute on any team during the playoffs.
6. Match scores. If a team’s four players score at least 2.5 points, that team wins the match and receives one match point and game points equivalent to their point score. If a team’s four players score 2 points, that team ties the match and receives half a match point and two game points. In case of a double forfeit on one or two boards, the scoring rule above still applies.
7. The season. The season will consist of seven regular-season matches and three playoff matches.
8. The regular season. The seven regular-season matches will be paired by the Swiss pairing system, using match points as the metric for pairing. A team’s average rating (see rule 15) will be used throughout the season for pairing purposes.
9. Tiebreakers in the regular season. Teams’ standings in the regular season will use the following set of tiebreakers for the purpose of seeding during the playoffs. The first tiebreaker is match points, the second is game points, the third is Sonneborn-Berger score with each opponent’s season match point score multiplied by the individual match score (as used in the Olympiad 2016), the fourth is modified median, and the fifth is Solkoff. If teams are still tied, an Armageddon blitz playoff will be arranged to determine seeding.
10. The playoffs. The top eight teams by points and tiebreaker will qualify for the “premier playoffs”. In the premier playoffs, a no-elimination knockout format will be used. The first round will be identical to a standard knockout tournament, i.e. #1 vs #8, #2 vs #7, etc. The second round will pair the winners of the 1-8 and 4-5 matches as well as the winners of the 2-7 and 3-6 matches against each other, but it will also pair the losers of 1-8 and 4-5 and the losers of 2-7 and 3-6. In the third round, teams that won their first two playoff matches will play for 1st and 2nd places, teams that won then lost will play for 3rd and 4th, teams that lost then won will play for 5th and 6th, and teams that lost both will play for 7th and 8th. Teams below 8th place from the regular season will also play a no-elimination playoff with the format to be determined based on the number of teams competing.
11. Tiebreaking playoff matches. In the case of a 2-2 tie in the playoffs, the higher-seeded team will advance.
12. Time controls. The time control for regular-season and playoff games will be game in 30 minutes with a 3 second increment.
13. Schedule. The schedule will be as below. Matches will be scheduled to start at 3:30pm.
Regular Season
Round 1: November 3, 2017
Round 2: November 17
Round 3: December 1
Round 4: December 15
Round 5: January 5, 2018
Round 6: January 19
Round 7: February 2
Playoffs
Quarterfinals: February 16
Semifinals: March 2
Finals: March 16
14. Cost. The cost to enter the league will be $20 for the first team from a school, $10 for each additional team. This money will cover the cost of trophies and medals as well as the cost of food at a party to be held after the conclusion of the league.
15. Submission of teams to Director. School coaches are required to notify the league Director by email of how many teams they will enter by Wednesday, November 1. Coaches should provide a list of four core players for each team who they believe will generally be the players playing for that team. These four players’ average rating will be used throughout the season as that team’s rating, absent unexpected circumstances. If coaches wish to add teams after the first match, they can add teams before the second or third match; these teams must be submitted by the Wednesday before the match. These additional teams will be given half-point byes for the missed round(s) (see rule 19).
16. Submission of lineup to Director. School coaches are required to provide a list of players who will be playing each match to the Director by email by each Thursday before the Friday match at 5:00pm. Last-minute changes until 12:00pm on Friday to these lineups are permitted if an emergency prevents a player from attending a match, but a continued pattern of these last-minute changes may result in the Director disallowing the change and instead choose to forfeit the player(s). Pairings will be published and sent out by the Director on Friday morning.
17. Match venue. Matches will be played on the website lichess.org. Each player must create an account with their school name and last name; the format will be “Schoolname-Lastname”; e.g. “Blake-Wahl”. School names may be abbreviated to allow for more space for last names. Players should also join a lichess team that will soon be created. Players should NOT play games outside of the league using their lichess account. League games should be unrated (“casual”). All of these restrictions are put in place to help players and coaches find correct accounts, and the ban on outside games is to help the Director to verify results.
18. Forfeits. If games are not started by 3:45pm, or if players play the wrong opponents, forfeits may be administered at the discretion of the Director. Such infractions will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. If a player does not show up when he or she is scheduled to play, the remaining players must be moved up boards to fill higher-board holes and to forfeit only the last board.
19. Half-point byes. Teams may request up to two team half-point byes for any regular-season rounds. These byes must be requested two match dates in advance. These byes will apply to the whole team; the team will receive half a match point and two game points for each bye.
20. Rescheduling. Teams may request up to one match rescheduling in the playoffs. Rescheduling may involve either individual players or the whole team. Rescheduling must be requested two match dates in advance. The Director will work with both teams to find a date and time that works for both parties, but preference will be given to the opponent of the team who requested the rescheduling.
21. Player eligibility. Players are only eligible to play for schools which they are eligible to play for in USCF team tournaments. In special cases, when a school is unable to regularly field four players, home-schooled players or players from middle or elementary schools who live in the correct school district are allowed to play for the team.
22. Alternates. If players are present and wish to play, but all teams from their school are full, they are designated as alternates. The coach should submit their names along with their team rosters and the Director will attempt to pair them for the round against other alternates.
23. Awards. There will be trophies given to the top three teams and to the best scoring player on each of Board 1, 2, 3, and 4. (A player is counted as having played on the lowest board they ever played on.) There will also be an award for the best scoring player who at least once played as an alternate. (Players who have played as alternates are not eligible for board prizes.)
24. Fair play. This league is just for fun and it is expected that no players will attempt to cheat. However, coaches must carefully monitor students to ensure that there is no communication with chess engines or other students while games are going on. Students should not watch other students’ ongoing games, but if they do, coaches must make sure that no communication, including facial expressions and noises, occurs. Penalties for cheating may include suspensions of players, forfeiture of games, and in egregious cases, banning of teams.
25. Uncontrollable circumstances. So-called “mouse-slips”, when a player moves a piece to an unintended square, will universally stand. No take backs are allowed. Internet and computer problems are the responsibility of the player, coach, and school to resolve, and no matches involving Internet or computer problems will be replayed.
26. Application of rules. All players in all League games agree to be bound by these rules.
27. Other disputes. All disputes not covered here will be submitted to and reviewed by the Director, who reserves all rights to act equitably and in the best interest of the League.