Stan's Associate NetTeam League

Rules, Format and Competition Guidelines

Team Structure

Each team consists of four players.  Each player must have a valid Stan's NetChess ID.  All games will be played on Stan's NetChess.  Players wishing to be on a NetTeam must have their SNC Rating visible.

Each team will have a designated Team Captain.

A team is not allowed to change its players during the middle of a season except under very special circumstances, such as if one of the players is no longer playing chess on Stan's NetChess.  If such an event takes place the team can replace the player with a player of about equal or lesser capabilities.  However, this change will only go in to effect for matches that have not yet been created or games that have not yet had a first move and it is less than two weeks since the game was created.

Each Team will have a Team Name and be assigned to a Division.

The following is an example of a Team:

Division Structure

The league shall consist of a number of Divisions.  The exact number of Divisions will be determined by the number of teams in the NetTeam League.  Each Division will normally have from 6-9 teams.  However, on an exception basis Division's may have as many as 11 teams to accommodate new teams and enter them into the appropriate Division, and as few as 4 teams.  In NetTeam we see a team as the sum of the 4 player's ratings.  All effort is made to ensure than the top team in a division is less than 600 rating points above the lowest team.  This equates to their being less than 150 rating points on average between the players on the top team and the players on the bottom team in a division.

Each division is named after a "dead" great chess player.  We currently expect to have 6 divisions, and have reserved names for 8 as follows, the active ones are "ticked".  [Tal, Smyslov and Euwe will be used if we expand beyond 8 divisions]:

The purpose for these Division names is to allow for expansion and to also try and avoid Division Names that in themselves sound bad, such as division 7. We have named all the divisions after famous Chess Grand Masters -- living or dead.  We would start off using just using a Morphy and Lasker and see how quickly we expand.

In the initial season teams will be placed into Divisions based on their total rating.  At the end of a season the top two teams in a division are sent up to the next higher division and the bottom tn their total rating.  When a division has more than 8 teams it may happen that more than 2 teams are sent down to the next lower division.  It is also possible that we form new divisions to ensure that divisions have between 6-9 teams each season.

Players

A player may only play for one team during a season.  A player always has the right to leave a team to join another team.  However, this can only happen at the end of a season and before the next season starts.  Once a season is started a player is expected to play their games to completion to the best of their abilities.  A player can only be removed from a team for "cause".  the reason for this rule is to avoid "bad blood" as much as possible.  Cause would include forfeiting matches, inappropriate behavior, poor chess etiquette, slow play, etc.  In addition, a team can remove a player if their rating is significantly below the rest of the team.  Significantly below is defined as more than 250 rating points below the average of the other three players.

Competition Format Within a Division

A season consists of each team within a division playing each other team within the division two times.  A "match" between two teams consists of 4 games.  The top two players play each other, the two 2nd best play each other, etc.  For instance, in a division with 8 teams each team would play 7 matches for a total of 56 games [4 games a match, 2 matches between each team].  During the same season each player would play 14 games.  For the purposes of consistency it is assumed that each division has the same number of teams.  A new game will be created every two weeks in the division with the most teams.  Other divisions may have "bye" weeks when a game is not created.  If we assume that an average game lasts 8 weeks, then most players will normally have only 3-4 active games in the tournament.  Each player will play an equal number of games as white and black.

Each win is worth 1 point, a draw is worth 1/2 a point and a loss is zero.  The team with the most points at the end of the season wins.  Should the season end in a tie the tie-break will be in the head to head competition between the top teams.  If it is still tied the championship will be awarded to the team with the most wins.  If after the 2nd tie break the score is still tied then the teams are co-champions.

A season is expected to last 6 months.  This means games must be completed within 26 weeks.  We expect players to play at a rate of 5 moves each per week, or 20 moves a month.  If this pace is too fast for you then please do enter the tournament. There will be 2 seasons in a year.

Awards