PRO Chess League Rules (Section F updated on 2/3/2019)

A. Eligibility and Team Makeup
A.1. Team rosters

1. A lineup is the four players you are using each match. A roster is the total list of players you have on your team that you can use in an upcoming match.
2. The maximum roster size is 16, and the minimum roster size is 8.
3. Once the season begins you can add any new player to your roster at any time before the playoffs. If your roster is full, but you have a player who has not played a single game, you can replace that player with another. 
4. We require a good explanation for any player rated Under 1900 who is added to your roster. We must believe that you fully intend for these players to play in matches, and you will have to convince us that having them play in matches will be valuable for your team. This is likely to only make sense in the case of teams that have three extremely high rated Boards 1-3.
5. If you add a new player, they must sign the Chess.com release form before they are allowed to play.
6. If a player is on a roster but has not played a single game, they are still eligible to play for ANY team in the league. Once a player has played a single game for a team, they are no longer eligible to compete for any other team during that season.
7. If a player competes for another team in the PRO Chess League Qualifying event for that particular season, and the team they compete for qualifies for the PRO Chess League, that player is committed to play for that team. However if the team the player plays for DOES NOT qualify, that player can play for any team during the PRO Chess League Season. You cannot remove anyone from your roster who competed for your team in the most recent Qualifier event.
8. If a team from the PRO Chess League Qualifiers is named as an alternate to join the league, and ends up being put into the league due to the removal of another team, then anyone who played with them in the qualifier will still have to play with that alternate team, even if they have already been added to a different roster. The only exception to this rule is if this happens with 2 weeks or less to go before the start of that year's PRO Chess League Season, in which case the player in question will be able to choose his or her team, as long as they have yet to play a game during the season. If that player has already played a game for a different team than the alternate team, then that player is committed to stay with the new team.

A.2. Team ratings

1. We will use the most recent September FIDE rating list to determine league ratings for the season. We are using the Standard FIDE rating (not Rapid or Blitz).
2. A team's average rating must be under 2500.00.
3. Players under 2000 FIDE can play in the league, however their rating will always count as at least 2000 towards the team’s average rating.
4. The highest any player will count towards the rating limit is 2700 FIDE (Therefore if your FIDE rating is 2800, when calculating the average rating, it will be considered 2700).
5. Any woman player will have 100 points subtracted from her rating when calculating the team average. Therefore, if you use a player rated 2200, her rating will count as 2100 for team average purposes. This rule is in place solely because it is good for chess and the PRO Chess League to have more women playing, and so we would like to encourage teams to sign women to their rosters to help equalize the male-female ratio in serious chess events.
6. No player can count as less than 2000 towards the team's average rating, including women. Therefore a woman rated 2050 would only count as 2000. A man or woman rated 1950 would also count as 2000. However a woman rated 2101 would count as 2001.
7. If a team has no choice but to add an extra player to the roster (for instance a 17th player), that team will lose a half point in the standings for each additional player to the 16 player maximum.

A.3. Local players, Streamers, and Free Agents
A.3.1 Local players
A local player is someone who meets one of the following requirements:

1. Lives in the team's region.
2. Has lived in the team's region for two continuous full years. (ie Jan 2011-Dec 2012, or June 2014-May 2015). This time cannot be broken up and must have been continuous.
3. It is possible for a player to be considered local in more than one location. 
4. In most cases a region is defined as: "Any player from your team's home country". For example, a team from Paris could use any player in France as a local player. A team from Montreal could use any player from Canada as a local player. The four exceptions to this rule are teams from The United States of America, Russia, China and India.
5. The United States of America, Russia, China and India are broken up into sub regions. In order to qualify as a local player, your player must fit rule 1 or rule 2 for these sub-regions. 

A.3.1.1 United States Regions

Region 1: New York, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey
Region 2: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware
Region 3: Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky
Region 4: Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska
Region 5: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas
Region 6: Northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska
Region 7: Southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii

(This map shows the borders of Northern and Southern California that will be used in the PCL)

A.3.1.2 Russia Regions

Region 1: Central District
Region 2: Volga District
Region 3: North Caucasian and Southern Districts
Region 4: Northwestern District
Region 5: Urals, Siberian and Eastern Districts

A.3.1.3 India Regions

Region 1: Jammu&Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Haryana, Delhi
Region 2: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Dadra&Nagar Haveli
Region 3: Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
Region 4: Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Asom, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Aunachal Pradesh

A.3.1.4. China Regions

Region 1: Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Ningxia
Region 2: Hainan, Guangxi, Guizhou, Chongqing, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi
Region 3: Hubei, Anhul, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu
Region 4: Henan, Shandong, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia

A.3.2. Free Agents

1. There are no restrictions on who can be a Free Agent player, as long as they keep your lineup’s rating below the 2500 average.
2. Any player who is considered a free agent will always remain a free agent, even if they are physically present in your city's location.
3. Only one free agent can play in your lineup at a time while retaining the 2500 rating cap.
4. If a team has no choice but to use more than one Free Agent it will be allowed but it will come with a hit towards your rating cap. If your team needs to use one Free Agent above the allowed amount, your rating cap will be 2475. If you need to use two Free Agents above the allowed amount your cap will be 2450 and if you need to use three Free Agents above the allowed amount your cap will be 2440. In all of the above cases, any rating bonuses for players above 2700, or women, will still be applied.
5. If a player was misclassified as a local player, due to either our mistake or the mistake of a team, when they should have been classified as a Free Agent, and this results in a team submitting an illegal lineup, then this lineup will stand as long as the error was noticed after the lineup submission deadline. However we will then correct this error and ensure that in future weeks all lineups are legal. For players that were submitted shortly before the lineup submission deadline, in which case there was not enough time to audit their local status, we will likely require a new lineup be submitted immediately. If we believe this error was made by a team in order to gain an unfair advantage we may decide to not allow the lineup at all, but if we believe it was an honest mistake or miscommunication, we will let it pass for one week. If you believe that any player is misclassified as local, when they should be a free agent, please just let the Commissioner's Office know. 
6. Any player who has played 40 games for a team as a Free Agent, during any previous or current PRO Chess League Season, will be given the Local Status for that team for any future matches, including the PRO Chess League Season, Playoffs, Qualifiers or any other special events. That means a player's status can change from Free Agent to Local in the middle of a season.

B: League structure
B.1. Divisions

1. The 2019 season of the PRO Chess League will have four 8-team divisions (Eastern, Central, Pacific, Atlantic).
2. The top 4 teams from each division qualify for the playoffs. Tiebreaks for those with the same number of points will be covered in section E.
3. The bottom 2 teams from each division are removed from the league and will need to take part in the qualification process in order to play in league during the following season.

B.2. Schedule

1. The regular season will consist of seven head to head matches within your division. There will also be three round robin matches during the season. The playoffs will then begin and consist of four matches, with your team being eliminated on a single loss.
2. In the Round Robin matches, your team will play one single four game round against seven separate teams. Each match will consist of board 1 vs board 1, board 2 vs board 2 and so on. The time control for these matches will be 10 minutes to start with a 2 second increment.

C: Weekly Lineups
C.1. Makeup

1. Players can play from any location.
2. The average FIDE rating must be under 2500.00 (2499.75 is legal, 2500.00 is illegal)
3. The average FIDE rating of your team must be OVER 2425.00. We also have full discretion to force your team to use Free Agents in order to bring the rating of your lineup up if your lineup is Under 2425 FIDE, although we are not required to do so. 
4. If you wish to retain the 2500 FIDE rating cap, your lineup can consist of 3 Local Players and 1 Free Agent or 4 Local Players and 0 Free Agents. More information on local players can be found above, in section A.3.1. 
5. You must play the four players who begin the match in order of rating. What this means is if you are team A, your highest rated player will be paired as A1. Your second highest rated will be A2. If two players have the same exact rating, you can decide their board order before each match. A possible exception to this rule could occur if you have to make a late substitution.

C.2. Substitutions

1. No mid-match substitutions are allowed. Whoever starts each match must play all of the games in that match.

C.3. Deadlines and penalties

1. The lineups are due by 8pm GMT (3pm ET) on Sunday for matches scheduled in the upcoming week, regardless of what day they are scheduled for. The only exception to the above is when there is a match scheduled on Monday, in which case the lineups are instead due on Saturday. If there are two matches close together, we reserve the right to alter this deadline to give teams a bit of extra time. For the Semi-Finals and Championship Match, we will require more time before the match for the lineups to be submitted.
2. If we feel that we need lineups one day earlier in order to properly promote the matches, we reserve the right to push this deadline up by one day at any time during the season. If we do so, we may also adjust the penalties listed in C5.
3. In order for anyone to play in the league, we must have both their username and email in advance. Also they will have to sign the legal form that will be sent to them before competing in any match. A player put into the lineup who has not signed the form before 8PM GMT on the day before their match, may be forfeited in every game. The league reserves the right to extend this deadline in extreme cases.
4. Teams must use the same lineups for the Semi-Final and Championship Match.
5. If you need to make a change to the lineup at any time 12 hours before the scheduled start time of your match, you will be allowed to do so, but will face a half point penalty in the standings. You will need to directly contact league administrators to make sure this change goes through. Any lineup change will result in players directly replacing the player they are subbing in for, even if this doesnt follow standard PCL lineup rules.
6. If you need to make a change to the lineup less than 12 hours before the start of your match, there will be a one point penalty in the standings. If the change is requested and our staff considers that it’s so close to the start of the game that it will cause delays in the matches, then your team may be forfeited for the first game that you need to change. This will be solely in the discretion of our staff who will have a better understanding of the delays that a last second change will cause. In all of these cases of day of substitutions, boards will not be reordered based on rating, and instead any substitution will be a direct substitution for the player who is being removed.
7. If you need to replace multiple players in your lineup after the deadline, your penalty will be normal for the first player you replace, based on the rules listed above. For the second player you replace the penalty will be 2x the normal penalty. For the third player you replace the penalty will be 3x the normal penalty. Any subsequent replacement will be a further 3x penalty.
8. If your team does not submit your lineup in time, your team will be penalized a half point in the standings, and if we have not received a lineup within 3 hours of the deadline, the penalty will increase to one point.
9. If you have to replace a player any time after the match has been scheduled to begin, your team will face a 2 point penalty in the standings, and we reserve the right to make the first game a forfeit win for the opposing team.
10. League officials have the unilateral right to postpone matches or give exceptions to the team in extreme circumstances. (Natural disasters, medical emergencies etc). Internet connectivity issues, traffic, normal bad weather conditions or standard power outage issues are not included in these exceptions. They must be extremely severe for any consideration to be given.
11. The PRO Chess League is an enormous undertaking and will be extremely difficult to run from our end. Therefore the following rules will be in effect. Your player will be responsible for being logged in to the Chess.com live chess server. Chess.com staff will attempt to start your game (which will only be possible if you are logged in). They will continue trying for 2 minutes past the start of the match. So if the match is set to begin at 12:00, they will continue attempting to start your game until 12:02. Once 12:03 hits, our staff member will make one last attempt to begin the game, and if it fails because you are not logged on, you may be forfeited. If a team's manager is active and engaging with us in ZOOM, we almost certainly will give a few minutes of leeway while we try to figure out what the problem is together. However at any time 3 minutes after the scheduled start team, your player is open to being forfeited if our staff deems it appropriate and we have no contact with your team.
12. In the rare case that both players are not logged when Chess.com staff makes their final attempt to start the games, the game may be declared an automatic draw.

D - Match Format
​D.1. Pairings

1. Each regular match will consist of four players on your team facing off against four players on the opposing team. It will be an all-play-all format: Each player on your team will face each player on the other team.
2. The pairings go as follows: A1 = First board on team A, B3 = third board on team B etc. Team A will be the one that is listed to the left on the pairing table, team B is the one listed to the right. 0:00 refers to the listed start time of your match. 0.40 means 40 minutes after the listed start time of your match, and so on.

• Round 1 (0:00): B4-A1, B3-A2, A3-B2, A4-B1
• Round 2 (0:40): A1-B3, A2-B4, B1-A3, B2-A4
• Round 3 (1:20): B2-A1, B1-A2, A3-B4, A4-B3
• Round 4 (2:00): A1-B1, A2-B2, B3-A3, B4-A4

D.2. Scoring

1. Whichever team wins a match gets ten points in the standings. 8.5 points are required to win a match.
2. Your team receives one point in the standings for every individual game they win in both our regular match formats, and our round robin match formats. A half point is awarded for a draw.
3. In our Round Robin events, there will be two separate scoring systems. Two of the Round Robins will involve interleague play. In these events the number of points your team receives depends on their final placement: 1st place = 24 points, 2nd place = 20 points, 3rd place = 16 points, 4th place = 12 points, 5th place = 9 points, 6th place = 6 points, 7th place = 3 points and 8th place = 0 points
4. In our final week Round Robin, in which only the divisional teams will compete against each other, slightly more points will be awarded: 1st place = 30 points, 2nd place = 25 points, 3rd place = 20 points, 4th place = 16 points, 5th place = 12 points, 6th place = 8 points, 7th place = 4 points and 8th place = 0 points
5. For any tie in the standings, points will be split evenly amongst the tied teams. Also no team will get any score that is anything other than .0 or .5 at the end of the score. If needed to ensure this, we will round up to the nearest .5. What this means is that no team can get a score that looks like 8.33 points for example, and this score would instead be rounded up to 8.5.

D.3. Time controls

1. The time control will be 15 minutes with a 2 second increment for our regular head to head matches.
2. Round 1 will begin at 0:00, round 2 at 0:40 (after the start of the match), round 3 at 1:20, and round 4 at 2:00.
3. If a game is still in progress from the previous round, the next round only begins when all games have completed. If Chess.com staff is unable to start the next round on time, due to a game that lasts too long, every round from the match in question may be pushed past the scheduled starting time.
4. A full match should take about 2.5 hours to complete. The Round Robin matches should take about 3 hours and 20 minutes to complete.

D.4. Miscellaneous

1. Once your team scores 8.5 points your team has won the match but the remaining games of the match will still be played. 
2. Your players can play from home or they can also all play together from a central location.
3. Matches start at the scheduled time, a late player risks forfeiture. Exceptions are at the discretion of the arbiters and could include reasons such as site outages or clerical errors made by Chess.com in starting the matches.
4. If there is a sitewide outage in the middle of a round, any game that had not already concluded will be considered void and restarted. Position on the board or time situation is an irrelevant factor in this case. Note that this is only for a sitewide outage that affects everyone on Chess.com, not outages that only affect your team or a few select players.
5. If there is a sitewide outage on Chess.com, we reserve the right to speed up the time control for all games so that the round will still end at the planned time. The most common change would be moving from a 15 2 time control to a 10 2 time control (or faster).

D.5. Rules for the Round Robin matches

1. The format for these matches is that 8 teams will be placed in a Round Robin together. This single round will be played with the format of Board 1 vs Board 1, Board 2 vs Board 2 and etc.
2. The time control for this match will be 10 minutes with a 2 second increment. The rounds will begin every half hour and we expect the entire event to last for just under 3.5 hours.
3. The total points scored by each team will be calculated. Therefore if you beat a team 3-1, your team would get 3 points for that round. It is not considered whether you get more points than the other team, but instead your precise score in each match is what is calculated.
4. After calculating the total score for each team at the end of seven rounds, the teams with the highest number of points in the tournament, will gain the most points in the standings. Read Rule D.2.4 to see how the point awards per placement are broken down.
5. If there is a tie for a spot, the points are split. For example if first place awards 24 points and second place awards 20 points, and two teams tie for that spot, both of those teams will receive 22 points.
6. Any player that is disconnected when an administrator attempts to start the game, may be forfeit for that individual game. This event will last longer than the typical PRO Chess League Event and therefore we are more likely to forfeit games quickly than in our typical match format.
7. Exact pairings for these matches, especially the event in Week 10, may be decided before the event. We will aim to have the teams that are fighting for playoff contention, or fighting to avoid relegation, paired against each other in the final rounds of the event.

E. Playoffs
E.1. Qualification

1. After all the regular season events have concluded, the top 4 teams from each division qualify for the playoffs.
2. Ties are broken in the following order:
   1. Head to Head Performance during your team's individual weekly match
   2. Head to Head Performance during the WEEK 10 Round Robin match.
   3. A short Twitter fan vote that will last no more than 24 hours.
   4. If the above is tied, an impromptu one round match will be scheduled within the next 24 hours.

E.2. Playoff format

1. Seeding is determined by a team's standing in the division. So the first place team will be seeded #1 while the second place team will be seeded #2 and so on.
2. In the playoffs, team #1 plays team #4 and team #2 plays team #3. The winner of the 1 vs 4 match will play the winner of the 2 vs 3 match.
3. In the Semifinals the matchups will be determined by results in the Round Robin events of Week 4 and 7. The two winners of the Semifinals will then advance to the Championship Match.
4. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, the team with the better record during the Regular Season will play as the “B” team in the PRO Chess League Pairing system listed in section D1. During Championship Weekend, the team with the better record during the Regular Season will play as the "A" team in the PRO Chess League Pairing System.
5. In order for a player to play in the playoffs, they must have played at least one game during the regular season. The one exception to this is that you will be allowed to use exactly ONE player rated Under 2500 per playoff match, if necessary, even if this player hasn't played during the season. This player must have been added to your roster by March 1st. While we are adding this flexibility, we are leaving the Under 2500 rating restriction as we consider it unfair to have a strong GM appear in a team's lineup for the first time, in a playoff match.
6. Your team is required to field a lineup rated above 2450 to play in any playoff match. If you are unable to do so, your team will be replaced at the Commissioner's discretion. The only exception to this is if it's clear from your regular season play, that your particular Sub 2450 rated lineup would be expected to be competitive against the top teams. However if your team typically fielded lineups of 2475 and above throughout the season, we would expect the same in the playoffs.
7. Chess.com will set the starting time for all playoff matches.
8. Any late lineup changes in the Playoffs, defined as late within the same criteria as defined in rule C.3.6, will result in a one-point penalty for your team in the match score.
9. The existence of a live in-person final could result in some changes to the above rules.

E.3. Playoff tiebreakers

1. The team that performed better during the Regular Season advances on an 8-8 tie in all matches until the League Semifinal, at which point tiebreak games will be played on any future 8-8 ties. For clarification, the team with the most points during the 10 matches of the Regular Season, will be given a seed number of 1, the second best team will be given a seed number of 2, and so on down to number 4.
2. The tiebreaker in the Semifinal and later is a elimination match in which Board 4 from one team plays Board 4 from the opposing team. The loser of that game is replaced by Board 3 of their team. This continues until one team eliminates the other team's first board. Both players are eliminated on a draw, with the only exception that if the match between both team's first board is drawn, they continue to play with the colors reversed. The first game will start with opposite colors from the match, and the colors will reverse each game.
3. If a playoff match goes to a tiebreaker, it could delay the start of the following match. We will never begin a new playoff match while a tiebreak is in progress.

F: Anti-cheating policies

1. All teams and their players will be subject to Chess.com's anti-cheating measures.
2. All players in every match should be connected with a Chess.com Fair Play Team representative on Zoom.
3. If a player or team is streaming and their face will be visible on the stream, they do not need to be in the ZOOM meeting room. However it would still be advisable to have a team representative in ZOOM to communicate with league staff.
4. All teams have the right to appeal if something should happen during or in between matches that they believe doesn't fit the spirit of the PRO Chess League Rules, including those cases in which we suspend or ban a player due to the findings of our Fair Play Team. Teams must email the league Commissioner with an official appeal request within 24 hours of the conclusion of the decision they are protesting.
5. No team has the right to appeal when we require a player to use a webcam or have a proctor present, as this is standard procedure for dozens of our league players throughout the season. Any such request must be fulfilled or that player will be unable to play.
6. Any league player may be subject to increased scrutiny for any reason. For instance we may require that they have a league-approved arbiter at the playing site, or we may require the player travel to the home of another player to play from there. A league-approved arbiter does not need to be an official FIDE arbiter, but instead simply someone that the league trusts to ensure fair play. 
7. The league reserves the right to send league approved proctors to monitor games. This is most likely to be used in the postseason.
8. Anyone who has had results that greatly surpass their strength in chess.com or other online tournaments may be required to have an arbiter present. 
9. League standings may be adjusted after the fact in cases where the Chess.com Fair Play Team has determined that someone has cheated. Note that even if your team would have won despite having a player who violates the Chess.com Fair Play Aggreement, we may still reverse the result and give the win to the fair team.
10. In the playoffs, especially the later rounds when the stakes are high, all players may be required to have an approved arbiter present or to play their games in a public space.
11. We reserve the right to increase security league-wide based on our analysis throughout league play.
12. Any concerns with cheating need to be addressed privately to league officials. Public accusations will not be tolerated per Chess.com’s user agreement.
13. We will take as much time as we need to investigate any potential violations of our FairPlay Agreement. This may mean that your team could find out long after the fact that a result has been reversed. While this is inconvenient, it's extremely important that we don't rush to judgement and are completely sure of our conclusions.

G: Miscellaneous

1. If you mouseslip or resign accidentally, the move or results stands. There is no protection against mouseslips in the PRO Chess League.
2. All players should upload a photo to chess.com, and provide a good photo for our website and for promotional materials.
3. There is no protection for players who are experiencing a “bad” connection or inability to join the match, unless it is specifically a server outage on Chess.com
4. All teams are strongly encouraged to test their connections to ensure they are not experiencing frequent interruptions.
5. Any attempt to look for “loopholes” in the rules that are an obvious violation of the spirit of the league, may be disallowed.
6. A match that seems to have been pre-arranged as a draw, may instead be counted as a double forfeit.
7. If there is any clear evidence that a match or game was thrown, the league determines the right to determine an appropriate penalty.
8. If the rare case that a team stops playing its matches before the season ends, we will quickly look for an alternate team to take its spot. This may result in your team facing a tougher or easier match than you had hoped for but your team will not have the right to refuse this alternate opponent.
9. A team manager is allowed to communicate to a team member as to the current score of the match. This should not include predicted scores of games that have not yet concluded
10. It is quite likely that a situation could occur that we have failed to list in the rules. We reserve the right to update these rules as the season continues.