2019 Qualifier Rules
Team Formation:
- Sign up for the 2019 PRO Chess League Qualifier here
- The qualifier will be held on November 3rd and will begin at 8 AM Pacific Time.
- 8 teams will qualify from this event into the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- To join you will create a team centered around one city.
- Each team is made up of four players, 3 of whom must be "local" players and one who can be a "free agent". You are not required to use a free agent, and can instead use all four local players.
- A free agent is a player from anywhere in the world
- A local player is a player who is from the same region as your team. In all countries except for the United States of America, China, Russia and India, a local player will be someone who either lives in the same country as your team, or has lived there at some point for a continuous period of three full years.
- If your team is from The United States of America, China, Russia or India, your country is broken into sub-regions, which can be found at the end of this article. The location of your sub-region determines which players are considered local for your team. *
- If your team qualifies for the PRO Chess League, anyone who played on your team is required to play on your team during the 2019 PRO Chess League Season, and cannot play for any other team. If your team does NOT qualify, everyone who played for your team in the qualifier is free for play on any team they wish.
How to get into the Qualifier:
- We will NOT be accepting all teams who apply into the qualifier event. We expect to limit the Qualifier field to somewhere between 20 and 30 teams. How can you assure that your team will be one of the teams chosen?
1. Your team should have strong and exciting players playing in the qualifier
2. Your team should be adept at using social media to promote your team. You should make social media accounts as soon as possible, and letting us know so that we can see you are serious about engaging with fans.
3. Show that your players or managers will stream coverage of your games and matches on twitch.tv
4. Use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to promote your team, in that order of importance.
5. Use the Chess.com Blog feature to promote your team.
The teams that successfully do all of the above, are most likely to be invited into the Qualifier event.
Team Ratings:
- The September 2018 Rating List will be used to determine ratings for the Qualifier. These ratings will ALSO be used for the 2019 PRO Chess League Season
- The minimum rating per team is 2400
- The maximum average rating must be under 2500 (2499.75 is legal, 2500.00 is not)
- Teams can potentially have a higher rating than 2500 as follows:
1. There are bonuses available for players above 2700 (their rating only counts as 2700 towards the average rating). This is to encourage more top players to participate in the league
2. There are bonuses available to female players (their rating = rating-100). Therefore a 2500 rated female would count as 2400 towards the average. This is to encourage more females to participate in the league.
3. Keep in mind however that anyone rated under 2000, will be considered as rated 2000 towards the team's average rating. So an 1800 is treated as a 2000 rated player. A woman rated 2050, is treated as a 2000 rated player (and not a 1950 rated player).
Event Format:
- The format of the event will be determined based on how many teams are accepted to play. It will likely be either one or two round robin events with a time control of 3 minutes base time and 2 second increment. We expect it to last for 3 to 4 hours.
- All four team players must play in the event. Their total scores will be tallied at the end of the event, and that will be your team's final score
- We reserve the right to make changes to the event format, with advance notice, depending on the number of teams that enter. (if either many more or many fewer enter than expected).
Qualification to the PRO Chess League:
- To be determined once we have finalized the field of teams that will compete in the Qualifier. Eight teams from the qualifier will earn a spot in the 2019 PRO Chess League Season.
* Regions:
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)
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
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
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
