USTCL Rules and Regulations
Length of Season: 1 year, starting in July.
Format: Round-robin. Number of rounds per division (see your division-specific forum threads below)
Division 1 - 10 teams, 9 rounds
Division 2 - 10 teams, 9 rounds
Division 3 - 8 teams, 9 rounds (last two TBA)
Division 4 - 8 teams, 9 rounds (last two TBA)
Division 5 - 8 teams, 9 rounds (last two TBA)
League Standings: Standings will be posted on the 2025-2026 Season Page. Only matches that have been clinched will be shown as a result in the standings.
Prizes: Trophies for places 1 thru 3. Trophies will be awarded by January 1st of the following year.
Player Eligibility: A player can only play for one team in this league throughout a season regardless of division. Once they play for a team, they must stay with that team throughout the season. USTCL admins will post notifications of multi-team players in e division thread a few days before the match is due to start.
Promotion/Relegation: The top two teams in each division (except Division 1) on June 30th will be promoted to the next higher division. The bottom two teams in each division (except Division 4) will be relegated to the next lower division.
Unfinished Matches: If a match result has not been determined by the season end date, but it is necessary that the match conclude in order to determine the divisional composition for the following season, then the remaining incomplete games within that match will be decided using chess.com's analysis tool. If a player is leading by a score of 2.0 or more, they will be determined to have won that game. If the difference is less than 2.0, the game will be determined to be a draw.
Tiebreakers: The first tiebreaker will be head-to-head results. The second tiebreaker will be the Sonneborn-Berger score. Uncompleted games will not be scored for the purposes of the second tiebreaker.
Score Adjustments: Match scores will be finalized after taking into consideration the account closures of members due to cheating or abuse, and also after applying penalties for multi-team players (see rule 6). This will occur prior to announcing the final standings.
Forfeits: There are two types of forfeits that may be awarded:
Challenge Forfeits: In order to claim a forfeit win due to no acceptance of a challenge, please post a note to the league forum thread that a challenge has been issued, and include a link to the active challenge. Challenges expire around 7-8 days after being issued. If a challenge expires, it shall be the responsibility of the team who did not accept the original challenge to send a new challenge, or a forfeit win will be awarded to the issuer of the original challenge. If match registration has not started at least 72 hours before the scheduled start time, a forfeit win will be awarded to the challenging team.
If no note has been posted, the result will be a double forfeit, and will count as a 0-0.Minimum Board Forfeits: In order to claim a forfeit win due to lack of boards, teams must have clear evidence that a team did not meet the minimum boards at the match's intended start time. If a match has started late, the team claiming a forfeit must have visual evidence (e.g. a screenshot) that shows that they met the minimum on time. Past matches do not count as visual evidence for this purpose. If no such evidence is available, the must must be played as a normal match. Teams are encouraged to make sure Auto-Start is set to No when setting up challenges to make adjudicating these forfeits easier.
Communications: Team admins should not communicate directly with non-admin members of the opposing team. Please work directly with the opposing team admins and/or USTCL admins through private messages to avoid public conflict and confusion. Please see Team Admin best practices for additional details.