NACCL Format

Season Format

• Each Season is 6 weeks long with 3 games played each week - see schedule.
• All games played on chess.com - the world’s largest chess website.
• Pairings will be posted to this website and you will be linked directly to your game with one click! (just like it has been in previous seasons)
• The "time control" is 10 minutes with a 2-second increment (bonus) per move.
• This is a blended "individual/team" competition, not team vs team.
• Players are paired in an open section where rating, points scored, and team are considered. Players from the same company will not play each other.
• Minimum players per team: 4
• The standard team entry fee includes 15 spots on a team.
• Companies may open up an additional 7 spots on the team (total 22) for an additional half entry fee, or 15 spots (total 30) for an additional entry fee.
• There is an absolute maximum of 30 players per team.
• Companies may enroll multiple teams (Company A, Company B) if there are more than 30 players interested.
• The NACCL will require the top 10 boards to join a Zoom meeting to ensure fair play for the remaining rounds. They may join with a single camera.
• 12 half-point byes permitted at any weeks, but players must play at least 1 game during the whole season. Forfeited loss does not count as playing 1 game. Players will be removed if they do not play any single games up until week-6.
• Team Scores are calculated by combining the top 4 scorers from the same company. Tiebreakers are scores of #5 player, #6 player, #7 player, #8 player in their orders, and then sum of individual tiebreakers of top 4 players.
• This is NEW! Chess.com now has a double-forfeit result. If White does not make the first move and Black is not online either (connected to the board), the result is 0F (a double forfeit). It used to be 0-1F. Now it is 0-0F (or 0F). If Black connects to the board for even one second, the result is 0-1F. If the result is 0-0F, neither White nor Black will be paired in the next round. If Black sees that they lost by forfeit while they were online, they need to go to the help desk to notify us.

Knockout

• The top 8 teams in the 6 week season will qualify to a 1-day knockout. The winner of the knockout will be the NACCL season champion.
• The knockout will be team vs team (5 boards vs 5 boards), where 1-4 boards are the main boards, 5th board is the tiebreaker and they start at the same time.
• Teams may choose any 5 players from the first 6 weeks to represent their team in the knockout as long as they played at least 12/18 games. We will coordinate with final 8 team captains to let them submit the rosters. A game counts if you win (W), lose (L), draw (D), or receive a full-point bye (B). A win by forfeit also counts as a game. However, a loss by forfeit does not count. A half-point bye does not count as a game.
• Board order will be determined by rating.
• Board 5 is the tiebreaker. Black will have less time and draw odds.
• The knockout will be streamed on Chess.com’s main Twitch channel.
• For details and the knockout bracket, visit this page.

League Rules

• Players who show up late may have their clock started at the set round times (8:00pm, 8:30pm, 9:00pm Eastern) or may be forfeited.
• Players who forfeit a game or fail to withdraw by 7:45pm will not receive any points for that week and will be removed from the rest of the night's game unless they inform us that they will play subsequent games.
• Players from the same team (company) will not be paired against each other.
• Similarly ranked players will be paired against each other based on ratings and standings.
• Byes are given to players who are unable to play certain games.
• The Final 8 (knockout) event does not affect individual standings or team standings below 8th place. However, it will impact team standings for positions #1–#8, including any top category placements within those teams.

League Prizes

Weekly Lessons

• During the season, there is a free weekly lecture with prominent and notable chess players and personalities.
• See season lecture schedule here.