International Schools Online Chess League

Autumn Season
6:00 – 8:00 PM 29th October
6:00 – 8:00 PM 26th November
6:00 – 8:00 PM 17th December

Spring Season
6:00 – 8:00 PM 25th March
6:00 – 8:00 PM 29th April
6:00 – 8:00 PM 27th May

After school time (2 hours), 6:00 – 8:00 pm

FORMAT
All the tournaments will be held online via the platform lichess.org on the dates and at the times listed above in the schedule section. Each tournament will last 2 hours.

Games will be played according to the FIDE Rules of Chess and the lichess arena format pairings, with all the participants playing in the same group. The number of games depends on the pace of playing and it will vary for each participant.

A win has a base score of 2 points, a draw 1 point, and a loss is worth no points. If you win two games consecutively you will start a double point streak, represented by a flame icon. The following games will continue to be worth double points until you fail to win a game.

The time control for each game is 10 minutes for all the moves, with 5 seconds increment per move for each of the two players. One game will last a maximum of around 30 minutes. At the beginning of the tournament, players are paired based on their rating.
As soon as you finish a game, return to the tournament lobby: you will then be paired with a player close to your ranking. This ensures minimum wait time, however you may not face all other players in the tournament.
Play fast and return to the lobby to play more games and win more points.

Each tournament is a team competition with team standings based on the individual performance of each player on the team. Points scored by 4 players of each team are added up to a total team score.

In the event that two or more teams finish in a tournament with the same score, tie break score will be automatically determined by the lichess.org platform.

The organizer reserves the right to adjust the tournaments’ format based on the actual number of teams participating.

TEAMS
Each team will be formed from the top 4 players in the final standings of each tournament. Players must be currently enrolled students in 2021/22 academic year.

Schools are encouraged to nominate a captain for their team to facilitate participation and timely communication. The captain should be an adult delegate from the school or a parent of one of the students who is also the school’s contact person for ISOCL.

There is no minimum requirement for girls or boys on the team, but it’s recommended to make teams as balanced as possible.

SCA takes fair play in competition seriously and we actively monitor tournament games for any signs of unfair advantage – or cheating. SCA Chess Academy would like to inform all previous and future players who attend our online tournaments that all played games during the online tournaments are being monitored both by lichess.org and SCA Chess Academy. If any suspicious game is spotted that player’s account will be closed immediately and he or she will be banned from our online tournaments. Let’s play fair games and show good sportsmanship to each other!