Tie-break points are determined by the total score of the school team, not only
the top 4 players.

Yes, all participants are playing in one group.

No, all participants are playing in one group.

Yes. It’s not a knock-out competition, and you will be paired with another
opponent shortly after your game is finished.

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.

Yes, you can still play with less than 4 players.

There is no limit to how many students may enter the tournament.

Only students from the same school and campus can be on the same team. Each school campus will have their own team.

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. One captain can be shared by all the teams within the same school.
It doesn’t require school members of staff on those Fridays to be present

The captain can register all the players together by providing a name list to the organizer, or can request students to register individually via the registration link.

Schools can form their own teams and provide the organizer with a list of players, or students can register individually and they will be assigned to their school team based on registration.
If you would like to request help with selecting a school team, please contact us by schools@scachess.com

Yes, new students can join any time during the season, but they cannot represent different school team within the same season.

Yes, new school teams can join any qualifier tournament during the season.

LiChess accounts will be created for each participant by the organizer upon registration. No need to have an account in advance, in fact, only the accounts created by the organizer can be used in the tournament.

There is no such requirement, they could have their first games on the platform during the tournament. However, it is recommended to play some practice games to get familiar with the platform.

You should try to reconnect as fast as possible. It’s usually between 30 seconds to 3 minutes before the game auto-resigns. If you lost a game due to disconnection, you can still play the next game as long as you reconnect before the next round begins.

Yes. It’s not a knock-out competition, and you will be paired with another
opponent shortly after your game is finished.

LiChess platform uses sophisticated anti-cheat software to detect violations of fair play rules. SCA Coaches also spot check games to see if there are any abnormalities or red flags otherwise.
The organizer may request a Zoom call during the tournament if there is any suspicion of foul play.

Arena streak is a feature in the arena type tournaments. It means that when a player wins consecutive games (more than 2 in a row), then they get extra points for a ‘streak’. However, we disabled this feature, so everyone will get 2 points for a victory and 1 point for a draw regardless of streaks.

When a player clicks the Berserk button at the beginning of the game, they lose half of their clock time, but the win is worth one extra tournament point.
This option is disabled in ISOCL tournaments.

All players are paired automatically by a system to the closest available opponent by their score (similar strength). As soon as they finish a game, they will be paired again.

In Arena tournaments, breaks between rounds are very short and players are paired with another opponent shortly after finishing their game. However, it’s possible to pause the games on demand and take a short break.

Yes, new players can join anytime within the tournament’s time.