Instructions for the 1st MCA Online Tournament 2020/21
Players
1. Have you adjusted your Lichess account setting?
Login at Lichess, click in the top-right on your Lichess-profile and click on "Profile". Then click on the gearwheel-icon (= edit profile). Go to "Privacy" and change "Let other players challenge you" to "always".
2. Challenging your opponent
If you play white: A list of all players with their linked Lichess-profile is on our website. Simply login at Lichess with your standard browser and then click on the Lichess-link of your opponent. Now click on the "crossed sword icon" at the top-right of his profile, choose Variant "Standard", Time Control "Real Time", Minutes per side = 60 and Increment in seconds = 30 and select "Rated". As you are playing with white, click on the "White King Icon". Now wait for your opponent.
If you play black: You opponent challenges you. You will see the number "1" (in white on a red background at the "Two crossed swords" icon at the top-left the Lichess-window. Click on this icon and accept the challenge by clicking on the green tick.
Now the game starts.
Remarks: Choose always "Rated". because "Casual" will turn off the Lichess Anti-Cheating measures.
For additional information on how to use Lichess, please visit: Guide to Playing Matches on Lichess, provided by the 4NCL.
3.1. Possible Problems
Playing white: You challenge your opponent, but he does not respond. There can be several reasons: if your opponent in not online on Lichess.org, wait until he is online. If he does not turn up for 30 minutes, you can claim the game.
Your opponent is online and probably made a mistake, contact your opponent using the communication system provided by Lichess.org and ask him what happened.
Playing black: You are waiting for your opponent, but no challenge appears. There can be several reasons: if your opponent in not online on Lichess.org, wait until he is online. If he does not turn up for 30 minutes, you can claim the game.
Your opponent is online and has probably made a mistake, contact your opponent using the communication system provided by Lichess.org and ask him what happened.
3.2 Lichess Communication Systems
There are two different communication systems on Lichess.org: 
1.) Liches-Chat
Left o the board there is the Lichess-Chat. Everything you post here is visible to everyone watching your game. The text posted here will not be saved and no-one can restore the text. (see image directly on the right)
2.) Inbox
Click on your Lichess name and then on “Inbox”. This leads you to the site where you can send and receive individual messages. The messages will be stored until you delete them.
Click around, the systems explains itself. See image below.
4. Fair Play and Cheating
We all want to play chess and want to have fun. There are no prizes to win. The success of this tournament depends on you all and on your co-operation. I assume that no-one will cheat and no-one will use computer chess programs, books or whatever.
If someone cheats, then he has to live with this shame, his guilty conscience and his moral failures. Shame on him!
Please be aware that Lichess.org applies anti-cheating technology. If you cheat, Lichess will discover this and ban you from the server. You will no longer be allowed to play chess on Lichess.org.
If a player is banned by Liches.org, he can not continue playing in this tournament. The player may contact Lichess.org to convince them to lift the ban. Only after Lichess.org has lifted his ban, he can continue playing.
5. Reporting the result of the game 
After the end of the game, the players of the home team must download the pgn-file of his game and sends it to his team captain.
To get the PGN-file on Lichess, click on “Analysis Board” (see screenshot on the right),
then scroll down (if necessary) and click on „FEN & PGN“ (see screenshot):
Select „Download raw“ and save the file on your computer. Then send it as an attachment to your team captain.
Alternatively you can copy the pgn-file and paste it into your e-mail to your team captain.
If your team captain wants to get your PGN-file by himself, he will tell you.
Example for a PGN-file:
[Event "Rated Classical game"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/z4pDlo9Y"]
[Date "2020.07.27"]
[White "PhilRam"]
[Black "Martin_Blasczyk"]
[Result "0-1"]
[UTCDate "2020.07.27"]
[UTCTime "18:27:58"]
[WhiteElo "1875"]
[BlackElo "1736"]
[WhiteRatingDiff "-27"]
[BlackRatingDiff "+59"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[TimeControl "3600+30"]
[ECO "A45"]
[Opening "Indian Game"]
[Termination "Normal"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Bf4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 O-O 5. Qd2 d6 6. O-O-O Nbd7 7. Bh6 c5 8. Bxg7 Kxg7 9. h4 h5 10. Be2 cxd4 11. Qxd4 Ne5 12. f4 Nc6 13. Qd2 Ng4 14. Rf1 f5 15. exf5 Bxf5 16. Bxg4 Bxg4 17. Nf3 e5 18. g3 Qa5 19. Ng5 Nd4 20. fxe5 dxe5 21. a3 Rad8 22. Qe3 Qc5 23. Kb1 Bf5 24. Rxf5 Rxf5 25. Rd1 Qe7 26. Nce4 Rdf8 27. Nc5 Rf1 28. Nce6+ Nxe6 29. Qxe5+ Kg8 30. Rxf1 Rxf1+ 31. Ka2 Qf6 32. Qxe6+ Qxe6+ 33. Nxe6 Kf7 34. Nd8+ Ke7 35. Nxb7 Rf3 36. b4 Rxg3 37. c4 Rg4 38. c5 Rxh4 39. Kb3 Kd7 40. b5 Rf4 41. c6+ Kc7 42. Nc5 Rf3+ 43. Kb4 h4 44. a4 h3 45. Ne6+ Kc8 46. Ng5 Rf4+ 47. Ka5 h2 48. b6 axb6+ 0-1
The tournament controllers need the PGN-files for proof of the result and for publishing the games online on our website in the CLM.
6. Disconnection from the Internet
An internet connection can be disrupted or interrupted. This can happen if the internet connection is too slow, or if the Lichess-Server crashes.
A green dot in front of a Lichess username indicates that the player is online and connected. If this dot turns grey, the player is no longer online on Lichess.org.
If you are disconnected from the Lichess-Server, you should keep the Lichess-window open and try to re-establish the connection. Reload the page. If you have been logged out, login once again, click on “1 game in play”, click in the displayed board and continue your game.
If your internet connection is interrupted, re-establish it, go to Lichess.org, login and continue your game.
Please be aware that the clock is ticking. If you fail to reconnect quickly you may loose the game on time.
If nothing works and if you are not able to continue your game, please inform your team captain as soon as possible. Provide clear and unambiguous evidence for the problem. The tournament controller will make an appropriate decision to resolve any problems.
Team Captains
1. Squads
Team captains have to submit all requested details of members of their squad to the tournament controllers. The details for every player are:
Full Name, grade/rating, e-mail address, phone or mobile, link to his Lichess-profile (add access rights).
If the details of a player are not complete, he won’t be accepted as a member of the squad and as a consequence he can not play.
A player without an ECF Ref-Number can not play in this tournament. Every player has to be first registered at the ECF as a member of your club. Then he will get an ECF Ref-Number and now he can play in the tournament, assuming that he has a Lichess-profile and so on (see above).
2. Announcing/Nominating the players for the next match
Both team captains have to announce/nominate the players at latest by the Friday before the match. The deadlines are:
round 1: Sunday, 0/11/2020
round 2: Friday, 20/11/2020
round 3: Friday, 04/12/2020
round 4: Friday, 11/12/2020
- Christmas and New Year break -
round 5: Friday, 01/01/2021
round 6: Friday, 15/01/2021
round 7: Friday, 29/01/2021
round 8: Friday, 12/02/2021
round 9: Friday, 26/02/2021
round 10: Friday, 12/03/2021
round 11: Friday, 26/03/2021
round 12: Friday, 09/04/2021
round 13: Friday, 23/04/2021
Descending order: The players must be listed according their rating, i.e, the higher rated player plays on the higher board. There is no exception to this rule. If two players have the same rating, the team captain may choose the order. This order can not be changed during this tournament.
The rating used is that at the start of the competition.
If a team captain fails to announce/nominate the players for the next round, his team has lost the match.
If a team captain violates the order of players (descending order according to the rating), the order of players will be edited fulfilling the rule.
To announce the players simply login to the CLM (see: Submit match results online) and choose the players from the drop-down-list.
Save the entry.
3. Submitting match results online
Every team captain should login to the CLM and submit the match results as usual.
Team Captains shall report the match result at latest by Saturday midday after the end of the round.
4. Sending the PGN-files to the tournament controllers
Team captains shall send PGN-files to the tournament controllers at latest by Sunday after the end of the round.
Before sending the PGN-files we ask you to do some changes.
| Edit the header | with: |
| [Event "Rated Classical game"] [Site "https://lichess.org/z4pDlo9Y"] [Date "2020.07.27"] [White "PhilRam"] [Black "Martin_Blasczyk"] [Result "0-1"] [UTCDate "2020.07.27"] [UTCTime "18:27:58"] [WhiteElo "1875"] [BlackElo "1736"] [WhiteRatingDiff "-27"] [BlackRatingDiff "+59"] [Variant "Standard"] [TimeControl "3600+30"] [ECO "A45"] [Opening "Indian Game"] [Termination "Normal"] |
[Event "MCA Online Tournament 2020/21"] [Site "https://lichess.org/z4pDlo9Y"] [Date "2020.07.27"] [Round " "] [Board " "] [White "Ramsey, Phil"] [Black "Blasczyk, Martin"] [WhiteTeam "Aigburth 2"] [BlackTeam "Atticus 1"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1875"] [BlackElo "1736"] [TimeControl "3600+30"] [ECO "A45"] [Opening "Indian Game"] |
Changes to be made:
- replace [Event "Rated Classical game"] with [Event "MCA Online Tournament 2020/21"]
- add [Round " "] and enter the number of the round here. Example: [Round "3"]
- add [Board " "] and enter the number of the board here. Example: [Board "3"]
- [White "PhilRam"]: replace the Lichess-profile with the name of the players in the same format as they are published on the MCA website.
Example: [White "PhilRam"] changes to [White "Ramsey, Phil"]
- [Black "Martin_Blasczyk"]: replace the Lichess-profile with the name of the players in the same format as they are published on the MCA website.
Example: [Black "Martin_Blasczyk"] changes to [Black "Blasczyk, Martin"]
- add [WhiteTeam " "] and enter the name of the team; example: [WhiteTeam "Aigburth 2"]
- add [BlackTeam " "] and enter the name of the team, example: [BlackTeam "Atticus 1"]
- delete [UTCDate "2020.07.27"] and [UTCTime "18:27:58"]
- delete [WhiteRatingDiff "-27"], [BlackRatingDiff "+59"], [Variant "Standard"] and [Termination "Normal"]
That’s it.
Consent
All players and all team captains agree that their name, rating and link to their Lichess-profile are published on the MCA website in the public area.
All players and all team captains agree that their e-mail address and phone or mobile number are published in an internal part of the MCA website, only accessible by team captains and tournament controllers of this tournament.
Anyone who opposed to this can not play in this tournament.
FAQs
1. What happens in the event of a dispute?
The tournament controller will make an appropriate decision to resolve any problems.
2. How many teams can we register for this tournament?
You can register as many teams as you like. Please make sure that each of your squads has enough players.
3. What if a club has more than one team? Can players be exchanged between squads?
A player can only play for one team and can only be a member of one squad. If a player has played at least one game for a team, then he is bound to this team.
If a player has not played a game for a team, then the club is allowed to withdraw him from one squad and assign him to another squad.
4. How to get a Liches.org account?
Go to https://lichess.org/signup, enter a username, password and your e-mail, agree to all four points listed, and click on "Register". You will get a welcome e-mail. Then click in the top-right on your Lichess-profile and click on "Profile". Click on the gearwheel-icon (= edit profile). Go to "Privacy" and change "Let other players challenge you" to "always".
5. Is it possible to add a player to a squad during the tournament?
Yes, if the player has not played for another team and if the player fulfils the requested requirements (see above): Full Name, grade/rating, e-mail address, phone or mobile, link to his Lichess-profile, agreement to the tournament regulations and he has to have at least the of status of an ECF supporter.
Both tournament controllers have to be informed immediately about new players.
6. What is Buchholz ranking or scoring system?
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchholz_system
The method is to give each player a raw score of one point for each win and a half point for each draw. When used as an alternate scoring system, each player's Buchholz score is calculated by adding the raw scores of each of the opponents he played and multiplying this total by the player's raw score (Hooper & Whyld 1992). When used for tie-breaking among players with the same raw score, no multiplying is necessary and the sum of the raw scores of the opponents played is used to break ties (Golombek 1977). When used as a tie-break system, it is equivalent to the Solkoff system.
7. What is Sonnborn-Berger ranking or scoring system?
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonneborn%E2%80%93Berger_score
The Sonneborn–Berger score (or the Neustadtl score) is computed by summing the conventional score of each defeated opponent, and half the conventional score of each drawn opponent.
8. Can a non-ECF-Member have a rating?
Yes. ECF Membership is not a requirement for a published rating.
9. Is there a fee for ECF rating/grading?
The answer is (13/10/2020): we don’t know. We contacted the ECF officers but till now (13/10/2020) we haven’t got a definitive answer.
As soon as we know the answer, we will inform eyery player. If there is a fee, everyone may pay it then by himself.
Thank you for your understanding.
10. Any other question?
Please e-mail