Sportsmanship:
The main purpose of the ICCL is to provide a friendly atmosphere for intercollegiate chess competition. Please respect this both when scheduling matches and playing them and adhere to the standards of good sportsmanship. Most of all, make sure both you and your opponents have fun and maybe learn something about chess!

Honor code:
By participating in any ICCL event, each person agrees to the ICCL Honor Code. This states that each player shall honestly and truthfully adhere to all ICCL rules of competition. Captains are responsible for making sure each player understands this. Violations of the Honor Code will be dealt with seriously.

Captains contact:
All captains are expected to contact each other by email as soon as possible to schedule a day and time for the match between their respective schools. When suggesting times of day, do not forget to include the time zone you are referring to! Also, note that daylights savings begins the last weekend of March in most parts of North America.

Recommended Schedule:
Every season, ICCL will recommend certain days and times to play each round of the league season. Teams are encouraged, although not required, to play their matches at these times. Captains are responsible to determine what convenient times are for their teams.

Other match times:
ICCL recognizes that many schools will be unavailable at one or more of these recommended dates. Of particular concern is Spring Break, which is one week sometime in March for most schools. The captains are responsible to determine a time to play that is convenient for both teams. This communication should take place at least a week before the scheduled time of the round. A rescheduled match may take place at any time before April 11, although teams are encouraged to play each match within a week of the scheduled dates. Historically, popular match times are daytimes on weekends and some weeknights. Some teams may wish to schedule multiple matches on the same day, but should plan approximately 90 minutes for each match. Teams are urged to be flexible in scheduling match times in accordance with good sportsmanship.

Reporting match schedule:
Each captain is responsible for notifying the tournament directors (Gregory Alexander and Sara Elizabeth Hamilton) by email of their match schedule. Ideally, each team would be able to schedule all matches as soon as possible. Teams are required to schedule each round before the recommended dates that are given.

Teams which fail to notify the tournament director of their match schedule and/or fail to contact their opponents prior to the recommended dates are subject to forfeiture for that round.

Team rosters:
Teams are required to maintain a complete team roster. In particular, this means that all players must have registered accounts on either instantchess.com, or as a backup, FICS.
Any roster changes or updates must be submitted by email to the tournament director at least 24 hours before a match. All teams are strongly encouraged to register their players well in advance of any round in which they may play.

Match lineups:
The lineup each team has for each match should be consistent with the current information on the team roster. Board order must be preserved. If a higher ranked player does not play in a given round, all lower ranked players move up one board, with alternates filling in on lower boards as needed. If a team has only four players present for a match, that team will forfeit board five. No team may play with only 2 players. Sample team lineups are: 1-2-3-4 or 1-3-a1-a3 or 2-3-a1-forfeit. An invalid lineup is 1-a1-3-4 (a stands for alternate).

Team roster order changes:
Teams are allowed to submit board order changes, within reason, throughout the league season. Such changes must be made at least 24 hours before any match. The intent of this rule is to allow teams to switch the order of players whose comparative strength has changed. Also, teams may add players, as long as they do not significantly increase the average rating of the team. Interpretation of this rule is at the discretion of the tournament director.

"B" Team players:
Any member of a school's "B" team may move up to the "A" team if the "A" team needs players.

Using FICS:
If both colleges do not have access to instantchess.com, ICCL matches will be held on the Free Internet Chess Server (telnet freechess.org, port 5000). If FICS is used, players are responsible for knowing basic commands of the server. Each team is encouraged to download a graphical interface to play with (timeseal is included in all major interfaces). For more information about FICS, please visit http://www.chem.vt.edu/chess/fics.html and http://www.freechess.org.

In the unlikely event of a server outage during a scheduled match, please establish email contact with the other captain. Teams may wish to postpone the match or play on the European server, EICS (telnet europe.freechess.org, port 5000).

Beginning of matches:
ICCL matches should begin on time! This means the time that the captains agreed to. Each team should meet and get ready for the match (i.e., set up the instantchess account, or download the FICS interface and log in) before this time. The ICCL recommends that all players arrive at least 15 minutes before the scheduled match time. Teams that are chronically late will be warned and/or sanctioned at the discretion of the co-executives; this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Act of God:
It may occur that a team has a legitimate excuse for being late for a match or being entirely unable to play. Sample reasons include natural disasters, illness of multiple players, and internet outages (or extreme lag). Finding the computer labs closed is not a valid excuse; check the room schedule beforehand. Please communicate with the opposing captain and the tournament director as soon as possible if you encounter a problem. The goal of the ICCL is to play as many matches as possible, so flexibility is allowed in the case of an Act of God.

College Chess Channel on FICS:
FICS Channel 96 is the college chess channel and all players should '+ch 96'. Feel free to use this channel to communicate with other teams and college chess players. Announce matches that are beginning and final results in this channel, too.

Colors:
Matches should be played with the colors listed on the schedule. A team that is white has the white pieces on boards 1 and 3 and the black pieces on boards 2 and 4. The opposite is true for a team that is black.

Playing:
To play, you must be open to match requests ('set open 1' FICS) and you may not play any private games ('set private 0'). If you have a formula, you are responsible for ensuring that match requests get through. To match your opponent, issue the command 'match <opponent> <time> <inc> <color>'. For example, if "fpawn" is to be white versus "bam" in a league match, "fpawn" would type 'match bam 30 10 white'.

Match results:
At the end of the match, it is the responsibility of both team captains to report the result to the tournament director. Captains are also strongly encouraged to post match summaries on the ICCL mailing list (make them interesting, but be fair to your opponents).

No Assistance Allowed:
No player shall receive assistance of any kind during a game. Assistance includes, but is not limited to: human interaction (both online and in-person), computer chess programs, computer databases, and hardcopy books. This is also a FICS server rule and violators are subject to
FICS as well as ICCL sanctions.

Takebacks:
Takebacks may be granted for mouse-slips or typos during ICCL events at the discretion of the opponent. Any player may refuse to grant a takeback, even for an obvious mouse-slip.

Flagging:
Players may, but are not required to, flag their opponent when they have run out of time ('set autoflag 1'), even in the event of lag to obtain timeseal to compensate for internet lag). Similarly, players may, but are not required to, add time to their opponent's clock using the moretime command in the event of lag.

Kibitzing:
There shall be absolutely no kibitzing or whispering during
ICCL games. This avoids the scenario of a player accidentally seeing a comment about his game on the screen of the person sitting at the computer next to him.

Help:
For help related to the ICCL, the following options are available:

• email the director
• check out the finger and var of the ICCL account on FICS
• ask in channel 96 on FICS, the college chess channel
• ask in channel 1 on FICS, the help channel

Good luck!