1. DIVISIONS
League Competitions for Member Clubs shall be held in Divisions as follows. There shall be a First Division for teams of 12 a side and other Divisions for teams of 10 a side except that the number of boards played per match in divisions five and below shall be eight a side. The First Division shall consist of 12 teams and the other Divisions except the lowest two shall consist of 11 teams.
Subject to the approval of the Annual General Meeting, Member Clubs may enter one or more teams in the Divisional Championships and may have more than one team in the same Division. Where a member club has more than one team in the same Division any matches between such teams shall be played before playing any matches against teams from other clubs.
In the lowest Division a Member Club shall be allowed two teams. The match between the two teams shall be the first match of the season for both.
In every Division each team shall play one match with each other team therein, except that in the lowest two Divisions this may be varied.
In the Minor Division (formed in September 2007) the following rules will apply:-
(a) Teams will consist of four players. All players must be graded under 120 of whom no more than two may be graded in the range 110-119. Ungraded players must be approved by the League Secretary before they shall be permitted to play in this Division.
(b) Players can play in other divisions of the League and in the Minor Division without restriction other than as provided in (a) above.
(c) There will be no promotion or demotion to other divisions of the League.
(d) The Minor Division will be open to sponsorship.
2. PREMISES
All matches shall be played on premises approved by the Committee.
3. FEES AND RENT
(a) All games played in the London Chess League are subject to payment of the ECF's Game Fee Scheme charges.
(b) Entrance fees for the various Divisions shall be determined from time to time by the League in General Meeting.
(c) The League shall charge a rent for the use of League Premises at a fixed sum for each match arranged to be played there. The amount of this rent shall be determined from time to time by the Committee.
4. MATCH POINTS AND RANKING
A won match shall count one point to the winning team, and a drawn match shall count half a point to each team.
In each Division the trophy (if any) shall be held by the club of the team securing the highest number of points. When two or more teams tie for any place, the game score shall decide ranking. When two teams in contention for promotion, relegation or a Divisional title are equal both in match points and game score, a further match shall be played between them to decide the issue, and if this is drawn then board count shall operate.
5. PROMOTION AND RELEGATION
(a) The top two teams in the Second Division shall be promoted to the First Division, the top two in the Third Division to the Second Division, and so on. The bottom two teams in the First Division shall be relegated to the Second Division, the bottom two teams in the Second Division to the Third Division, and so on.
(b) Relegation is obligatory, except that when a team is withdrawn from any Division other than the lowest the resulting vacancy shall be filled by reducing the number of relegations from the Division concerned and from lower Divisions.
(c) Promotion is obligatory.
(d) If, after the operation of sections (a) to (c) above, a vacancy still occurs, then it shall be filled by promotion.
(e) If, after the operation of sections (a) to (d) above, any other team requests relegation, then this may be granted at the discretion of the Annual General Meeting, and the vacancy shall be filled by promotion.
(f) Notwithstanding (a) to (e) above, if the number of teams in the second lowest Division is reduced, then the Annual General Meeting shall decide the composition of the lowest two Divisions.
6. PLAYERS
(a) A player, having played for one Member Club in the Divisional Championships, shall not be eligible to play for any other Member Club in the Divisional Championships in the same season.
(b) The Honorary Secretary must receive from each Member Club, on or before 30th September, of that season, a complete list of all its playing members. New playing members joining subsequently must be registered in writing with the Honorary Secretary and shall not be eligible to play until at least seven days after such registration has been forwarded. Any new playing member joining after December 31st shall not be eligible to play unless and until permission has been obtained from the Honorary Secretary.
(c) Each Member Club entering more than one team shall forward to the Honorary Secretary, at the same time as forwarding the list mentioned in (b) above, lists of available playing members
for each team but the lowest, in descending order of the current assessment of their playing strength, with the strongest players in the first team, the next strongest in the second team, and so on. For each team in the First Division 12 nominations shall be required and for each team in all other divisions 10 nominations shall be required.
The Committee shall be entitled to cancel or decline any nomination and require a substitute. The substitute shall not, as a result of the substitution, be regarded as having been ineligible for any game played before the substitution.
A player who was nominated by the Club in the previous season, but who did not play at least one game, shall only be accepted as an addition to the list of nominated players required above.
(d) A nominated player shall not be eligible to play for any team below that for which he has been nominated.
(e) In any one season a player shall no longer play in a team after 5 appearances in a higher team or teams.
(f) Unless the Committee shall rule otherwise, each breach of any part of Article 6 shall involve the deduction of one half point from the score of matches of the offending team. The penalty for fielding an ineligible player shall in addition be the loss of the game concerned; the match score shall show “ineligible player”. However, the game will still count for grading on the basis of the actual result of the game.
(g) Unless the Committee shall rule otherwise, a player who infringes rule 6(a) above shall be suspended from all League activities for the remainder of that season.
7. CANCELLATION OF REGISTRATION
Should a Member Club report any playing member in writing to the Honorary Secretary for not having paid his subscription to that Club, the Committee shall be empowered to cancel after due investigation the registration of the aforesaid playing member with any other Member Club. No Member Club shall play such a playing member after the receipt of notification of cancellation of registration.
8. RULES OF PLAY
The Rules of Play shall be drawn up by the Committee, who shall manage the competition and settle all disputes and questions arising therein.
9. AMENDMENTS
No amendment to the Rules of the League Competition shall be made except by the passing of a resolution by a General Meeting.
The text of any proposed amendment to the Rules of the League Competition shall be specified in (or with) the notice convening the General Meeting at which the amendment is to be considered, but the Chairman of that meeting shall be at liberty to accept at the meeting modifications which are consistent with the general intent of the original proposal.
Effective from September 2007