Lichess Ladders

Frequently Asked Questions

How should I arrange times with my opponent?

Please use your challenges page to communicate with your opponent

How do I submit a game result?

There's no need to submit results: they should be pick them up automatically.

What happens if somebody doesn't respond to my request for a challenge?

You can either withdraw the challenge, or request a forfeit once the deadline to organise a game passes

What happens if somebody doesn't turn up for the game?

You have 24 hours to request a forfeit. Your opponent then has 24 hours to dispute the forfeit. If they don't, then you will be awarded the win. If they do, the mods will get involved.

What are valid reasons for disputing a forfeit?

See section 18 of the rules

Why can't I dispute a forfeit just because I overslept, or was a little late for the game?

Because it's unfair on your opponent, who has set aside time for the game. You should treat a ladders game as seriously as an OTB one: if you weren't feeling well, or overslept, or forgot then it's unfortunate, but you didn't turn up and your opponenet did.

I feel bad about claiming a forfeit. Do I have to?

No. If you feel that your opponent had a valid reason for not turning up, then you can choose not to claim the forfeit. But please remember that if you don't claim the forfeit, then your opponent won't get a strike, and may do the same thing again to another player. The penalty for first strike is pretty mild - a few days enforced break - so don't feel bad about claiming a forfeit. Furthermore, forfeits and strikes are the best way of removing people who are not serious from the ladders.

What should I do if somebody schedules a game without checking with me first?

Get in touch with them and explain. You can reschedule the game at any point

I've just finished a game, but have been immediately challenged. I thought there was a cooling off period?

The cooling off periods are one way. If you've just finished a game in which you were the challenger, you can still be challenged immediately, but you can't challenge anybody else until the cooling off period is over. Similarly, if you have just been challenged, you cannot be challenged again during your cooling off period

If I belong to more than one ladder, can I have an open challenge for each ladder, or one overall?

You can have an open challenge for each ladder. So if you have a game scheduled on the 30+30 ladder, you can still challenge somebody on the 60+30.

Can I take a break from a single ladder, or does it need to be from all ladders?

You can take breaks from ladders individually.

Why can't I challenge anybody?

You can only challenge people one, two, three or four spaces above you in the ladder (more if it is a large ladder). If they are all already involved in active challenges, then you will need to wait for one of them to become available.

Why do I need to have 12 hours of Lichess playing time before I join?

This site is aimed at people who have shown a fair level of commitment to playing chess. We feel this is a high enough hurdle to discourage cheaters

Why do you let people with provisional classical ratings join?

As long as people have shown a serious commitment to chess (see above), we would like to encourage them to play longer time controls even if their previous experience is in rapid. blitz and bullet

But I don't want to be beaten by 1500? players who are actually 2100+ in rapid/blitz

If you're in the bottom half of the ladder, have a non-provisional rating, and are challenged by a player with a lower, provisional rating than yours then you can refuse the challenge. But don't worry about it too much: because of the way Lichess's algorithms work, you won't lose a lot of rating points if you lose to somebody in their first ever classical game.

What is UTC / why do we use it?

Because different regions are in different timezones, and different countries' clocks change at different times, or not at all (eg New York is normally 5 hours behind London, but sometimes it's 4, and sometimes 6), UTC is an unambiguous way of talking about times internationally. There is a good explanation here

I've played my game, but it hasn't been picked up. What do I do?

This is probably because you started late, or at a time that wasn't expected (perhaps because of confusion around UTC/timezones). You can submit the game manually from your challenges page.

How long should I set aside for games?

As a rule of thumb, leave aside 2 hours for 30+30 games and 3 hours for 60+30

How does the tournament / teams work?

See the tournament and team rules here

Do you have merch?

No, but you can download the logo in various formats here - feel free to make your own merch, and post in the discord channel to let us know what you've done

How can I help spread the word?

Here are some ideas:

Who do I contact if something isn't working?

Please post any questions / bugs in the discord channel.
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