When you join a ladder, you start at the bottom of the ladder
You may normally challenge anyone who is:
One, two, three or four places above you in the ladder
If the ladder has 50 or more active participants, this range is increased to 10% of the number of active participants
Has not currently made, or received, a challenge
Is not currently taking a break
The one exception to this is your the first challenge you make, when you can challenge anybody above you who is available
You can only challenge one person per ladder at a time
By default you can only be challenged by one person per ladder at a time. You can changed this to two people from the ladder page.
If you have been challenged, you can still challenge somebody else
If you have an open challenge (either as a challenger or defender), you cannot be challenged, unless you have set the option to allow a second challenge
If you are challenged to a game, you must reply via the challenges page within 36 hours or you will automatically forfeit the game
If you are challenged to a game, you have 3 days* to schedule a time to play (*2 for the fast moving ladder)
You must accept challenges, unless:
You are in the bottom half of the ladder
and your rating is not provisional
and your challenger’s rating is provisional
and your challenger’s rating is lower than yours
In these limited circumstances, you may cancel the challenge with no penalty
You can only join a ladder if you have played at least 12 hours of lichess under any time control (not just classical)
You must play the game within 14 days* of being challenged (*7 for the fast moving ladder)
All games should be played rated
All communication between you and your opponent should be carried out via your challenges page, unless otherwise agreed Since players are in various timezones, please use UTC for all discussions of times
Once you have agreed a time to play, you must post it on your challenges page If a game is not arranged or played, or if the game is not started within 15 minutes of the scheduled start time, then:
You have 24 hours to claim a forfeit
Your opponent then has 24 hours dispute the forfeit
If the forfeit is disputed, an arbiter will make a decision
If a forfeit is decided against you, then you will lose the game and accumulate a strike
If no forfeit is claimed then the game is annulled
You can only dispute a forfeit if the forfeit was made in bad faith / is factually wrong
If you dispute a forfeit, you must email admin@lichessladders.com with the reason for the dispute within 4 hours
If you repeatedly leave games, you will have a strike given against you
Strikes:On the first strike, you will get a warning and be placed on a break for 7 days
On the second strike, you will be moved to the bottom of all ladders and placed on a break for 7 days
On the third strike, you will be banned from the site
Strikes are shared across ladders
Strikes expire after 6 weeks
If, despite both players' both efforts, you cannot arrange a game within 3 days of the challenge, the challenger can cancel the challenge
The challenger plays white
If the lower-ranked player wins, they take the higher-ranked player's spot, and the higher-ranked player moves down one spot
If the higher-ranked player wins, nothing changes
In the case of a draw, the lower ranked player takes the position under the higher-ranked player
You can take a break from a ladder at any point, but you cannot rejoin until at least 7 days have passed
If you are on a break, you will drop one place for every 10 days you are on a break. This is cumulative - if you take a break for 7 days, come back for a day, then take a break you will lose a place after 3 days. If you've been available continuously for 21 days then the counter resets: you can take a 9 day break, come back for 21 days, and take another 9 day break without any penalty.
If you take a break, you still need to play any games that are currently scheduled
If you have been on a break for more than 12 weeks you will be removed from the ladder
After you have played a game, there is a 8 hour cooling down period. If you have just made a challenge, you cannot make another one during the cool down. If you have defended a challenge, nobody else can challenge you. This is so both players have time to challenge and be challenged.
Once you've played a game with somebody, one of you has to play somebody else before you can play the same person again