ChessWorld.net - Team Play FAQs

Related links: General FAQ | Ratings FAQ

Confused about how teams work at ChessWorld? Please feel free to ask other questions by messaging kingscrusher and help this FAQ grow to be more useful :-)

General FAQs

1. What are teams?
2. Why play in a team?
3. How does a team captain decide board order?
4. How can a team captain effectively promote a team to get seven players?
5. How does a team captain change board order?
6. Are there substitution possibilities if a team member stops playing for whatever reason?
7. What are the different board orders?
8.Can I join more than one team?
9.How can I leave a team?
10.When does a league division start?
11.Can we play before the league division starts?
12.Are there plans for more than 5 teams per division?
13.What if I want a big team - more than 7 players?

Q) What are teams?

A) Although Chess is a two player game, it can still be great fun to play as part of a team. The idea stems from the Webmasters experience playing for a number of chess clubs in real life. Chess clubs in real life often play in leagues which allow the chess club to play home and away matches against other clubs.

Q) Why play in a team?
A) There is much camaraderie with team play. There is a team forum for discussing general team stuff.

Q) How does a team captain decide board order?

A) Generally the highest rated player should be playing board one. The next strongest player on board 2, etc. If a player is too busy, they can be marked by the captain as 0. When anyone else apart from the team captain then views the team homepage, they will see "Reserve" by that player.

Q) How does a team captain effectively promote a team to get seven players?

A) There are a number of ways of promoting a team including:-

1) Specific targeting of players: Doing Opponents..Interest search. Putting keywords which are related to the team theme. Once a list of players is brought up who mentioned the same interests, going to their homepage and using the "Invite this player to a team" link on their homepage.

2) Using the Promotion link on the team homepage. This will send an automatic forum post to the forum showing the teams name, philosphy, and the link to the team homepage.

3) Requesting that the League promoter does a promotion message to the forums. They have an automated and easy link to do this on the League homepage. This will send an automated message to the forum, showing all teams that are needing players for the next league division.

4) Messaging your opponents or people on your friends list to join your team. Or using the Invite this player to a team link on their homepage.

5) Making someone else team captain if you no longer have time to do the promotion things above!

Q) How does a captain change board order?

A) The team captain can only change board order before a league division is created. When the captain sees their team homepage, there are a number of blank boxes to the left of each player on the team. The captain should insert the board number that he wishes that player to have. Then the captain needs to press the Adjust board order button which is underneath.

Q) Are there substitution possibilities if a team member stops playing for whatever reason?

A) Yes, the team captain can substitute a player who is no longer playing or wants to stop. They can do this by going to the team homepage and putting a "-" in the box for the player to be removed, and a "+" sign for the player to be substituted on.

Q) What are the different board orders?

A) The primary board order is the league division board order. This is the board order which will be used to pair teams together when the next league division is created. For example, say your team is called "The Smurfs" and there is another team called "The Gremlins". If the team captains assigns Player called "Papa Smurf" on Board 1, and the Gremlins have a player called "Gremus the Gremlin" on board 1, then these two players will be playing each other when the league division is started. Board 2's will play board 2's. Board 3's against Board 3's, etc.

For individual team challenges, there are also the team challenge order and the team accept order. These two board orders are for individual friendly matches with other teams. If a captain wishes to privately challenge another team, they can do this by setting the team challenge board order. Then they can go to the team homepage of the team they wish to challenge, and use the challenge link. When an individual team challenge is received, the team captain needs to set the challenge accept order. The system will pair the two teams according to the team challenge and accept orders. For example, if a team challenge was issued for 1-7, but the team challenged can only provide 6 players 1-6, then the system will just match 1-6.

Q) Can I join more than one team?

A) Yes, as long as the teams are in different leagues.

Q) How can I leave a team?

A) If the team is already playing, then you should ask your captain to substitute you. Otherwise if the team is waiting for the next division, you can simply use the Request to leave team link which is on the team homepage.

Q) When does a league division start?

A) When there are five teams with seven players each AND the team captains have assigned the board orders 1-7 to their team players. Then the league promoter or someone in the league can inform a system administrator such as Kingscrusher to pair the next team league. Or the system administrator will just do this on the next monitoring for teams ready to be paired against each other. (This is due for automation to reduce lag time).

Q.Can we play matches before the league division starts?

A) Yes you can issue individual team challenges. Your team captain needs to set your individual team challenge board order. Then they can go to another teams homepage and use the Friendly team challenge option.

Q) Are there plans for more than 5 teams per division?

A) Yes, the underlying system code is due for parameterisation. This is on the to-do list. There will be facilities to create league divisions with more than 5 teams of 7 in due course. And more or less than 7 players. The basic defaults at the moment are teams of 7 players, and divisions of 5 teams.

Q) What if I want a big team - more than 7 players?

A) You can challenge other huge teams to a match with the Individual team challenge match facility. Your captain would assign the individual team challenge board order 1..n where n is the number of players. Again 0 represents a reserve player. Then the captain needs to go to another team homepage and use the Friendly team challenge option. There is also a dedicated league in the ChessWorld.net Leagues category called the "Huge teams" league which encourages large teams to play each other in individual matches.