Rapid league rules built around weekly competitive rhythm.

1. League overview

Lega Inter Mezzo is an online rapid chess league for ordinary competitive players. The aim is to create a weekly league rhythm: players register, are assessed, placed into a division, receive fixtures, play eligible Chess.com rapid games during the fixture window, and appear in public results and standings once results have been locked.

2. Eligibility

A player must register with a valid email address, a Chess.com username and agreement to the eligibility and fair-play conditions. IMSC uses public Chess.com information to assess account status, account age, recent activity, rapid rating data and recent eligible rapid games.

Automatic assessment groups

• Upper-division eligible: eligible for Lega Oro, Lega Argento or Lega Bronzo placement.
• Lega Verde eligible: eligible for the main league pathway but not upper-division seeding.
• Accademia recommended: suitable for the entry/stability pool before moving into the main league pathway.
• Manual review required: account data is missing, unclear, problematic or requires admin decision.
• Rejected: player is not accepted into the league by admin decision.

Meeting an automatic check does not remove IMSC’s right to perform manual review where integrity, identity, fair-play or account status concerns exist.

3. Divisions and placement

The initial league structure uses five divisions. Lega Oro, Lega Argento and Lega Bronzo are capped at 20 players each for the standard structure. Lega Verde and Accademia Inter Mezzo are unlimited entry pools for players outside the capped upper divisions.

For Season 1, upper-division eligible players are seeded by Chess.com joined date, oldest first. The first 20 go to Lega Oro, the next 20 to Lega Argento, the next 20 to Lega Bronzo, and remaining upper-division eligible players enter Lega Verde.

4. Fixture windows

Each season contains 10 fixture rounds. Fixture windows are set in UTC. The normal window rule is:

Games outside the fixture window do not count for that round. If a fixture window is missing or invalid, results should not be calculated until the season settings are corrected and fixtures are regenerated.

5. Counted games

A player’s score for a fixture is calculated from the first 5 eligible Chess.com rapid games played inside that fixture window. Later games in the same window do not count for that fixture.

Eligible games

• Chess.com games only.
• Rated games only.
• Rapid time class only.
• Standard chess rules only.
• Played inside the fixture window.
• One of the accepted time controls listed below.

Non-eligible games

• Unrated games.
• Blitz, bullet, daily or other non-rapid games.
• Bot games.
• Variants or non-standard chess games.
• Games using non-approved time controls.
• Games outside the fixture window.

6. Scoring

Each counted Chess.com game contributes to the player’s fixture score. A win scores 1 point, a draw scores 0.5 points, and a loss scores 0 points.

Missing-game penalty

The league expects 5 counted games per fixture window. Each missing game applies a 0.25 point penalty to the player’s fixture score. Scores can therefore fall below zero if a player does not play enough eligible games.

Fixture winner

The player with the higher fixture score wins the fixture. Equal fixture scores produce a draw.

7. Results and standings

Results are calculated as draft results first. Admin can review draft results, apply an override where necessary, then lock the result. Public results and public standings show locked results only.

League table points

• Fixture win: 3 league points.
• Fixture draw: 1 league point.
• Fixture loss: 0 league points.

Tie-break order

1. Fixture points.
2. Score difference.
3. Score for.
4. Games completed.
5. Fewer non-completion penalties.
6. Placement seed / Chess.com username.

Public standings are not a live Chess.com table. They are a league table generated from locked IMSC fixture results.

8. Promotion and relegation

Promotion and relegation are projected from locked standings, then reviewed at season close before being applied to the next season.

The standard movement model is four up and four down where a higher or lower division exists. Additional movement places can be created by vacancies, removals, account closure, fair-play issues, severe non-completion or admin decision.

If a player fails to complete enough games to remain in their division, they may be relegated even if they finish above the standard bottom-four relegation places. Each additional non-completion relegation creates one additional promotion place from the division below. For example, if Lega Oro has the standard four relegations plus one extra non-completion relegation, Lega Argento promotes five players to Lega Oro.

9. Season close

Season close is an admin-controlled process. It is deliberately separated into stages so that Season 1 records are preserved before the next season is prepared.

1. Generate movement projection from locked standings.
2. Generate season close draft.
3. Review promotions, relegations, warnings and manual-review flags.
4. Lock season close.
5. Create a season archive.
6. Apply next-season divisions.
7. Prepare the new active season.
8. Set the new Round 1 UTC window and generate the next season’s fixtures.

The archive protects the completed season before next-season working data is created.

10. Fair play, disputes and admin review

IMSC may require admin review where there is an account-status issue, fair-play concern, suspicious behaviour, missing public data, fixture dispute, non-completion problem or API inconsistency.

Admin powers

• Request clarification from a player.
• Reject or pause a registration.
• Move a player into manual review.
• Apply a result override where the automatic calculation is wrong or incomplete.
• Remove a player from movement application until the issue is resolved.
• Protect the league structure from account closures, fair-play closures or non-completion abuse.

Admin decisions should be recorded internally through the audit log. Public pages should not expose private admin reasoning unless IMSC chooses to publish a formal statement.

11. Public privacy

Public league pages should identify players by Chess.com username only. This applies to public player lists, fixtures, results and standings.

Public pages may show

• Chess.com username.
• Division.
• Fixture opponent.
• Result scoreline.
• Games completed count.
• Standing position and league statistics.

Public pages should not show

• Real name or display name.
• Email address.
• Private admin notes.
• Internal eligibility flags.
• Private audit data.