With the exception of players registered with another federation for FIDE rating purposes, players in the League must be ECF members at Gold or Platinum level. In the case of existing Standard members, the ECF recognise this as Gold membership until the Standard membership would have expired. Such players should take out top-up Gold membership if their present membership expires before May 2014.

There are no restrictions on the composition of teams in the League; teams may be formed of players from one club, players from various clubs, groups of friends etc. However, once a player has already played for a team in the League he/she may not move to another team during the season unless both captains concerned agree.

A Wildcard is a player who is not registered for any team in the League. A player is not required to be a member of the ECF for the round in which he/she appears as a Wildcard. After this first round, however, the player must adhere to the requirements of rule 1 above.

The League’s fixtures shall be played over five rounds on five Sundays. The starting time shall be 2 pm.

Each team shall comprise four players.

The League shall be played on a jamboree basis, with pairings over the five rounds determined by the arbiter.

The first-named player in each pairing shall have the white pieces.

The rate of play shall be 90 minutes for all moves, with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 1.

FIDE ratings will be used to determine the order of strength of a team. For a player without a FIDE rating, an ECF grade will be converted to an equivalent FIDE rating using the appropriate conversion formula. For players who are not English and do not have FIDE ratings, their national ratings will take precedence over ECF grades. All games will be submitted for both FIDE rating and ECF grading. For juniors under eighteen years on 1 January 2014 captains may elect to use latest published ECF grades or other national ratings for conversion to an equivalent FIDE rating using the appropriate conversion formula.

Where there is a difference of more than 80 FIDE rating points under rule 9 between two players in the same team, the higher rated player must play on a higher board than the lower rated player.

Team lists must be submitted to the arbiter half an hour before start of play. All team lists must give the full names of the players clearly in board order.

Any defaults must be declared to the opposing captain by the Friday evening before start of play. Known defaults must be on the lowest boards.

A player will be deemed to have defaulted a game if he/she fails to appear for the game in question within one hour of the start of play.

End of season team placings will be decided in the first instance on game point totals. If the teams are still tied, ties shall be broken by (a) the sum of (points scored on board 1 x 4) + (points scored on board 2 x 3) + (points scored on board 3 x 2) + (points scored on board 4) (b) the greatest number of game points on the top three boards (c) the greatest number of game points on the top two boards (d) the greatest number of game points on the top board. Tie breaks shall be applied in order until all ties are broken.

The League shall be conducted according to the most recently published FIDE laws of chess. In particular, it should be noted that FIDE rules on mobile phones and other electronic means of communication will be applied without exception.