The Menlo Park Chess Club offers unrated ladders for blitz (G/5), quick (G/15;d3) and perhaps for a few other variants, interest permitting. We may also consider a rated ladder event soon if these unrated experiments go well. Below are links to our current active ladder pages:
Blitz Ladder (G/5)
Quick Ladder (G/15;d3)
MPCC’s Rated Players List
Ladder Rules:
- Initial positions on the ladder were determined via tournament. Newcomers to the club or ladder are added at the bottom of the ladder upon request.
- You may challenge anyone who is one, two, three, or four spots above you on the ladder.
- If a) you are challenged to a ladder game and b) you are not already playing a game and c) there is sufficient time available to play a game, you must play when challenged. A refusal to play is treated as a loss.
- Ladder games must be played with a clock.
- The player making the challenge plays White; the person being challenged plays Black.
- If the lower-ranked player wins, the lower-ranked player takes the higher-ranked player’s spot on the ladder and the higher-ranked player moves down one spot.
- If the higher-ranked player wins, there is no change in the players’ rankings.
- If the game ends in a draw, the lower-ranked player takes the spot just below the higher-ranked player. Draws by agreement must be approved by the club director.
- After a ladder game is played, at least one of the players must play a ladder game against someone else before they are allowed to play each other again.
- Players who do not play a ladder game over a 3-month period will be moved to the bottom of the ladder.
- Play in our Blitz ladder will follow the US Chess Rules for Blitz Chess, except that clock move rather than touch move will be observed. The Quick ladder requires that touch move be observed.
