Fair Play Policy

UK Chess Challenge – Online Fair Play Guidelines – 2026

These are the current guidelines and rules for fair play in online events in the UK Chess Challenge (UKCC) The rules are reviewed on an ongoing basis and will be updated as appropriate based on experience from online UKCC and other events.

  1. Scope

The rules and guidelines apply to all players playing in online UKCC events

  1. General Fair Play Guidelines

Complying with Fair Play Rules

Players are required to comply with the UKCC’s Online fair play rules and the UKCC shall have no liability in relation to its implementation of the rules as set out in this document.

Players are asked to review the Lichess fair play rules as relevant, and make sure they comply with these for their games at all times. Further details can be found here: https://Lichess.org/terms-of-service

Please note that the following are specifically not allowed during play:

  • Help from any other person, player, or coach;
  • Impersonation/use of other people’s accounts;
  • Use of chess engines, bots, plugins, analysis tools, tablebases, blunder checks or other best move tools;
  • Artificially inflating or deflating ratings by intentionally losing, or arranging with an opponent to win;
  • Interference with other members’ games;
  • Reference to physical opening books and static (i.e., non-engine based) tablebases;
  • The player’s moves must be their own and they must not use any external assistance including those given above.

The above list is not exhaustive and players should refer to Lichess’s terms and conditions and supporting material on their website for the full set of rules and guidelines.

Standards of Conduct

In addition to the above, players should take note of the provider requirement to comply with Lichess’s rules in relation to general standards of conduct, sportsmanship and online behaviour.

Staying Connected

Players should familiarise themselves with the rules about making the first move, disconnection and game abandonment.

Players should make sure they are ready to start playing when their game is started, and should be sure to make their first move within the allowed time. If players are disconnected for any reason before or during a game they should try to reconnect and log back in as quickly as possible. Failure to make a move within the allowed time or to reconnect following a disconnect will result in the game being recorded as a loss by Lichess.

If players are unable to reconnect due to issues with their internet connection, the provider’s result will stand, with a win for their opponent where they have disconnected and not been able to reconnect in time.

Players should also avoid disconnecting in a lost position and should make use of the resignation button if they wish to concede the game.

  1. Fair Play Measures

Lichess’s software has algorithms in place to automatically detect instances of players receiving external assistance. These algorithms are in operation for every game played on the platform. More details can be found here: https://Lichess.org/faq

The reporting process and form can be found here: https://Lichess.org/report

In the event that a player is banned or flagged by Lichess, the player should decide whether they wish to contest the ban or flagging, and if so, they should make an appeal to Lichess and if necessary to the UKCC – see section 5 below for fuller details.

Information on Lichess’s appeals process can be found here: https://lichess.org/page/appeal

The UKCC has no involvement in the Lichess appeals process, which is between the player and Lichess. The UKCC sends PGNs of all games that are played for scanning by Dr Ken Regan’s fair play software.

The UKCC requires the use of Zoom, microphone, camera and task manager at the Online Gigafinal Stage 2.

  1. UKCC Online Fair Play Panel
  • The Fair Play Panel will review all games played in its online competitions. This review will include Review of the results from Dr Ken Regan’s fair play software (see above);
  • (Where external assistance is suspected) more in-depth statistical analysis of the suspected player’s games;
  • (Where external assistance is suspected) Master player analysis of the suspected player’s games.

If in the Fair Play Panel’s opinion, the player concerned has failed to comply with the UKCC’s online fair play rules the player’s username and relevant game links will be forwarded to Lichess for Lichess’s review.

In reaching an opinion as to whether a player has failed to comply with the UKCC’s online fair play rules the Fair Play Panel will use the z score and IPR variance values in the table in section 7 as default guides, but may at its discretion investigate the performance of players exhibiting lower scores if external assistance is suspected.

If Lichess decides after considering the Fair Play Panel’s submissions that the player’s account will be closed or flagged the player concerned will be subject to UKCC sanctions as set out in the table below, which vary depending on the nature of the offence, the player’s circumstances, and the number of occurrences. The tariffs in the table are a guide, and may be varied at the UKCC’s discretion.

The Fair Play Panel only submits usernames and game links to Lichess for review if in its view there is comfortable satisfaction that external assistance has been used.

The UKCC Online Fair Play Panel consists of a pool of up to 10 people as selected by the Secretary to the Fair Play Panel in consultation with the UKCC Management Board;

Offence Circumstances Tariff
Lichess account flag for fair play violations aside from computer or other external assistance General No action unless Lichess flags up a particular concern
Sanctions applied after unsuccessful appeal or if no appeal made – see section 7 First offence All online results in the current season expunged including any qualification rights accrued.
Sanctions applied after unsuccessful appeal or if no appeal made – see section 7 Second offence All online results in the current season expunged including any qualification rights accrued. A permanent ban from UKCC online events will be considered.

 

UKCC sanctions will apply with immediate effect following the closure/flagging.

There will be no explicit UKCC publicity of sanctioned players’ names.

Players will be informed of the sanction being applied and will have the right of appeal.

Notwithstanding the above, if Lichess will no longer let the player open an account, the player will not be permitted to play in further UKCC online events in the current season.

Results of the sanctioned player may be scored as a loss for the player and as a win for the player’s opponent at the UKCC’s absolute discretion if a player fails on appeal to have sanctions reversed, or if no appeal against sanctions is made.

  1. UKCC Appeals Committee

In certain circumstances a player may make an appeal against a UKCC sanction to an Appeals Committee as described below. If the appeal is successful then the player will not be sanctioned.

The appeals process is as follows:

  • The player should appeal a Lichess ban or flagging as soon as possible after the ban/flagging;
  • The player should make a UKCC appeal no later than three days after a Lichess ban or flagging;
  • Making a UKCC appeal costs £100, refundable if the appeal is successful;
  • The appellant will be provided with the results of Dr Ken Regan’s analysis of their games and any further information relating to the ban which Lichess is prepared to provide and allow to be shared.
  • The appellant should complete and return the Appeals Form
  • The UKCC Chief Arbiter will liaise with the Secretary to the UKCC Online Fair Play Panel, who will set up an Appeals Committee comprising selected members of the UKCC Online Fair Play Panel to hear the case should the player wish to appeal; Members of the Fair Play Panel will recuse themselves from an appeal if:
    • They were involved in the original Fair Play Panel decision;
    • They know the person well;
    • They could be seen to have a vested interest in the outcome of the appeal.
  • The Appeals Committee will audit the work of the Fair Play Panel to ensure that it has been performed in accordance with the provisions of section 4 above, but will not, for example, reperform the original statistical analysis, reperform GM analysis of games or, in the absence of any further evidence provided by the player, overturn the original result of the Fair Play Panel.
  • Grounds for considering an appeal might be:
    • Mistaken identity (e.g., another player using account without the player’s knowledge);
    • The player being able to demonstrate recent performances in OTB events significantly higher than their current grade or Elo rating to an extent that would materially reduce the likelihood of external assistance having been used;
    • Other mitigating circumstances.
  • If the appeal is successful then the player will not be sanctioned by the UKCC.
  • There will be no right of further appeal.
  1. Usernames

Players may not play in UKCC online events with a flagged Lichess account (Lichess in any case do not enable players with flagged account to participate in tournaments on their platform).

Players may play under only one username during the season unless they have made a successful appeal to the UKCC and require a new username to resume playing. It is the player’s responsibility to obtain a new username from Lichess and the UKCC will have no involvement in this process.

Usernames may be changed between seasons subject to any sanctions still in place at the end of the previous season being completed.

Players must keep their account (i.e. the one used to compete in the current season) open for the duration of the season (ending with the Terafinal). If an account is closed the UKCC reserve the right to expunge all the results of the player in the current season’s online events – including any qualification rights accrued.

A player may not play in an online event whist an appeal is in progress, nor may they play in an over-the-board event where the qualification right was accrued in an online event.

An appeal by a player to the UKCC Appeals Committee will not be considered unless the player has also put in hand an appeal to Lichess.

  1. Decision Process
  Account flagged by Lichess High Z score or IPR Successful appeal to Lichess Process
1 Yes Yes No Sanction remains in place unless a successful appeal is made to the Appeals committee to have the sanction rescinded. The burden of proof is on the appellant. If the appeal is successful the player may resume playing under a different username if one can be obtained
2 Yes Yes Yes No sanction applied
3 Yes No Yes No sanction applied
4 Yes No No An appeal may be made to the Appeals Committee. There will be a presumption of innocence unless in the view of the Appeals Committee there is clear evidence of engine use. If the appeal is successful the player may resume playing under a different username if one can be obtained.
5 No Yes N/A No sanction applied

 

  1. Other

The UKCC, its officials, members of the Fair Play Panel and members of the Appeals Committee shall have no liability to any player in tort (whether for defamation or any other tort), in contract or otherwise howsoever in relation to or arising from its fair play arrangements, including the operation of these guidelines.

Players/parents/coaches must make any allegations of breaches of the fair play guidelines privately to the UKCC. Any player/parent/coach who in the view of the UKCC Online Fair Play Panel publicly (whether on social media or otherwise) makes an allegation of fair play violations against another player and in so doing names the player, or otherwise enables the player to be identified, will be subject to the same sanctions as those set out in section 7 of the guidelines. There is no right of appeal.

UKCC online games must not be streamed by any of the players currently playing. Any player found to have streamed their game will lose the game in question.

  1. Definitions

IPR – Intrinsic Performance Rating.

The ELO (or chess strength) estimated by the Ken Regan computer program based on an engine analysis of the moves played. This is compared to the player’s actual published rating.

Z score –

A z-score is a well-known statistical technique for identifying outliers. The greater the z-score, the greater the difference in the performance of the player relative to a typical player with the same Elo rating. This could indicate that the player is more likely to have used external assistance.