What is the Nebraska Chess League?

The Nebraska Chess League is a new USCF-affiliated organization that was formed to help promote chess across Nebraska. The NCL will run both USCF-rated and non-rated tournament as well as possibly a state-wide, year-long chess league open to all players.

Best of all, membership to the NCL is free! How can you become a member? All you have to do is enter a NCL-sponsored tournament, and your tournament registration fee makes you a member. There are no dues to pay, nothing for you to do except enjoy the events and the features offered on our website!

Tournaments

NCL tournaments will be both USCF-rated and non-rated. We want to set NCL tournaments apart from the standard tournament faire, and so plan to have a number of "themed" tournaments. Here are some ideas we've been thinking about:

• The Swag Open - A pirate costume tournament
• The PJ Closed (because the PJ Open would just be wrong) - A late-night tournament in PJs
• The Four Seasons of the Great Outdoors - series of 4 tournaments held outdoors, crowning a series champion
• Pizza Hut NCL Open - small monthly tournament held at Pizza Hut, crowning a series champion
• Family team event - team points are earned by all member of the same family
• Non-USCF rated tournaments where the NCL self-rates players in a USCF-like manner - kind of like Internet Chess Club
• Non-USCF rated tournaments where some prizes are USCF and NSCA memberships
• Loser's Open - each round, game losers are entered into a round-by-round door prize drawing

League play ideas

NCL teams should be city-based, with all players residing either in that city or in it's surrounding areas. Teams can have more than four players, but only four players will play in a given match against another city. Teams will earn points based on the sum of all scores in a match, but with an "equalizer": The team with the lower rating average will have their points adjusted based an the ratio of their team's average to the opponent's team average. This concept will hopefully encourage teams with less experienced players to participate in the league, and should help smaller town teams compete with those from bigger cities like Lincoln and Omaha. At the end of the season awards would be presented, and the exact nature of these awards will be determined before the season starts. For example, there could be an award for the top finishing team overall (without taking into account the "equalizer" adjustments) as well as an award for the top "equalized" team. A small team fee will be assessed at the beginning of the season to pay for the awards, so matches will have no fee. For teams with some unrated players, ratings will be estimated for the start of the season to determine board placement. At the end of the season (and perhaps at mid-season), players' ratings will be recomputed based on their performance. Individual city vs. city matches can be played over-the-board on online. Game records should be kept, however, as we'd like to post the games on this website.