Online Tournament Fair-Play Policy
DMV Chess wants every player to have a fair and enjoyable tournament. By entering one of our online tournaments, players agree to follow this policy.
Player Responsibilities
Every player must:
Follow the lichess Terms of Service, which players agree to when creating a lichess account.
Play from a lichess account that is open and in good standing.
Keep that account open and in good standing for at least seven days after the tournament.
Players may not close or delete their accounts during this seven-day period. Doing so makes it harder for DMV Chess and lichess to review their games and is a violation of this policy.
Our Fair-Play Review
We normally review tournament games during the three days after an event. However, results can still be corrected later.
If lichess later marks, restricts, or closes a player’s account—or if DMV Chess later finds credible evidence of cheating—we may retroactively change the results. This can happen even if standings, prizes, or rating reports have already been completed.
A lichess Terms of Service violation mark may be treated the same as a fair-play violation, regardless of the specific reason for the mark. Lichess Terms of Service violations can be appealed at lichess.org/appeal
A player who receives a “Cheat detected” message during a game may also face the same consequences as a player whose account is marked for violating the lichess Terms of Service.
What Happens After a Violation?
In most cases, a player whose account is marked, restricted, or closed by lichess will be disqualified. A player who receives a “Cheat detected” message may also be disqualified.
DMV Chess may then:
Remove the player from the standings.
Change the player’s wins to unrated forfeit losses.
Give each opponent a full-point, unrated forfeit win for standings purposes.
Recalculate scores, places, tiebreaks, prizes, and awards.
Withhold, recover, or reassign prizes.
Suspend the player from future DMV Chess events.
US Chess Ratings
Games involving a player found to have cheated will normally be annulled and treated as unrated forfeits.
DMV Chess may instead submit a game as a rated loss for the offending player. This is especially likely when the player is caught cheating during the game rather than through later analysis.
We may also rate a game when doing so benefits the cheater’s opponent—for example, when an opponent earned a draw against a higher-rated cheater.
Why We Trust Lichess
US Chess arranged for experts to review lichess’s fair-play system. Following that review, US Chess formally endorsed the lichess fair-play methodology. The review noted that lichess uses conservative standards that help avoid false positives.
Final Decisions
Every situation is different. DMV Chess has sole and unlimited discretion in deciding how to investigate suspected cheating and what action to take. This includes changing standings, rating treatment, prizes, and future eligibility.
Tournament results remain subject to correction if a fair-play or Terms of Service violation is discovered later.