Team tournament competition has been the staple of 4545 League play on the Internet Chess Club server for over 20 years. An impressive run, indeed.
In any given round, team players must agree with their opponent to play their game at a set time within one week of the round’s start. If they can not agree to a mutually agreeable time, they may agree to a draw, splitting the point between them just as they would if they actually played the game to a draw by any of the ways a chess game is usually drawn over the board. But, what does this mean for sporting competitiveness?
A draw agreed to with no moves being played is at best a fiction. That fiction applied to a chess competition is really a lie that percolates through the remainder of a tournament. If the drawing player has teammates who have not yet played their games for that round, the pressure increases on them to win. Will they push to hard for a win in a drawn position until they make an inaccurate move losing what was a drawn game? At best, the lie will have no real consequence on the standings. The reality can, and often is, different.
Is there a better way? Yes, if one accepts that forfeits are not anathema. If the players can not reach a mutually agreed time for playing their game, have the league set a “fail safe” time on the last day of the week within which the round is to be played. If one of the players does not appear for the game at the “fail safe” time, they forfeit the game. The “fail safe” rule would have to be clearly stated at the beginning of the tournament. A variant of this would be to set a time for all league games to be played, unless the players mutually agree to play at a different time within the week allowed for that round.
Time zone differences can present problems for players finding mutually convenient times to schedule games. Would a “fail safe” forfeit be fair? Yes, if the absolute default time is known before hand. If the time zone issue is that much of a problem for a player, a player should not enter a tournament. Absent an unforeseen emergency, it's difficult to believe that over the course of a week a player can't find some mutually agreeable time to play an opponent.
Tournaments should be played between real opponents. The results should only reflect real games played by competitors. Reserve draws for real games played over the board physically or online.
