8 tips to run a Lichess Team

1. Have a good reason

Ask yourself, why do you want to run this team?
The reason why you want to run this team needs to be strong and reasonable. If there isn't a point in running your own team, then don't run it. The only reason people join your team, is that you know why you are running it, and why they are joining it.

Examples:

• A team to practice your skills in a certain variant
• A team for competitions with prizes for people who would like a little more than usual
• A team that wants to express a certain topic or problem
• A team fan club on certain chess players
• A team to play people around the same rating and level

These are just a few examples

2. Team Name

What would be your team name?
Your team name is what makes people first consider why they should join the team. If Lichess Swiss called their club, Chess.com club, they would not just be misleading their members of their team, but the whole Lichess community. You need your team name to be linked to the purpose of the team.

3. What to write in the description

What should be written in your description?
People will usually only join teams with simple and straight forward descriptions. If your team descriptions take more than 1 minutes to read it, you probably would like to edit and change it to make it shorter and simpler.

4. What Photos to add in descriptions

What photos should you add?
Another problem people also do with their description, is that they over do the pictures and photos. In a team description, you only really need 1 picture, 3 at maximum. The photo also has to be relevant to your team and unique. Don't copy somebody else's team photo.

Examples:

• Team logo
• Picture to express team interest

These are just a few examples

5. Team Leader

Who should be team leader?

Team leadership is something important, that people forget about. You can't just make anyone team leader. The team leader has to be reliable and trustworthy because they actually have the power to close the team down, kick you out of the team etc. This power cannot be given to just anyone. This is a topic people just push pass until something problematic happens. 2 - 3 teams would be enough because the more you have, the less control you have on your team.
Another problem, is that people only want to be a leader of your team to advertise their own team. This is a very annoying problem if you have more than 3 leaders.

6. Team Amount

How many teams should you have?
You should only really be running one team because otherwise you will be losing your focus on the team and jumping from the teams. If your team doesn't seem to succeed, then don't think about starting a new one, think about changing the format like adding different tournaments, adding different prizes etc. Just remember never give up on your team and start a new one.

7. Tournaments

How many tournaments should be held per week?
This is depending on your reason and goal on your team. If it is a practice chess team, you would probably want maybe a few a week or sometimes even daily tournaments. This may vary in every team and should Suit your likings.

8. Prizes

Should reward prizes in your team?
Prizes are optional but people usually join your team more if you have prizes. It may be for free, or it may be cash.

Some common prizes offered:

• Logo
• Ebook
• Followers (I wouldn't recommend that though)
• Cash

Quick Tips and Conclusion

Quick Tips:

• Don't try PM random people and advertise. That would only bring to people blocking and reporting you.
• Try find a reliable and trustworthy friend to help you run a team. If you don't have one, try find one.
• Don't bribe people to join your team. If the team descriptions said, if you join, you get 3 followers, I won't join.

These are just some of the tips I have for you in running a team. This blog will be updated occasionally for more tips for you to learn and message me if you have any questions.