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# Create an Arena tournament

> Create a public or private Arena tournament with a clock, length, start time and entry rules. Input schema, a tools/call example and an example result.

Source: https://cotlet.dev/docs/mcp/lichess/create_arena_tournament

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Create a public or private Arena tournament with a clock, length, start time and entry rules.

Lichess MCP tools: https://cotlet.dev/docs/mcp/lichess.md

MCP tool: `lichess_write → create_arena_tournament`

Access: write. Confirm: waits for the user's OK before it runs.

Creates the tournament and returns its ID, URL and start time. Lichess allows up to 12 public or 24 private tournaments a day per account and rejects rated 15-second and 0+1 variant tournaments. A public tournament is visible to everyone on Lichess. By default you confirm each call; you can switch that off for this tool.

## Parameters

| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `name` | string | no | Tournament name, 2 to 30 characters. Empty gives a random Grandmaster name. |
| `clock_time` | number | yes | Initial time in minutes, e.g. 3. |
| `clock_increment` | integer | yes | Increment in seconds, e.g. 0. |
| `minutes` | integer | yes | Length of the tournament in minutes, e.g. 60. |
| `start_date` | string | no | ISO start time. Overrides wait_minutes. |
| `wait_minutes` | integer | no | Minutes to wait before it starts, counted from now. |
| `visibility` | string | no | public or private. Default public. |
| `rated` | boolean | no | Games are rated and change ratings. Default true. |
| `variant` | string | no | Variant key, e.g. standard. Default standard. |
| `berserkable` | boolean | no | Players can Berserk. Only allowed if clock_increment is at most twice clock_time. |
| `password` | string | no | Password players must enter. |
| `min_rating` | integer | no | Minimum rating to join. |
| `min_rated_games` | integer | no | Minimum number of rated games to join. |
| `description` | string | no | Text shown to players on the tournament page. |

## tools/call

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "lichess_write",
    "arguments": {
      "operation": "create_arena_tournament",
      "arguments": {
        "name": "Friday Blitz Night",
        "clock_time": 3,
        "clock_increment": 0,
        "minutes": 60,
        "start_date": "2026-10-23T19:00:00Z",
        "rated": true,
        "visibility": "public"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

## Example response

```json
{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "{ ... same JSON as structuredContent ... }"
    }
  ],
  "structuredContent": {
    "tournament_id": "Qx7pLm2a",
    "name": "Friday Blitz Night",
    "url": "https://lichess.org/tournament/Qx7pLm2a",
    "clock": "3+0",
    "minutes": 60,
    "rated": true,
    "starts_at": "2026-10-23T19:00:00Z",
    "created_today": 1
  },
  "isError": false
}
```

Previous: [Send a team update](https://cotlet.dev/docs/mcp/lichess/send_team_update.md)
Next: [Import a PGN into a study](https://cotlet.dev/docs/mcp/lichess/import_pgn_to_study.md)

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