To help support your child’s interest in chess, you have multiple resources:

• Ask your school about an after-school chess program

• View our Chess Calendar to find chess club meet-ups and programs near you

• Compete in our USCF-rated tournaments - all of our tournaments include an U1200 Scholastic section for ages 18 and under

• Utilize online resources such as chesskid.com to play safely online, watch instructional videos, and more

• Seek a private chess coach

You can either browse our Chess Calendar (available in both a desktop and mobile-friendly calendar format), or you can join our monthly chess newsletter to get the details delivered right to your inbox.

Browse our Coaching page for several recommendations to local chess coaches.

1. Complete registration and payment for each player in either the Master/A/B/C/D sections or the Scholastic section of the tournament.

   1. During online registration, ensure you are an active United States Chess Federation (USCF) member. You can choose to either become a member during online registration or renew your existing USCF membership.

• Complete the steps outlined in questions #1 & #2.

• Make sure you know the rules of competitive chess. USCF has a great info page if you’re not sure of the basics.

• See next question (#4)

In addition to being a USCF member (see question #1), all players are expected to bring:

• Their own chess set, clock, and a pen/pencil

  • Easy to carry vinyl chess sets are the most popular choice for tournament players, as they are lightweight, inexpensive (<$30), and readily available online from the United States Chess Federation (USCF Sales), where all sales help support their non-profit efforts in organizing and promoting competitive chess in the United States.

• Chess notation pad / book or an approved digital version

  • All competitive chess tournament players are required by the United States Chess Federation (USCF) to notate all the moves in their games (to the best of their ability) in case there are any player issues or game disputes the tournament director may need to resolve.

When completing your online registration for our tournament, you will have an opportunity to request a “bye” for any tournament rounds that you can not attend. If you can play in all five rounds, you do not need to worry about making bye requests.

Should a scheduling conflict for one of your rounds arise after completing your online registration, bye requests can also be made by contacting us before the tournament begins.

Yes, our tournaments allow players on our 3-day schedule to switch to the 2-day schedule on Saturday morning if they wish; there is a $50 re-entry fee that applies.

Yes, you can complete your online registration for the tournament, just do not complete the payment portion of the process. Then simply contact us to let us know and we will update your online registration as active.
*NOTE: If you win a cash prize, our early entry fee amount ($110) will be subtracted from your winning prize amount.

We utilize chessregister.com to register players for all of our tournament events. Once you have completed the required information and made your payment, you will receive a confirmation email.

To confirm the details of your online registration yourself (i.e., player section, schedule, rating, and/or any bye requests):

• Simply go back to the event on chess register and click on the event title.

• You will see a green “person” icon at the top right. Click/tap the icon to display all the currently registered players in the tournament (separated by player sections).