Postponed until further notice.
Our scholastic 4 round Swiss tournaments: USCF rated, and standard uscf rules apply.
Read the general information and scroll down to see all upcoming event dates & locations.
SWISS TOURNAMENT
ONSITE REGISTRATION:
If tournament is on Saturday: 9:30 am - 9:45 am
If tournament is on sunday: 10:30 am - 10:45 am
ROUNDS:
Saturday: 10AM and on a rolling schedule
Sunday: 11AM and on a rolling schedule
SECTIONS:
- 700+
- 400-699
- Under 400 & Unrated players
BYES:
- Max of byes: 2
- Last round to request a bye: 2
- Number of rounds in tourney: 4
- Bye note: All bye requests after round 2 will be 0 point
PRIZES:
Trophies to Top 5 finishers (including tie breaks), medals for all others.
FEE:
$35 entry fee
$10 play-up fee
$10 late fee
USCF membership required
*** Special Update - Brilliancy Prizes for Scholastic Players ***
We will be offering 2 monthly brilliancy prizes specificcally for scholastic players, to encourage them notating their games!
Players are encouraged to submit their games if they had any particuraly nice game, or tactic, or by the book opening, or nicely executed end game.
These can be games from any event in that month provided that it be a rated event and that there is a complete notation of the game.
The prizes will come in the form of choice of book from our in office chess library and we will publish the games in our newsletter with annotations by GM Nick de Firmian. If you would like to submit a game for consideration, please turn in the scoresheet to us and mark "brilliancy" on top of the coresheet, that way we know it is submitted for consideration. You may also send it in an email, please indicate Brilliancy Prize in the subject.
Games from any rated tournament at Mechanics' in January will count for the January prize. We will also be making reminder announcements at upcoming events.
Testimonials
" My son had a wonderful time at chess camp and the tournament too." Eileen C.
" Thanks for running such a great program!!" Eric H.
" My son looks forward to the chess tournaments as an opportunity to play against his peers citywide. We look forward to participating again" S. Patrick
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What should I do when I get there?
No need to check in with TD, just check your entry on the wall, if everything good, wait for the pairing. Pairing will be posted 5 mins before the round start, and as soon as all games finished and we paired the following rounds.
2. How do we pair players?
We take every player in one section, and pair them according to USCF Swiss tournament pairing rules. Learn more about it HERE.
3. Does touch move rule apply? And other rules...
Yes, this is a USCF rated tournament, so we are playing by standard USCF rules. This means if a player touch a piece, they have to move it, unless no legal move exists.
How about scorekeeping? Keeping scores at scholastic tournaments is NOT mandatory. But we do encourage players and we have pencils and scoresheets available.
How about clocks? Using a clock is NOT mandatory. However, if any player wants to use a clock, per uscf rules, the other player must use it.
4. Will my child get a rating after this?
Yes. This is a USCF rated tournament, and we are sending the tournament to USCF for rating. Typically it's done the same day, and updated ratings will be available.
You can search having the MI tournament listed:
www.uschess.org/datapage/
or you can search for a player (last name, first name), click on the player's name and the tournament will show up on the last tab (Tnmt Hst): www.uschess.org/datapage/
5. When will the tournament end and who gets trophies?
Tournament will end between 1-2pm approximately. We will have a trophy ceremony after the last round is finished. Top 5 players in each section will receive a trophy. If multiple players tied for the 5th place, they will all receive a trophy. All others will receive a medal.
6. What's the difference between supplemental and actual rating? How is the supplemental rating determined?
Actual rating is the rating that is changing after every tournament and can be looked up in the last tab on every player's page (Tnmt Hst). Actual ratings are only used in Quad type of tournment pairings.
Supplemental rating is a rating that is determined on the third Wednesday of the previous month: USCF takes a snapshot of everyone's actual rating, and that becomes the supplemental rating for the following month. So for example, for a June 2019 suppelemntal rating player's actual rating on May 15th was used as the June supplemental rating, and that rating was used for all Swiss type of tournament pairings.
7. How do we determine the order of the players with the same score? In other words: what tie-break system do we use?
We are using the tie-break system that USCF scholastic regulations states in their most recent published document:
http://www.uschess.org/images/stories/scholastic_chess_resources/us_chess-scholasticregs_feb2018.pdf
20.3.1 When individual scores are equal, the following order of tie-break systems will be used to designate individual awards:
• Modified Median
• Median
• Solkoff
• Sonneborn-Berger
• Cumulative
• Coin flip