General Information & State Qualifications

General Scholastic Chess Information

• As soon as a Coach/Sponsor attends their first tournament they are a voting member of this organization. The annual meeting is held during the State Championship.

• All, except the State Championship (pre-register only a week prior to the event), have on-site registration 8:15-8:45 am the day of the tournament for a higher fee;

• All have no limit on the number of students that may represent that school, but team scores are figured on the top four players from a school based on their results that day.

• Must have six rounds (every player will play six games) with the first round starting around 9:30;

• Some tournaments have the first round at Game-20 or Game-25 and each other round at Game-30 5sd (each player has 20-30 minutes to make all of their moves);

All are run by United States Chess Federation Rules. except:

• K-3 sections are not required to take notation.

• If a player is under 5 minutes, he may request a player to notate (no one may offer)After another person begins keeping score that score sheet may no longer be used for any type of claims.

• The person keeping score may not interfere in the game in any manner (no talking, making noises, etc.).

• If your opponent has a person taking notation (5 min rule), then the player may also request a person to notate.

• If spectators are allowed in the room, then a player may freely go ask a person (usually a teammate) to notate. If spectators are not allowed in the tournament room it is recommended the TD give a player 2 minutes (pause clock) to find a person to notate.

• The person who is requesting to keep score may not be a tournament director at this tournament or another player who still has a game in progress.

• Each round is paired using the "Swiss-system" of pairing players. After the first round each player is paired against another player with the same score. A player will never be paired against a player from their own school, except during the last round when all players in the top score group are from the same school and no other school could tie or beat that school for the team tournament.

• When a school has a significantly large number of players in a section then a TD has the discretion to break a Team into sub teams in coordination with the coach. This should be done prior to the start of the tournament.

• See Bye policy at the bottom of this page

• Individual tiebreaks will be Modified Median, Median, Solkoff, Sonneborn-Berger, Cumulative, Coin flip

• Team tiebreaks will be Total individual Median, Total Solkoff, Total Sonneborn-Berger, Total Cumulative, Coin flip

• Team players may not play each other except for the following. (Includes State)

  1. If teams are divided into subteams as per section 8

  2. If after five rounds, two or more players are 5.0 and the result of two teammates playing will not affect the team standings, then these two teammates may play each other. This will be determined by the TD.

  3. If two or more players are 6.0 after 6 rounds, then a blitz playoff G/5 sd 0, will be used to determine the tournament champion, otherwise tiebreaks will be used.