November 27, 2016

Post date: Jan 4, 2017 1:58:07 AM

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Dear Scholastic Families,

My name is Jim Hodina and I am the Scholastic Chair for the Iowa State Chess Association. As a past participant in scholastic chess in Iowa, I am sending out this email to highlight the many chess tournaments that we have scheduled this school. Your school chess club may have already started meeting and a few of you might have event played in a tournament this year. But the bulk of the Scholastic Chess Season is just starting and there is a lot of chess to plan ahead for.

In this Newsletter

How to Find a Chess Tournament 1

2017 Scholastic Chess Calendar 1

How to Register for a Scholastic Chess Tournament 3

How to Find a Chess Tournament

The official posting of all chess tournaments is on the Iowa State Chess Association Website (IASCA) at www.iowa-chess.org. Chess in Iowa (CII) is a charitable organization recognized by the IRS under Section 501(c)3 of the internal revenue code and organizes and directs many of these scholastic events. Chess in Iowa also maintains a website at www.chessiniowa.org with additional information including calendars and flyers that you may use and share.

The following Scholastic Chess Calendar provides a listing of the IASCA and Chess in Iowa planned scholastic events for the 2017 school year. Each tournament includes a hyperlink to the IASCA website with complete tournament details.

2017 Scholastic Chess Calendar


How to Register for a Scholastic Chess Tournament

Individuals may register in advance online, advance by mail to the Tournament Director, or on-site up to 30 minutes prior to the tournament. Advanced registration is most helpful for the running of a tournament and is encouraged with a $5 discount to the entry fee. Details for registering for each event are included in the IASCA Scholastic Tournament web posting.

Chess in Iowa maintains a provider agreement with OnlineRegistration.CC to register and pay for scholastic chess tournaments that we host. This online service allows for advanced registration and payment. By registering in advance, you do not need to arrive early to pay or check in. Payment is processed through PayPal and directly deposited to Chess in Iowa’s non-for-profit PayPal account. The fees cover the cost of the tournament playing site rental, trophies, and tournament supplies. All IASCA tournaments are $15 but some CII promotional tournaments may be less ($10) or even free. At the end of the school year, CII provides a $1,200 to the IASCA for our state scholastic champions to compete at the national US Chess Scholastic Championship events for High School (Grade 9-12), Grade K-8, and Girls held concurrent with the US Open.

USCF ID: All tournaments sponsored by IASCA (and most by CII) are sanctioned by the United States Chess Federation. This has historically been abbreviated as USCF but currently goes by US Chess. When registering, you are usually prompted for your USCF ID. USCF IDs are issued to all US Chess Members. Whether your memberships is current or expired, your USCF ID will always be the same. Current US Chess memberships are required for all sanctioned events, often noted as RATED. Non-sanctioned events are noted as Unrated or UNR, and current US Chess Memberships are not required. If you are new to US Chess and do not have a USCF, type NEW in the requested field.

How to Obtain a USCF ID: Chess in Iowa has purchased a batch of discounted USCF memberships for scholastic members. You may purchase these annual memberships from CII in advance or at the tournament for $11. These are not available with your online registration but must be purchased separately. US Chess memberships purchased online range from $17 to $24 based on age.

What Else?

This email certainly doesn’t cover everything and you may certainly have other questions. The CII Website has a FAQ page for scholastic tournament at http://www.chessiniowa.org/faqs. If this does not answer your questions, you may certainly email the Tournament Directors:

It is very important to know that we are very helpful at the scholastic chess tournament. While we cannot advise on what the best move might be, we can certainly answer questions about the rules anytime during the tournament. Questions like “is this checkmate” or “is this move legal” are certainly questions we are well prepared for.

Take care,

Jim

Jim Hodina

Scholastic Chair, IASCA

President, Chess in Iowa