Chess tournaments are complicated! So we have included a thorough collection of the most common USCF rules & procedures that amateur players must know to make it easier. We’ve done our best to keep it short and sweet. Made for beginners, but we strongly encourage everyone to read it entirely.
NOTE: All of our tournaments are managed by certified US Chess Tournament Directors who follow the United States Chess Federation Rule Book. In matters not explicitly covered by the applicable rules, Directors will use their discretion and all judgements are final. TD’s are also certified in SafeSport as required by law and USCF.
Tournament Rules and Procedures
Piermont Chess prides itself on establishing a chess culture that is not pretentious or overtly competitive, but inclusive and encouraging. Violations of these rules will be grounds for dismissal.
Do not come if you are ill.
Dress appropriately, and practice basic hygiene.
Silence at all times in the tournament area.
Minimize coughing, sniffling, burping and other bodily noises.
Practice good sportsmanship
Control emotions and watch your language. Parents, please be aware – we welcome children, but this is an all ages venue.
No vulgar or rude language, bullying, or inappropriate trash talk.
No sexual harassment.
No weapons, drugs, or alcohol.
You may eat and drink in the room, but drinks only at the board, no food.
You may stand, walk around, and use the bathroom during a match.
Electronic devices (headphones, tablets etc.) are permitted. Phones must be silent, but you may keep them. Texting is tolerated but should be minimized. Phone calls must be made in the hallway.
NO CHEATING
Do not SLAM THE CLOCK or PIECES
Do not ask for or give advice.
Do not discuss or analyze games in the game room. Move to the hallway.
You may quietly play skittles games if there are extra boards set up. They will have signs for “casual chess.”
Spectators include non-players, parents, family, friends, and players not currently engaged in a match.
Players may bring family and friends – within reason (1-4 recommended).
Spectators must follow all rules listed and may be asked to leave if they do not cooperate.
Do not crowd a player or game. Give a berth of at least 5 feet.
Do not speak to any player or offer any advice, including inadvertent facial expressions, or audible noises that may communicate to a player.
Parents should stand behind their player or otherwise out of view.
Move around the room as quietly as possible.
Silence in general at all times.
Use common sense regarding food, drinks, phones, etc.
Piermont Chess provides all necessary equipment for tournaments. Players do not need to bring anything other than a positive attitude & some family and friends.
We supply, score sheets, pens, pencils, DGT smartboards and pieces, DGT North American clocks (blue), standard vinyl tournament chess boards with 2.25″ squares & margin notation, and standard staunton style plastic and wooden pieces, weighted, with 3.75″ king height as laid out by USCF.
Register for tournaments online using credit or debit, or in person at the club where we can accept cash.
All rated tournaments require all players to have an active membership with USCF. Join/renew here
You may register any time once the tournament is listed, up until the first pairing of the event.
We list events on this website, on USCF, facebook, instagram, and in our weekly newsletter. Subscribe to get the latest news and updates.
We use a tournament directing program called Chess Nut where we recommend you create an account though you may register as a guest. Just follow prompts when signing up to do so.
Unfortunately we do not offer refunds. You may apply credit toward a future event. Contact us to set that up.
If you know you will be late please call or text the TD at (845) 273-0303 ASAP. If we don’t hear from you we will start your clock. If you miss the first game with no contact, you will be disqualified.
When you arrive, introduce yourself to the Tournament Director (usually wearing a PCC t-shirt) and confirm your participation in the event.
Due to changes at the community center doors now open at 10am and we begin setting up.
Please arrive between 10 and 10:30am to check in.
We are a casual and social club. We like to give everyone some time to relax and chat before starting.
The tournament will usually begin between 10:30 and 11am. Most events end around 2pm.
A time control is the amount of time each player gets to make their moves.
It is written as “G/#” which mean “game in # minutes.”
Commonly a time control will include an increment of bonus time or a delay option per move. For example: “G/25+5” which means “game in 25 minutes plus 5 seconds for every press of the clock.” OR “G/25d10” which mean game in 25 minutes with a 5 second delay per clock press.
At PCC we use different time controls for each event so be sure to read listings carefully.
Some common ones are G/5+1, G/15+10, G/25, G/45+15, G/60d10 etc.
Technically, the time control equals the total of the base time plus the increment, so G/25+5 is a “30 minute game” and should last about an hour.
You may also see terms like Blitz, Rapid, Classical which are meaningless descriptors of the game length: short, medium, long, respectively.
USCF rates your ability in different time controls using rating categories.
Unlike descriptors like Rapid or Classical, these are official terminology.
There are 4 rating categories: Blitz, Quick, Regular, & Online. (For our purposes we will exclude Online).
There are 4 terms you will see in listings to tell you which rating category will be affected: Blitz, Quick, Dual, Regular.
Blitz rated: Any game 5-10 minutes with a minimum base time of 3 minutes (G/3+2 = 5 minutes)
Quick rated: Any game greater than 10 but less than 30 (10:01-29:59) minutes with a minimum base of 5 (hypothetically you could have G/5+24 so long as its between 10 and 30)
Dual rated (applies to both quick and regular): Any game 30-65 minutes with a minimum base of 5. (G/45+10)
Regular rated: Any game greater than 65 minutes with a minimum base of 5. (G/90+30)
The TD will announce the start of the event, do a roll call, and review the rules for the day.
The TD will then pair the first round. Pairings are viewable on the TV.
Find your name, board number and piece color. Take a score sheet and pen if required, and take your seat.
Fill out the top portion of the score sheet.
When everyone is settled the TD will say to begin.
Shake hands or bump fists with your opponent and say, “Good luck.”
Set the clock lever to White’s turn. Black then presses the play button.
If a player is late, their opponent may start the clock. (Black starts the clock and waits, White may start the clock, make a move and start Black’s clock.)
Players take turns making a move, pressing the clock, and recording moves.
When the game is over, shake hands again, say, “Good game” and stop the clock.
Reset the pieces and the clock.
Report the results to the TD.
Pause the clock to ask the TD for assistance at any time during the game.
Players may have to skip a round. This is called a “bye.”
There are two ways to receive a bye.
Requested Bye: requested by a player due to conflict or illness. Request must be made before the tournament starts by contacting the TD/club. Players who request a bye will receive a 1/2 point for the round.
Assigned Bye: offered due to a lack of an opponent from forfeit/withdrawal, or an odd number of players. They are given once per round to the lowest rated player, with the fewest wins, who hasn’t had a bye already. That player receives 1 full point for the inconvenience. (The TD will often join the event to make an even number to avoid this situation)
One Hand Rule: the hand that moves a piece should also operate the clock.
Touch Move/Touch Take Rule: a piece touched with intent to play must be moved unless illegal to do so. An opponents piece touched with intent to capture must be captured unless illegal to do so.
J’adoube/Adjust: a player may only touch a wayward piece to adjust it IF it’s their turn, and they say out loud “J’adoube” “I Adjust” or “Adjust.”
Castling: the proper way to castle is to move the king first and the rook second using the same hand.
Pawn Promotion: remove pawn from the board (it doesn’t have to touch the 8th rank), and place the promoted piece with the same hand.
Captured pieces are out of play and can be held or placed anywhere on the table.
Illegal moves are any move that violates the standard rules of piece movement. (Bishop on wrong color, move while King in check, etc.)
A move is not illegal however until the turn is completed by pressing the clock. A player may correct an illegal move before they press the clock.
Illegal moves must be declared by the opponent before completing their next move or no penalty can be applied and play continues. Responsibility lies with the last illegal move if multiple are made.
Declare an illegal move by pausing the clock and calling the TD.
Illegal moves incur a 2 minute time penalty in the form of additional time for opponent and a reset to the position before the move was made.
In Blitz time controls, an illegal move loses the game immediately.
If the illegal move is castling, reset the king and rook and make a king move as castling is considered a king move.
Notation is required for any game 30 minutes or longer (Dual rated or Regular)
Quick and Blitz do not require notation.
In any game requiring notation, both players may stop taking notation once either player has fewer than 5 minutes remaining.
Any game with a +30 increment, however, requires notation throughout.
Notation can be made at any time.
You can borrow your opponents sheet to correct yours but you must do it on YOUR TIME.
Players with inexperience or disability may use digital devices, request a time penalty of -5% with 10 minutes maximum. (20= -1min), or be excused at TD discretion.
Algebraic Notation:
Rows 1-8 are “Ranks”; Columns A-H are “Files”
King= K; Queen= Q; Knight= N; Bishop= B; Rook= R; Pawn= the letter of the file it is on.
Move: Mark the piece and the destination square “Qe4”, for pawns just mark the destination “a3.”
Capture: add an x, “Qxe4”, pawn records departure file and destination square, “axb3”
Check: add a plus sign “Qg8+”
Checkmate: add a hashtag “Qh2#”
White wins: 1-0
Black wins: 0-1
Draw/stalemate: 1/2-1/2
Special cases:
En Passant: add “e.p.” to capture “axb6 e.p.”
Castle: king-side O-O; queen-side O-O-O
Pawn promotion: add equal sign and promoted piece “a8=Q”
Knights that can both move to the same square: specify which knight with departure and destination “Nbd4”
Rooks on the same rank or file: Specify file if on same rank “Rad8” or rank if on same file “R4d2”
Game ends on checkmate, draw, resignation, or expired time.
Checkmate: Game ends immediately with a legal Checkmate on the board.
Draw: can occur by player agreement (all moves lead to no change), stalemate (king trapped but not in check and no other pieces can move), 3 time repetition (same position repeated 3 non-consecutive times), 50 move rule (50 moves with no pawn move or capture), lack of material (not enough pieces to create checkmate), and “double flag” time expire (both players run out of time without a declaration).
Time expire: Player who runs out of time loses, but opponent must declare it before they too run out of time.
Resignation: player gives up. Say out lout “I Resign” and offer your hand to shake.
Confirm all results verbally with opponent. (Many handshakes were mistaken for resignations when draws were not made clear.)
Record results on score sheet Black 0-1; White 1-0; Draw 1/2-1/2
Report to TD.
Prizes are listed as “Prizes b/20”, meaning “based on 20 players.”
The prize fund is usually 50% of the entry fees and split into place and class prizes.
They will be listed like this: “$100-80; $60 U1800”
This means $100 for first place, $80 for second place and $60 for the best score for a player rated under 1800.
Cash prizes are split evenly in the event of a tie as per USCF.
Tie break algorithms are used to determine the winner of prizes that cannot be divided, like trophies, Or players can agree to play a blitz tie break game.