Sorry but again could an admin change this to the running tournaments topic? I can not do so myself from android chrome browser.
I have a lot of non-USCF members in my club. People who play online constantly but have never been to tournaments.
I’m considering how to integrate them into tournaments without forcing them to pay for membership at first.
My understanding of the rules is that a non-member “house man” can play a USCF member in a tournament in a way that doesn’t count for ratings but does count for the tournament.
However the vibe of the rule seems to be that it would not be used too often. Would it be seen as an issue if like half of the games fell into this category in a tournament (eg USCF member playing non-member houseman)?
Yes. The Rule is pretty clear that a house player is intended to be used as a substitute for a bye, meaning that there should only be one house player:
28M1. The house player.
Sometimes a spectator will agree to play a game against a player who would otherwise expect a bye.
If you have a lot of really young players you could organize a JTP event. However, unless you are working with a school potentially that would have to be limited to K-3 players. JTP events are rated but membership is not required.
You can have rated sections and non-rated sections, but there’s no reason to report the latter when submitting the tournament for validation.
Within a rated section, ALL GAMES BY ALL PLAYERS MUST BE RATED! (Both players must make at least one move for that game to be ratable.)
Games involving a house player are rated games.
These rules are so players or TDs cannot choose which games played in a section are rated and which are not, which would be contrary to the mathematics behind ratings.
Normally there is just one house player per section per round, but it does not need to be the same person for every round.
Shameless plug with Chess Nut you can designate an unrated section and it will be excluded from the rating report to USCF. You can keep it all under the same event umbrella
with Chess Nut you can designate an unrated section and it will be excluded from the rating report to USCF. You can keep it all under the same event umbrella