Some of us from the Ohio University Chess club have agreed to help out with a chess program at a local elementary school. Although I once helped out at a scholastic tournament, I have no experience actually running one. Would all the players have to be USCF members? I can’t remember what the time controls were, but I know there were no clocks in use. How much time should generally be allotted for a game at this level?
I am a club TD and am the contact person for the OU affiliate. Can I set up a local scholastic tournament and submit results through the OU affiliate?
Thanks for your help.
Richard
If all the players are in grade 3 or lower, any affiliate can run a K-3 JTP event.
A scholastic affiliate (an ID that begins with the letter H) can run an in-school K-12 JTP event for the players in THAT ONE SCHOOL.
In either type of JTP event, all players must be in the appropriate grades, which means adults cannot be used as house players. The players do not have to be USCF members, but they do have to have USCF IDs.
So how does one become a scholastic affiliate, and how do we get non-member children USCF IDs?
Whoops, sorry, I found the USCF Guide to Scholastic Chess. It seems to answer all of my questions.
Fantastic! Thanks for getting involved.
Come on in, the water’s fine! I appreciated so much those who helped me get started… now that I’ve run a few, I’d be happy to talk things over with you, feel free to email me (grant@neilley.com). But to answer a few specific questions…
You don’t have to be a scholastic affiliate to run and submit scholastic tournaments. But if you wanted to have the whole thing rated without requiring USCF memberships, and if ALL the players will all be from the same school, then you could get a separate scholastic affiliate to qualify for the JTP program Mike mentioned.
Around Ohio, we commonly offer non-rated sections as well as rated ones, all within the same tournament. Players in the non-rated sections do not need to be USCF members.
If you have any sections restricted to grades K-3 and want to submit them for rating, players in those would not have to be USCF members, but you would need to get them non-member USCF id numbers prior to submitting the results to be rated. (This is the first type of JTP event Mike referred to.)
In all other cases, players would need to be USCF members to submit their results for rating. Of course, you don’t need to have any part of the tournament rated if you don’t want to. Running an entirely non-rated tournament wouldn’t be a bad way to start things out and get the kids some experience with how tournaments work.
5 rounds of G/30 is pretty common at scholastic tournaments around Ohio, but very few players in our non-rated sections (who tend to be beginners) ever actually use that much time.
Let me know if I can be of any help!
Grant Neilley
Sr. TD
President, Ohio Chess Assn
Director/Treasurer, Ohio Scholastic Chess Assn
You should probably read through the FAQ at:
secure2.uschess.org/TD_Affil/faq.php
Note that in order to run a K-12 In-School JTP event, the scholastic affiliate must be owned by the school holding such an event for its students.
You didn’t say what type of help you were needed for, nor what the plans are for the program.
The information Nolan gave is for USCF rated play, but you didn’t say whether or not you were focused on that.
My wife runs a club at my son’s former middle school. It is more for the kids’ enjoyment than a program aimed at improving play and getting ratings. It is not one of strong middle schools in the suburbs and players only sporadically enter rated events, but head to head matches against some of the other nearby middle schools have resulted in fairly one-sided victories even when the coaches at the other schools were emphasizing study and improvement.
The club has a ladder that is essentially a multi-week non-rated WinTD-paired tournament (one for the fall and another for the spring). Local (school-estimated) ratings are used for pairings.
Annually there is a non-rated event for middle schools in the district (6th-8th grades) that starts at 9, finishes at 2 and has a half-hour break for pizza. There is also a section for 5th graders from feeder schools that starts at 10 and finishes at 2. There is no set time control and the number of rounds is however many we can get in. The 5th grade section generally runs 7-9 rounds and the 6th-8th section has run 9-14 rounds (the 12-round WinTD limit for a dozen-player section is only an annoyance for somebody that used to manually pair 400+ players sections - and had at least one organizer say that I was laying the cards out as quickly as a Mississippi river boat gambler). I have a couple of clocks available if I think a game is running significantly longer than average but, with rounds starting 15-25 minutes apart anyway, I generally don’t need them.
Nolan,
I just skimmed the FAQ, and saw the same comment that, “A Scholastic Affiliate that is owned by an accredited school may also run a K-12 In-School JTP Event” that you referenced.
Do you have any knowledge of how the USCF views, “owned by an accredited school”? If I want to run a in school JTP at the elementary school that my kids go to, the funding for the affiliate would probably come through the school’s PTA. Is that close enough for the USCF (in that it isn’t a private person controlling it), or does it have to be the school itself and not the school’s PTA?
“an accredited school” is a white-hot subject. For the boundaries both in geography and
academic focus is broadening each day. After-market schools which offer such courses
as “Critical Thinking”, “Accelerated Algebra”, “Farsi”, “Chess”, etc, are growing in
popularity as the required standards at a great many of our public schools are perceived
to be in decline. Some of these schools have competed in local scholastics. There has been a tendency by some to falsely label these
schools as “clubs”, which they are in fact, not.
Emerging home schools are also causing a need for definition expansion. For example, why should a home-school with boundaries
from say Fort Worth to Dallas not be able to compete as a team??
As these schools grow, USCF needs to stay vital and grow with them.
Rob Jones
Actually the words “accredited school” are of concern in that the types of alternative schools have expanded due to the real or greatly perceived continued decline in the
quality of our public school system. After-school programs, and weekend programs,
are taught by many private businesses and social/ethnic/religious groups. Chess is
a part of the curriculum for many. The subjects they teach such as languages, math,
and critical thinking are as real as any taught in the public or private school systems.
Perhaps it is time they get the same considerations as those already accepted by
USCF.
In regard to the second about who in the school admin or without, in regards to control.
There certainly is not always accord here. Sometimes parents groups need to take
control for the benefit of their kids from the school, by forming separate groups. USCF
should not be in the business of policing which is legit and which is not. For example,
if a school or school district for that matter, forbids for whatever reason the use of USCF,
then it would be natural for responsible parents to set up the “Johnson Elem Chess Club”
find a facility for the club, and do what is best for their kids. Many parents have done
just this. Sure we would prefer the cooperation of school administrations, for then, our
task is far easier. But should it be required ?? Absolutely NOT.
Rob Jones
The linkage between the school and the scholastic affiliate can be fairly loose (such as funding by a PTA), but the affiliate needs to clearly identify the specific school to which it applies, since this membership exception is intended to apply to just the students at that one school.
Alternative school programs, such as a charter school, would be eligible.
An abuse of the K-12 JTP privilege could result in sanctions against the TD who submitted the tournament, who has to certify that USCF rules and regulations were followed, including membership requirements and the specifics of any membership waivers. We have not seen a history of any such abuse, and we do not have a large number of scholastic affiliates running K-12 JTP events.
Mike, nor would I advocate JTP violations in regard to current rules and USCF school
definitions. However, the fact is, a growing number of students are pupils at multiple
schools. For example, Yu Wang Chang may go to George Jones Elem School during
regular school hours, the Exemplary Student Honors School after hours to receive
advanced help in his English, and Math, and attend Chinese School on the weekend.
My point is that in addition to taking basic courses at these educational add-ons, if
say he is in the Exemplary Student Chess Club, or the Chinese School Chess Club,
should not he be eligible to play for either of these schools, as well???
It seems to me that in the interest of “fairness” to other traditional schools, that by
excluding these add-on schools from competing as teams, that in fact perhaps hundreds
of youths are not getting the opportunity to play.
I would encourage TDs and organizers, at least at a local basis, to publicize and welcome
these alternative schools with open arms.
Lets get more kids into chess!!
Rob Jones
I know, because of my time on the school board, that even when someone is taking classes at multiple schools, that there is still one school that is considered that student’s ‘official’ school. (This is necessary for proper allocation of and accounting for Title 1 funds, for example.)
Similarly, a high school student can only compete for one school in athletics and other competitive activities.
It is difficult to write regulations that cover every conceivable situation, thus a ‘one size fits all’ USCF rule is just as inappropriate in this situation as it in other situations.
Agreed, thank you for your thoughts.
Rob Jones
Rob,
You continue to get confused about what Scholastic Chess is. I do believe there is a place for CLUB chess that as an organization we haven’t done a good job of creating and/or tapping. That said, Schools have to meet some definition; we’ve already had enough questionable things happen in the past. That is why there are rules.
USCF should build, and work on, additional championships that our club-based that deal with the less traditional situations. But I’m no more inclined to allow a school that is essentially a club situation to participate in a scholastic tournament than I am to allow adults to participate in a scholastic event.
Unfortunately, what some of the morons in the state legislatures are trying to do is loosen the definition of what constitutes a “school”. I will not bore you with details, but it is part of the ongoing political battle to privatize government services, which includes the public schools. It goes beyond the traditional charter schools to include various for profit associations that provide what are deemed instructional services without having a brick and mortar building. The state has the authority to define what is a “school”. We might be stuck with some of the consequences of this battle to undermine the public schools. There are already “schools” which are allowed to play football, but who have no campus, classrooms, stadium, or other facilities.
Kevin, I am not at all confused about what Scholastic Chess is. What I am disagree with
are the current boundaries on scholastic chess imposed by USCF. I know where your
inclination, and opinion lie, and truly, you and others, as I have, have made our thoughts
quite clear on this subject. We simply disagree. My thought is to encourage USCF to expand
upon this definition.
USCF should not be stuck in the polices
of the past which hurt our future
growth, and limit the opportunities of kids to play chess. What you choose to allow in
your local events, and what I allow in mine, as organizers, is our individual call. My goal
is simple-I want more kids playing chess. The few coaches more concerned about their
own team’s trophies than this, and their teams, are quite easily replaced, and more,
by those who share my same goals for scholastic growth.
Rob Jones
It has nothing to do with trophies, Rob, and its insulting that you keep making these claims. You continually put it all onto things like winning trophies. It has nothing to do with a coach’s interest in winning trophies.
It has to do with FAIRNESS. USCF already allows a broad range of non-traditional schools. If we broaden it any further the definition of school will be lost entirely and it will become a club competition. That isn’t what people in scholastic chess want. We are fine with there being separate club play.
Note that when I was actively coaching scholastic chess I had a number of individual players from other schools come to our club to study with us, and they either played as individuals or for their own school team in tournaments - what they could not do was to play for OUR team.
This didn’t impair their ability to play, it didn’t decrease their enjoyment of chess, etc. It did ensure that our club wasn’t a “super team” by virtue of grabbing the best players from other schools.
Within the traditional definitions of what constitutes a school, in scholastic chess as well as in other sports, it is all about fairne… no, it is all about money. Jobs, fundraising, building programs - it is about the money. Winning trophies leads to some coaches keeping their jobs and salaries. I have seen coaches in state scholastic championships put extraordinary pressures on kids, some as young as 7, to win so that the team can win a trophy for the school. Come back with no trophy, and your program takes a hit. Coaches lose their jobs. Just like football coaches who have a bad season.
Now you can talk about how you volunteer your services and how many trophies your group has won. That is beside the point. Scholastic chess is increasingly becoming a business enterprise with paid teachers, travel budgets, scrambles for sponsorship, and profits. Some coaches jealously eye rival schools looking for weaknesses. They make disparaging remarks about opposing coaches and players. Even within volunteer or non-profit organizations, there are those who get paid and get perks. I know people do not want to hear about this reality, but it does not make it any the less true.
Wow! Is this true at most schools? At the middle school I coach, it is not all about trophies. In fact, I have a basement full of trophies because the school refuses to display them. They would be very happy if they never saw another chess trophy. What am I doing wrong?
I do confess to jealously eying rival teams…