I don’t think I actually organized a rated event until after my club’s long-time president retired to another state, and I was already an ANTD by then. I still haven’t organized an event of either 50+ players or having cash prizes. Organizing is a related, but different, skill set and I’ve directed for dozens of people that did quite well organizing but wouldn’t want to even try to TD.
Mike Nolan already mentioned JTP. It is a way to get a K-3 section of a regular tournament that has 50+ players.
Any affiliate can run a K-3 event, a K-12 event can only have players who are students at the school for the scholastic affiliate running the event.
I think the EB has been looking at expanding the JTP program in light of our 501(c)(3) status.
In conjunction with some type of low-cost or free affiliate registration (no magazine), that might be one way to make it easier for nascent TDs to run events. Whether you could get 50+ players is a separate issue, but even running a few quads can present issues that TDs need to learn how to handle.
JTP K-12 looks like a very suitable program. Just to confirm, for $40 a year, my school club can host USCF-rated tournaments in which the players do not need to have USCF membership (but still receive ratings)?
I don’t expect to get 50 players by a long shot, I would be happy if 10 showed up .
Correct. There are a few other limitations. The players in a K-12 event must all attend the school that has the scholastic affiliate, and no adult house players are permitted.
When you go to submit the event online, once it knows it is a scholastic affiliate (one that begins with the letter H), it will offer the JTP K-12 option and memberships will not be required once that is selected. Players still have to have a valid US Chess ID, which you can generate online. (I would recommend you collect name, birthdate, address and email address for all participants, so you can generate any IDs. It’s a good idea to collect that information for any tournament you organize.)
If a JTP players doesn’t already have an ID then you add them as a non-member player to generate an ID. You use that ID in the rating report, you select the JTP option for the section on the upload validation screen, and you may have to also flag each such non-member as a JTP player (I don’t remember off-hand if that last flag is needed).
Just remember that if a player’s membership has expired (and JTP is being used) that you use the ID from the expired membership - you don’t need to, and are not supposed to, create a new ID for the player.
Thanks for the info. Are adult (member) players allowed in K-12 JTP tournaments? Our club counselor is perhaps the second strongest player in the school and he would like to get a USCF rating one of these days.
As the JTP regulations currently stand, the only players in a membership-exempt JTP event must be the players who are membership-exempt for that event, ie, players in grade 3 or below for K3 JTP events and players who are students at the school holding K-12 JTP events. No adult house players, regardless of their membership status.
As noted up-thread, if there are players who have existing IDs, regardless of whether they are current members or not, you use their existing ID rather than generate them a new one.
Prior to the 2019 Delegates Meeting there were no requirements that spanned multiple sections, each section has been treated separately as long as the TDs have sufficient certification to direct the event.
One of the proposals at the Delegates Meeting was for a no-fee or low-fee affiliate type that could have higher ratings fees if the total number of participants in all sections exceeded some limit. If that proposal passed, the implementation of it has not yet been programmed so I don’t know what impact it might have.
So a scholastic affiliate could run an event with 3 sections: A K-3 section involving students from several schools, a K-12 section involving only students from that school, and a section open to anyone. Only the open section has to require current memberships.
Okay, I have a few more questions about JTP and K-12 affiliates if you would be so kind to answer .
Does the school have to go through any official process to register as an affiliate, or can I just register on behalf on the club?
Will the fact that all the players are unrated affect rating too severely? I routinely beat everyone in the club with only a pitiful 1230 USCF rating - I don’t know the specifics on how unrateds playing each other works, since there is nobody else rated but me.
I don’t know what the office does to review/approve scholastic affiliates, most of the time there’s at least a faculty ‘sponsor’, I think.
If any of the players have a rating, that helps anchor the post-event ratings a bit, but we can rate events where all the players are unrated.
Players will be assigned a starting rating based on their age x 50, so someone exactly 16 years old has a starting rating of 800.
If you’re the only player in your school with a rating, but are the director, you probably shouldn’t be playing in the event. It isn’t forbidden but it is discouraged.
Maybe you can find someone at your school willing to become a member and a club TD, and you can take turns directing events.
Unfortunately I’ve come across another potential hurdle - the lack of time at lunch to play a dual-rated G/30 game. Is adjournment still okay to do if you trust every one of the players not to cheat? (i don’t think they know what a chess engine is anyway)
If they’re inexperienced players, I’m not sure a chess engine is going to give them much help. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it, just adjourn the games if you have to. (I suspect half or more of them will finish in less than 30 minutes anyway.)
You could always use faster time controls. As far as I know, there’s no requirement that the events you use for taking TD exams be regular or dual rated. Of course, that means the players don’t get regular ratings.
The reason I wanted to make it dual rated was so the players would get regular ratings - since the tournaments will be very small, I’m not hoping to gain any SrTD credit. But if I recall correctly the experience does need to be at least Dual rated, because there are options to substitute Quick events for normal credit at the rate of 2-1.
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