2021 Texas State/ChessKid Online Scholastic Chess Championships

[Registration for this event is now closed.]

The Texas Chess Association and ChessKid.com are teaming up to present the 2021 Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships!

The tournament will take place on ChessKid.com on April 3rd, 2021 and will consist of 11 total sections. This event is open ONLY to students attending Texas schools including homeschoolers residing in Texas. 

In addition to awarding official state championships, the tournament will qualify players for later invitational events that will decide the Texas representatives to the Denker, Barber, Rockefeller, and Haring national events! See the official qualification spots available on the registration site.

Students can only play in the section for their specific current grade (in the 2021 Spring Semester). Students in sections beginning with 'K' may play in any section up to that section's upper limit, in either grade or rating. Students who qualify for the Under sections may play up in the Championship Section of the same grades. Unrated players may play in any section (Under or Championship) within their grade range. 

There will be live commentary with two familiar faces! You can watch on twitch.tv/chesskid or youtube.com/chesskidofficial.

Commentator GM Julio Sadorra, University of Texas at Dallas Head Chess Coach and now ChessKid commentary veteran!

Commentator "Coach Jay" Stallings, author of many highly-acclaimed children's chess books.

Early registration is highly encouraged! Entries received by midnight, March 22nd (Central Time) will be $35. Late entries up until midnight (Central Time), March 29th will be $50.

No entries will be accepted after March 29. Withdrawals are subject to a $5 processing fee per player. No refunds will be given for withdrawals after March 29th.

 

Main Details and Prizes

• All sections will play 7 rounds with a time control of Game 15+5 (15 minutes starting time with 5 seconds increment pre move). Expected total time for all players will be approximately 4-4.5 hours.
• All sections, Pre-K to 12th grade, play starts at 10am Central Time (9am Mountain) on Saturday, April 3rd.
• The top 10 finishers in each section, after tiebreaks, will receive a custom plaque via mail. The number of awards will be increased if the number of entries in the section exceeds 100 players, at the rate of one additional award for each additional 10 players. 
• Team prizes for the top three school teams will also be awarded. Up to four team members from the same school in the same section will be awarded plaques. In addition, the 1st place school team in each section will receive a team plaque for display at the school. A school team will consist of at least two players in the same section.
• Certain players in sections will also qualify to play in an invitational tournament to decide the Texas representatives to the Denker, Barber, Rockefeller, and Haring tournaments. The registration site explains the qualification spots available.
• There is no limit to the number of players who can compete from one school, but only the top four players from a school will be used for the team standings. Team changes may not be made after the start of the event and school are not allowed to designate more than one team in one section.
• ChessKid reserves the right to ask for proof of identity for all prize winners.
• Please note: The exact value of tiebreaks shown on ChessKid at the conclusion of the event may differ from the official results. All results -- including tiebreakers -- are tentative until the fair play review is completed. The chief TD will decide the final standings.
• Individual tiebreakers will be in the following order (again, note that ChessKid's internal Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak is not one of the first tiebreaks to be used):
  • 1. Modified Median
  • 2. Median
  • 3. Solkoff
  • 4. Sonneborn-Berger
  • 5. Cumulative
• Team tiebreakers will be in the following order:
  • 1. Total Individual Median
  • 2. Total Solkoff
  • 3. Total Sonneborn-Berger
  • 4. Total Cumulative

Special Rules and FAQs

• Championship sections are open to all players, including unrated, with the grades specified. JV and Novice sections are only open to those with established or provisional US Chess ratings below that threshold, including Unrated. 
• Ratings for pairings and section purposes are according to the higher of US Chess regular over the board ratings or US Chess Online Quick ratings. The US Chess March 2021 Rating Supplement will be used. This event will be US Chess Online Quick rated after it concludes.
• All players must be current members of the US Chess Federation before registration and memberships must be current through April 30, 2021. 
• Students may play only in a Championships or Under section allowed by their grade and rating. For example, a K or 1st grade student may play in K-1, K-3, or K-5 sections. Students in 5th grade or below cannot play in sections higher than a K-5. Students in 6th-8th grade can only play in 6-8 sections and students in 9th-12th can only play in 9-12 sections.
• If a player does not have an established US Chess rating (Regular or Quick Online) in the March Rating Supplement and is therefore 'unrated', then they may play in any section allowed by their grade.
• The tournament staff will have discretion over determining if a child's multiple ratings qualify them for an 'Under' section.
• There will be a warmup event on Saturday, March 27th at 10am Central/9am Mountain, which is highly encouraged for kids to play and practice using the site. This tournament will be 5 rounds of 5+1 and will only take one hour. (There are no prizes as this is a practice tournament--the intention is to test your computer, internet, and get used to registering and playing in an event.)
• Unrated players will be listed at a rating of 400 on the tournament day for tournament purposes.
• Although team prizes will be awarded, there will be no pairing restrictions. Although it may not happen often, teammates may play each other depending on their scores.

Fair Play Rules

• Every game will be subject to review by ChessKid's fair play systems, ChessKid staff, and tournament directors.
• Players are not allowed to use outside assistance of any kind. That includes no computer assistance, no human assistance, no watching the live stream, no tablebases, no databases, no books, no notes, no past games, or scorebooks, no use of a second chess set to analyze variations.
• Players are only allowed to have one tab open on their browser-- the tab in which they are playing. No other websites are allowed to be open during the event. Players with more than one tab open will be considered to be breaking fair play rules for this event and can be disqualified on this basis alone as a "technical forfeiture."
• Any fair play violations may results in removal from the tournament, forfeiture of games, and possible further sanctions from the Texas Chess Association or US Chess Federation.
• As per the new US Chess rule, this tournament may take up to three works to do fair play review and certify the results. The crosstable that is generated on ChessKid after the event is not official and should not be treated as such.
• Parents are highly encouraged to talk with their children before the event to discuss what is not allowed. Please join the Texas Chess Association and ChessKid in helping kids understand that chess teaches honesty and integrity.

 

Technical Details

• All games will be played on ChessKid.com's live server. No account is needed and if you already have an account, you won't need that either. Special one-time use tournament accounts will be created for all players. 
• Each section will be open for kids to 'join' the tournament about 30 minutes before the first round. Here's a video on how a child joins a live tournament on ChessKid. If you try to register after the starting time, you may not be able to play. It is required that you 'join' before the tournament starting time.
• ChessKid highly encourages playing on a laptop/desktop computer and not a tablet. Wifi is usually stronger and the site functions better. If you can plug in to an ethernet port, that is best. The reality of online play, even with the world champion, is that Wifi failures can impact an online tournament.
• If you must play on a tablet, the web site version is the only way (opening a browser on your device). The app will not work for this.
• Preferred browsers are Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• Clearing your browser's cache before the tournament is another great protective measure.
• If you experience issues in the middle of the game or the tournament, clicking 'refresh' on your browser is the first thing to do. If you 'refresh' in the middle of a game, it will never kick you out of the game and can only help.
• Two kids cannot play at the same time on the same device.
• If a family has any issues with logging in, playing, etc, there will be a live help desk on Slack that will open one hour before the first round.

Good luck and register now!