• This is the home page for Virginia Scholastic Chess Championships Qualification Tournament #1

• There are three (3) Qualification Tournaments, the next ones are February 27-28 and March 20-21.

• Through participation in the Qualification Tournaments players earn Team Points for their schools, and individual players qualify to play in the Virginia Scholastic Chess Championships to be held in April.

• To maximize your school's Team Points you and your schoolmates should play in ALL THREE tournaments.  Playing in all 3 events also increases your chances to qualify for the State Championships in April

• Saturday and Sunday, January 9-10, 2021.  This is NOT an elimination event, players play all 5 rounds.

• This is an online tournament being hosted by Chesskid.com.  You DO NOT need to be a member of Chesskid.com to play.  All players will receive an event-specific username for this tournament

• Rounds 1-3 are on Saturday Jan 9 at 10AM, 1:30PM and 5:00 PM (this is a change from 4:30 PM).  The Time Control for all 3 rounds is Game in 60 minutes, with 10 seconds added for each move.  The "official time" for each player is the time displayed by the Chesskid.com virtual chessboard on the player's screen.

• Rounds 4 and 5 are on Sunday, Jan 10 at 10AM and 3PM.  The Time Control for the Sunday games is Game in 75 minutes, with 10 seconds added for each move.

• You do not need a separate chess board or chess clock to play.  You also do not need to take Chess Notation (it is optional).

 The answer is YES if you can meet any of these Eligibility Requirements: 

• Players in grades pre-K through High School who are enrolled in school in Virginia

• Virginia residents who are attending K-12 school in WV, MD, NC, DE or an adjacent state or Washington, DC

• Children of active duty military personnel who are stationed in Virginia

• You are being Homeschooled in Virginia

• Only Virginia-based schools may earn team points

• If you have a question about Eligibility, click here to send us a note.

• Under normal conditions our State Championships is an over-the-board tournament held in early March.  The COVID-19 pandemic, and its impacts on schools across the Commonwealth, makes this format impractical in the current schoolyear. 

• To crown state champions the VA Chess Federation (VCF) will organize the events as described below.

• See (and download) details and the full set of rules by clicking here.

 Registration has closed.

Click Here to see who is registered already ...

• Click on the Registration button above

• Registration Fee for EARLY ENTRY is $35 through Tuesday, Dec 29th.  The entry fee increases to $50 beginning Dec 30th.

• All Players must be members of the US Chess Federation.  To join US Chess or renew your membership, go to www.uschess.org.

• A personal computer or laptop computer (players cannot play using a cell phone or tablet)

• A stable internet connection

• A reliable mouse or pointing device

• You do NOT need a web camera to play

• We will provide all players with more detailed instructions in mid-December
• We also plan to have a couple of "dial-in information meetings" for parents, coaches and players ... dates TBD between Jan 5 and 8th.

• In most cases, players will be paired using the HIGHER of their US Chess ratings for Regular Over-the-Board and Online play as listed in the US Chess Rating Supplement being used for the tournament. The possibilities include:
  • Player has no Online Rating or Over-the-Board (OTB) rating:  This player is Unrated.
  • Player only has Blitz or Quick ratings, no regular Ratings:  The player is considered Unrated.
  • Player has an Online Regular Rating and no OTB regular Rating:  The Online Rating will be used.
  • Player has only an OTB regular rating:  The OTB rating will be used.
  • Player has a regular ratings in both OTB and Online systems:  The higher of the two ratings will be used.  Provisional Online ratings reflecting less than 10 games will not be used when compared to a regular OTB rating.

  • Player's OTB and Online regular ratings are both Provisional:  The higher of the two ratings will be used, even if they reflect fewer than 10 total games in either system.

• Except as described above, players with "provisional" US Chess ratings are NOT considered unrated.

• Unless it is completely avoidable, players will not be paired against teammates earlier than Round 3 of a Qualification Tournament. 
• "Completely unavoidable" means more than 1/2 of the players in a Section or in a SCORE GROUP of that section are from the same school's team.

• To earn Team Points for your school.  Schools whose players play in all three (3) Qualification events have a much better chance of maximizing their Team Points for the Team Awards after the last qualification tournament (see below).

• To try and qualify for the State Scholastic Invitational Tournament

• Each Qualification Tournament will award individual and Team place trophies based on the number players and Teams in each Section.