Tournament Life / October Information for Organizers, TDs, and Affiliates ORGANIZING A 2014 GRAND PRIX EVENT
To qualify, an event must be USCF-rated (regular or quick) and meet these criteria:
• All USCF-rated players over 2199 must be eligible to play in the top (or only) section.
• The prize fund for which all masters are eligible MUST equal or exceed $300 guaranteed; $150 be guaranteed to first place; no more than one prize under $100 may count towards the Grand Prix (GP) total; and prizes below the maximum entry fee do not count towards the GP total.
• Class prizes for Under 2300 or a higher rating requirement qualify towards GP points, but if they exceed 25% of the total qualifying GP money, they count as 25% of the total.
• Other than entry fees and USCF dues, no charges over $25 are permitted.
• The tournament must be submitted for the Tournament Life section of Chess Life and designated by the submitter as a GP tournament.
• Only players who are USCF members during the tournament may earn GP points. Foreign grandmasters, international masters, women grandmasters, and women international masters can play without being members, but they will not obtain GP points unless they join.
• Conditions concerning USCF GP tournaments are subject to review and adjustment by the USCF executive director.
The top prizes must be unconditionally guaranteed (or if a GP event’s prize fund is based on entries, only the absolutely guaranteed minimum payout counts for point awards) and an nounced in Chess Life.
Even if prizes are raised at the tournament, no additional points can be award- ed because the bonus would be unfair to players who may otherwise have entered. If you have questions about the Grand Prix, please contact Walter Brown at
wbrown@uschess.org or 931-787-1234 ext. 142.
ORGANIZERS, TDS AND AFFILIATES
To speed up the processing of rating reports, USCF now asks that wherever possible these reports have IDs for every player. If you collect a new membership, do not submit your rating report until your disk and paper reports include that player’s ID number.
To assist tournament directors (TDs) in doing this, we have made several enhancements to
70 October 2014 | Chess Life
our web server which will speed up on line membership processing and give TDs a quick way to obtain USCF IDs for new memberships.
We also recommend that TDs use the Member Services Area to check for member IDs. The search capabilities of MSA have been enhanced to assist TDs in finding existing member IDs.
For more details, please check the USCF website:
www.uschess.org/rtgchange.php.
PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS HEALTH AND BENEFITS FUND
Many GP tournament organizers will contribute $1 per player to the Professional Health & Benefits Fund. All GP tournaments that participate in this program are entitled to be promoted to the next higher GP category—for example, a 6-point tournament would become a 10-point tournament. Points in the top category are promoted 50 percent.
NO TOURNAMENTS IN YOUR AREA? WHY NOT ORGANIZE ONE?
It’s not much work to hold a small tournament, and there is little risk if you use a low-cost site and avoid guaranteed prizes. You might even make a profit! Either a based-on Swiss with projected prizes up to $500, a quad format, or a trophy tournament will virtually guarantee taking in more in fees than you pay out in prizes.
The affiliation fee is just $40 a year. You will have access to the TD/Affiliate area of our website.
Remember, you can both run and play in a small event. Many of them wouldn’t be held if the organizer/TD couldn’t play.
Want to know more? Contact Joan Du Bois at
joandubois@uschess.org.
We’ll be glad to help you be part of the promotion of American chess!
SUBMISSIONS
If at all possible, please e -mail your TLAs. This will help to reduce errors.
tla@uschess.org fax: 931-787-1200
TLA Department U.S. Chess Federation PO Box 3967
Crossville, TN 38557
TLAs received after the 10th of the deadline month will not appear in the issue currently being pro c essed.
CHESS LIFE TLA DEADLINES Cover TLA must be Tournaments
date Jan. Feb.
received by beginning Nov. 10 Dec.10
Jan. 15 Feb. 15
March Jan. 10 April Feb. 10
April 10
July May 10 Aug. June 10 Sept. July 10 Oct. Aug. 10 Nov.
Sept. 10 Dec. Oct. 10
May March 10 May 15 June
Expected release
End Dec. End Jan.
March 15 End Feb. April 15
June 15 July 15 Aug. 15 Sept. 15 Oct. 15 Nov. 15 Dec. 15
End March End April End May End June End July End Aug. End Sept. End Oct. End Nov.
Guaranteed Grand Prix points awarded for: Top Prizes
$300-$499 $500-$749 $750-$999
$1,000-$1,499 $1,500-$1,999 $2,000-$2,499 $2,500-$2,999 $3,000-$3,999 $4,000-$4,999 $5,000-$5,999 $6,000-$9,999
8 2 10 5 12 8
14 10 6 16 12 8 4
18 14 10 6 2 20 16 12 8 4
22 18 15 12 8 5
24 20 17 14 11 8 6 26 22 19 16 13 10 8 6
$10,000-$29,999 30 26 23 20 16 13 10 8 4 $30,000 & up $ (Enhanced)
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th Tot 6
6
10 15 20 30 40 50 60 80
100 120 150
36 32 29 26 21 18 14 12 8 4 200 54 48 44 39 31 27 21 18 12 6 300
Points involved divided equally (rounded to two decimal points) among tied players.
USCF MEMBERSHIP RATES
Premium (P) and Regular (R) (U.S., CANADA, MEXICO) Type
Adult P Adult R
Senior (65+)
Young Adult P (U25)* Young Adult R (U25)* Youth P (U16)* Youth R (U16)*
Scholastic P (U13)* Scholastic R (U13)*
1 yr 2yr 3yr
$46 $84 $122 $40 $72 $104 $40 $72 $104 $33 $61 $88 $26 $47 $67 $28 $51 $73 $22 $40 $57 $24 $43 $61 $17 $30 $42
Premium membership provides a printed copy of Chess Life (monthly) or Chess Life for Kids (bimonthly) plus all other benefits of regular membership. Regular membership provides online-only access to Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids. Youth provides bimonthly Chess Life, Scholastic bimonthly Chess Life for Kids, others listed above monthly Chess Life. See
www.us chess.org for other membership categories. Dues are not refundable and may be changed
without notice. *Ages at expiration
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