On Chess Tournament Rules
One of the most important things in joining a tournament is knowing the pertinent rules in it. In learning online chess tournament rules we are probably curious to know who sets them. Here are some facts about rules setters and online chess rules.
First of all, we should know that traditional chess rules also apply to chess online. All the rules on moving chess pieces observed in traditional games are the same rules observed online. But rules on moving pieces are not the only ones observed in the game online. There are others like ratings. As far as ratings are concerned there are two bodies that oversee rules on them—the USCF and the FIDE.
The United States Chess Federation, or USCF, is the biggest chess society in the country. Members of this organization, some 80,000 strong, base their online chess tournament rules for ratings on USCF standards. To be a member of this group we are required to participate in an online chess tournament. USCF comes out with 2 magazines regularly; Chess Life, which is for adult chess aficionados, and School Mates, for student players.
When we're talking of international standards for chess ratings, we should refer to FIDE standards. FIDE, or the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or World Chess federation, provides the internationally accepted rate standards in chess. A chess rate is how players are ranked according to their play skill and number of wins and losses. Internationally, the ELO chess ratings are used for gauging skills of professional players who play international tournaments.
As far as the USCF ratings are concerned, the range observed is from 100 to something like 2900. For pupil or student members the rating is around 600 to 1300. To be rated we have to get a membership to the USCF first after which we should play in a USCF tournament where ratings are used.
This shouldn't be a problem at all because most USCF tournaments are rated. For schedules and venues we may refer to any Chess Life magazine issue. We may also try visiting their site at http://unitedstateschessfederation.com/.
We may have to play tournaments for months to get a 900 plus rating. Normally, having had 10 to 20 rated games played can establish a consistent rate already. If we want to have our USCF rating translated into FIDE rating just deduct 50 points from our USCF result.
Online chess tournament rules rely on traditional game rulings plus chess ratings. This should make everything well ordered.
