It's hard to believe the season flew by so fast, but Saturday, March 20 at 10am MST is the Idaho State Scholastic Chess Tournament (most of us simply call it "State"). The competition will be especially fierce this time around. Idaho scholastics just keeps getting stronger and stronger! This year, State will be held on Chess.com in the same manner as the qualifiers were. There will be three sections based on age: K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. There will be a maximum of five rounds in every section (note that Chess.com can cut the number of rounds based on attendance). Each player will have 30 minutes for their game plus a five second increment.
We, here in Idaho, tend to think of State as the ultimate scholastic tournament of the year. And it is certainly a big deal. However, State can rightly be seen as the qualifier for the US Chess national scholastic tournaments! Yup, the top players in K-5 will play in the John D. Rockefeller III National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions. The top players in 6-8 will be invited to compete in the Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions. And the top players in 9-12 will represent Idaho in the GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY! There are certain requirements that must be met for all players. These requirements will be fully enforced with no exceptions. Please do not wait until the last minute to get things straightened out.
(1) Regardless of a player’s qualifications, registration is mandatory. Register at https://bit.ly/21Scholastics. Note that practically everyone has been registered for the season. If you registered for any qualifier, then you are good. Please see the list of registered players below.
(2) Chess.com will launch the tournament at exactly 10 o’clock. Players not registered by tournament-start will receive a zero point bye for round 1. In some cases, Chess.com will not allow players to join late. This is out of our control. Please do not be late!
(3) Players must have current US Chess membership. Players without current USCF by tournament-start simply cannot compete.
(4) Players must be on camera via Zoom at all times or will be disqualified. Warning! Zoom uses quite a bit of network resources and can make Chess.com “laggy”. If your wifi tends to be slow or unstable, please consider playing the tournament at a location that has a solid, high-speed connection (friend or family’s house, parent’s office, library, etc). Players should use a typical face camera as found on most laptops. A good alternative is to use a mobile phone positioned behind and to the side in such a way that the player’s screen and face are clearly visible. This kind of phone setup also allows the possibility of running Zoom using one’s cellular network so the entire WiFi bandwidth is available for Chess.com thus avoiding laggyness (set-up required). Here is the Zoom link that you will need to use.
(5) Players must be totally familiar with online fair play rules. Violators will be disqualified and reported to US Chess for disciplinary actions up to and including permanent banning. Please take the time to review Fair Play on Chess.com!
If you are not on the roster or you need a correction, please message me on Chess.com or text me at (208)488-0676.
IMPORTANT LINKS!