All tournaments are organized by the Youth Chess Charitable Foundation.

Please remember that all entry forms and payment must be received by the Thursday before the Saturday Tournament to avoid a late fee and to ensure that you play the first round.
We do not pair late entries for the first round. As a result our tournaments start and end on time. Late entries receive a ½ point bye for the first round.

For those participants involved in sports or other activities a ½ point bye is available for any round except the final round.
Our tournaments are 5 round swiss, game 30 minutes and are open to any scholastic player from kindergarten to senior in high school. We have 5 sections [ K-1; K-3; K-6; K-8 and K-12.]

The tournament is open to individuals, school teams and club teams. Teams consist of at least 2 players from each school or club. The top 5 players from each school or club in each section count towards team trophies. [Club teams and school teams currently compete against each other for team prizes. We may revisit this and have separate prizes for club teams and school teams. What do you think?]

Trophies and Awards in each section:

• Ribbons are awarded to all participants with less than 2 points
• Medals are awarded to all participants with 2 or more points, who do not otherwise receive a trophy
• Trophies are awarded to the top 3 teams in each of 5 sections (K-1; K-3; K-6; K-8; K-12)
• Trophies or plaques are awarded to the top 15 individuals in each of 4 sections (K-3; K-6; K-8; K-12)
• All Participants in the K-1 section are awarded trophies or plaques.
  This section also plays in an area separate from the main tournament area

Traditionally, we have the most and best trophies, awards and prizes of any Scholastic Chess Tournament. In the past, our local sponsors have always been generous with providing free tickets and/or coupons for sporting events and/or food services.

We normally have at least one chess master on site to provide limited group chess instruction and individual game analysis. This is free to all participants and is a good opportunity to receive some excellent chess instruction and analysis at no cost. We encourage all participants to have at least one of their own games analyzed. One of the best and most effective chess learning techniques is game analysis.

These chess masters are also often available for individual; team; club; group; and/or school lessons! Please inquire directly with these chess masters for rates; schedules; levels of play that they teach; locations where they teach; etc. The host schools normally also provide some form of entertainment after the tournament and before the Awards Ceremony. This has helped ensure that our tournaments are unique in the scholastic chess world and also provides a wonderful opportunity for our kids to showcase their talent for 15 to 20 minutes to 300-400 people while we await the determination of the final results.

Please note the entertainment does not add extra time to the tournament. It does allow you to be entertained [If you wish] while waiting for awards. If you do not wish to be entertained please leave the awards area until we commence actually handing out awards. This courtesy will allow those who wish to hear the entertainment to actually do so. This year we will ask anyone who is disruptive or disrespectful to our student entertainers to leave the awards area until awards are ready to be handed out. If you have no interest go outside and play. In any event, please show all student entertainers the respect that you would like to receive if it were you providing entertainment. [Coaches and Parents please help with this.]

We also normally have chess vendors on site to provide the opportunity to purchase books, supplies, chess sets, chess clocks, etc.

Please email me at youthchessorg@aol.com or call me at my cell (661) 510-7118 or office (661) 827-9076 if you have any questions.

We look forward to another exciting chess season. We hope to see all of you there.

Viva Chess!

Youth Chess Charitable Foundation
David Huff, Executive Director
Grace Navea, President