Let's start with some links to general information about team tournaments. New to team chess? Read an introduction to team chess. Prefer learning by video? Try this overview. If you are unfamiliar with the role of captains at a team tournament, check this out. Not familar with a pairing sheet? They can be in alphabetical order or in board order. As for scoresheets, this is what one looks like. Coaches, download and print off your team roster sheets (fillable version). Finally, understand the intricacies of team tiebreaks by checking this out.
Now we move on to the form. School and coach information is straight forward. I will communicate first by e-mail, so please give an email address that you will actually check. A phone with texting capability is a plus.
Division is simply the age group in which you want to play.
The dropdown menu under "Team A, Team B" gives you a way to distinguish your teams if you have more than one in a Division. If you have only one team in a Division you can skip this menu. If you have more than one, your strongest team should be the A team, your next strongest team should be the B team, etc.
We now begin to enter our players. Recall that your strongest player on this team should be on Board 1, your next strongest on Board 2, etc. Notice it's first name first. Please try to get the spelling correct. We now get to the most important part, the United States Chess Federation (USCF) number. EVERYBODY WHO PLAYS AT FINALS MUST HAVE A VALID USCF NUMBER. A great many will already have a number. Anybody who has played in a Team Finals or in an Individual finals already has a number. Anybody who has ever played a rated game of chess already has a number. For students playing in the 3rd Grade & Under Division, if they already have a number, they are set. They don't need to worry about it being up to date. If they don't have a number, they can get one for free by going to this site and filling out the form completely and accurately. I will soon e-mail a number to you. Older students must have a USCF MEMBERSHIP. Again, many already will have one. To determine your USCF status, go to https://new.uschess.org/player-search and search for your name. If you don't find it, you will have to buy a new USCF membership. If you find your name in the database but your membership is expired, you will have to renew it. For both, go to https://new.uschess.org/join-us-chess If you have already have a USCF number, be sure to include it in your form so that you do not get another one. This all sounds a little confusing, I know, if you have never dealt with USCF before. If you are not quite sure about how it works, please email me with your questions. We want to get this right, and we don't want duplicate numbers for anybody.
An alternate way to get a USCF number is through this page. The advantages are 1) Simplicity and 2) I will look it over for errors, duplicate IDs, etc. and 3) you will save $1 in cold, hard cash. The disadvantage is that it may take a few hours for me to process.
Every team needs at least 3 players, so all of the fields in the first 3 rows have to be filled out. You can have up to 7 players on a team although only 4 play at a time.
When you finish with a team, you will see you have some options at the bottom of the form. I believe they are all easy to understand. Just take the time to read and follow the directions carefully.
Please use the navigation buttons on the FORM, not on your browser. You are likely to lose your work if you use the Back or Forward buttons on your browser.
The form has 4 pages. You can enter up to 4 teams from one school on the first page, up to 2 more teams on the second page, up to 2 more teams on the third page, and the fourth page is for checking out. If you are paying with PayPal, the form will take you to PayPal after you confirm your entries. There you can pay with a PayPal account or a credit or debit card. If you get to PayPal, the form has done it's job. From there, it's between you and PayPal! There is also a box to check if your school insists you write a check, and a box to check if you want to pay by Zelle. In that case, your entry is not official until I receive your payment. Please pay at once.
When you successfully submit the form and pay, you will receive an e-mail in response, as well as a receipt from PayPal or Zelle if you paid with one of those. Hang on to them. I will try to update entries at least daily. Please don't consider your entry successful until you've seen your team listed at http://joepye.net/sci/2024TeamFinalsEntries.htm.
I have done numerous successful trials with this form, but it is too much to hope that it is error free. If you have any problems, let me know at once and we will work them out. Remember, we are both - you, the coach, and me, the amateur web page designer - working towards the same goal - getting our kids signed up for a chess tournament. Work with me and we'll get it done.
Good luck, and always feel free to contact me at scichessin@gmail.com if you have questions.