Evanston Scholastic Chess is a group of parent volunteers who have run community-based over-the-board chess tournaments for K-8 students for over 20 years.

Our tournaments are open to any K-8 student who either lives in or goes to school in Evanston, Illinois.

Due to the pandemic, we have moved our annual tournament series online using lichess.org.

Tournament Dates:
Tournament 1: Saturday, December 19, 2020
Tournament 2: Saturday, January 23, 2021
Evanston Girls tournament: Saturday, February 6, 2021
Tournament 3: Saturday, February 27, 2021
Tournament 4 (Evanston Championships): Saturday, March 20, 2021

Time Control: for all players is G/20+3 (20 minutes playing time for each player with 3 seconds added for each move).

Rounds:
5/SS (Five rounds, paired using the Swiss system)
Log in to Lichess.org and join your assigned tournament/section by 9:50 a.m.
Round 1 10:00 a.m.
Rounds 2-5 begin hourly after that (11:00, 12:00, 1:00, 2:00).

Cost:
Cost for the ENTIRE tournament series is $16.00
This includes all four regular tournaments and the girls’ tournament

Awards
Following each tournament, complete results will be listed on our results page. First, second and third place winners in each section will be highlighted.
Students who accumulate at least four points (wins) over the course of the four regular tournaments will receive an award at the end of the season. Those with more points will receive a larger award. These season awards will be distributed through volunteers at each school.

Registration:
There are four steps to register for our tournaments. If your child has participated in our practice tournaments, you have likely already done the first three steps.

1. Get a free account at https://lichess.org/signup for your child. Feel free to choose a creative and anonymous username if you like.
2. Login to lichess using your child’s account, visit https://lichess.org/team/eschess, click JOIN TEAM, solve the puzzle on the second page, and click JOIN TEAM.
3. Fill out the Google registration form: https://forms.gle/4fmhfRggFZJxRSDM6
4. Fill out the form including US Chess ID if player is a member, school name, and grade, and pay the entry fee at https://kingregistration.com/event/2020-21-ESChessSeason. This pays for all four tournaments (and the girls’ tournament if applicable).

Families in need: Due to the economic challenges presented by COVID-19, Evanston Scholastic Chess offers free season tournament entry to any family who has lost at least one wage earner OR is currently receiving free or reduced lunch at school, no questions asked. Email EvScholChess@gmail.com if you need this assistance.

Please do NOT register your child unless they are a K-8 student who either lives in Evanston, Illinois or attends an Evanston school. Those who register non-Evanston students will have their registration returned minus a $5 processing fee.

Registration fee deadline
Your child can join the tournament series at any point; however, you must pay the registration fee by Thursday at 12:00 noon before their first tournament in order to receive a link for that tournament.
 
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT:

Players are assigned to sections
ES Chess maintains its own rating system. Players are divided into one of five or six sections based on their previous performance in Evanston Scholastic (ES Chess) tournaments. Those who don’t have an ES Chess rating will be assigned to a section based on school grade, lichess.org rating or US Chess rating. A list of players by name with their current section assignment is available here.

Getting ready to play
Two days before each tournament, you will receive an email for each player in your family including a link and a password for the tournament/section that player is assigned to. If your child doesn’t want to attend that day, disregard the email.
We will also include:

• a link to a Zoom help room in case you’re having difficulty getting started on lichess or have difficulties during your game
• a Zoom link to the chess clinic, where your child can go over games when they’re not playing.

On tournament day
Use the link and password you were provided for each child to access the tournament room 10 minutes before the first round. Each child may be assigned to different sections, so be sure to use the correct link. Always use the most recent link you were provided: you get a new one for each tournament. Please do not share the link and password with other players.

After the tournament
Players can view tournament results by lichess user name at https://lichess.org/team/eschess.
Tournament results by student name, including recognition of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place overall winners in each section, will be available at the ES Chess web site.