2nd Annual ChessKid USA Girls and Women's Championship on April 16th!

Registration is now closed but we invite you to watch this fun event on Saturday, April 16 at 9am PT/12pm Eastern. WIM/FM Alice Lee and WIM Jesse February will call the action at twitch.tv/chesskid!

ChessKid is excited to announce that we're bringing back the Second Annual ChessKid USA Girls and Women's Championship. The tournament will take place on April 16th, 2022 at 9am PT/12pm ET and is open to all female chess players in the USA. Individual and team prizes will be awarded to all scholastic players and the women's section will feature individual prizes.

Just like last year, the event will be US Chess Online Quick rated and all US Chess unrated scholastic players will also receive a one-year membership included with their tournament registration for free. The event will feature four scholastic sections: K-3; 4th-5th; 6th-8th; and 9th-12th grade sections. There will also be a Women's section for players 18 years or older. 

 

TOURNAMENT DETAILS

When: Saturday, April 16th at 9am PT/12pm ET

Entry Fee: $30 early entry by April 4th; $40 by April 12th. No entries will be accepted after April 12th. Note -- in order to play in the warmup event, you MUST register by the early deadline of April 4th. Players without a previous US Chess membership will receive one free for one year and ALL scholastic players will receive three months of free ChessKid gold membership.

Sections: This tournament will feature a K-3, 4th-5th, 6th-8th, 9th-12th, and Women's section. Note that in the girls sections, you are not allowed to "play up" into a higher grade. You must play in the section of the grade that you currently in.

Format: For the K-3 and 4th-5th sections, players will play six rounds of Game 10+5 second increment. For the 6th-8th, 9th-12th, and Women's sections, players will play six rounds of Game 15+5 second increment. 

***Please note that this tournament is only open to girls/women who are playing from inside the USA or one of its territories.

***Current US Chess memberships are required; this event will be US Chess online quick rated. Note that ChessKid will provide a US Chess scholastic membership for all new players. This offer does not apply for existing or expired US Chess members or for the women's section.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Registration for this event can be found here

• The early registration fee will be $30 if received on or before April 4th by 11:59pm ET time.
• Registration from April 5th-April 12th will be $40. There will be no registrations accepted after 11:59pm ET on April 12th.
• ChessKid will create an unique username for use in this event.
• Everyone who registers by the early registration date of April 4th will receive their username by Friday, April 8th and will be able to participate in a warm up event on April 9th. 
• Everyone who registers after April 4th will receive their username in time to play in the main event on Saturday, April 16th.

 

PRIZES

Girls Individual Awards: We'll be awarding individual plaques for the top three in each section along with a year of free ChessKid Gold Membership. In addition, the top 10 girls in each section get to participate in a chess camp led by a female GM!

Girls Team Awards: Plaques for the top three teams for the top three scores from each school in each section. 

Women's Individual Awards: Plaques for the top three women and the top 10 women get to participate in a chess camp led by a female GM!

Mother/Daughter Awards: The top three mother-daughter pairs (combined score) will also receive plaques!

 

FAIR PLAY

ChessKid expects that all children and their families will abide by the rules governing fair play. Both the child and the parent/guardian will have to agree to our fair play policies when registering for the event.

This is what will be agreed to upon registering for the event:

• ChessKid will run this event with the highest level of integrity and ethics. All players must play fairly and use good sportsmanship.
• We strictly forbid cheating of all kinds. ChessKid will use its own algorithms to monitor games and also will manually analyze select games at its discretion.
• All of your moves must be your own. You will not get help from anyone or anything else, including coaches, friends, parents, chess engines, or any other software of any kind.
• You will also not have a phone, tablet, or any other electronic device in the same room.
• You are only allowed to have one browser tab open and no other programs running on your computer. Violating this rule is a “technical forfeiture” and you will be disqualified, with no chance at prizes.
• You agree that ChessKid will make the final determination on any fair play issue.
• If you violate the ChessKid Fair Play Policy, then ChessKid will close your account and label it as having violated the Fair Play Policy.
• If you are not willing to agree to the above policies, you will not be allowed to play in the event.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

• All games will be played on ChessKid.com's live server. No account is needed and if you already have an account, you won't need that either. Special one-time use tournament accounts will be created for all players.
• Each section will be open for kids to 'join' the tournament about 30 minutes before the first round. Here's a video on how a child joins a live tournament on ChessKid. If you try to join after the starting time, you may not be able to play. It is required that you 'join' before the tournament starting time.
• ChessKid highly encourages playing on a laptop/desktop computer and not a tablet. Wifi is usually stronger and the site functions better. If you can plug in to an ethernet port, that is best. The reality of online play, even with the world champion, is that Wifi failures can impact an online tournament.
• If you must play on a tablet, the web site version is the only way (opening a browser on your device). The app will not work for this.
• Preferred browsers are Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.
• Clearing your browser's cache before the tournament is another great protective measure.
• If you experience issues in the middle of the game or the tournament, clicking 'refresh' on your browser is the first thing to do. If you 'refresh' in the middle of a game, it will never kick you out of the game and can only help.
• Two kids cannot play at the same time on the same device.
• If a family has any issues with logging in, playing, etc, there will be a live help desk on Slack that will open one hour before the first round.

For any questions about the event, please email us at [email protected]