Moving up to a higher NSCF Scholastic Chess section.

The NSCF has been receiving requests from players who want to play in a section that requires a higher rating than the player has achieved. The following describes our firm policy in this matter. There are no exceptions; please do not contact the NSCF office or any NSCF officer or staff member to request an exception.

The qualifying rating to use

For the purpose of qualifying for a higher section, either an official published rating (current or next month's) or your latest post-tournament rating may be used. If you do not know how to find these ratings, see the Rating to Use page.

Future Masters (1400 and over) section:

You can play in the Future Masters section (one time only) if (you have a rating above 1350 or if you score 4-0 in the Championship section. After the one-time shot, you can play there again only if your rating is 1400 or higher.

Championship (1000 and over) section:

You can play in the Championship section (one time only) if you have a rating above 950 or if you score 4-0 in the Elementary/Reserve section. After the one-time shot, you can play there again only if your rating is 1000 or higher.

Elementary/Reserve (600-999) section:

At this time, there are no provisions for players with ratings below 600 to play in the Elementary/Reserve.

Continued qualification

Once you have a qualifying rating over the minimum for the Future Master or Championship section, you can continue to play in that section unless you can no longer produce a qualifying rating no lower than 50 points below the section minimum. Thus, if both of your latest monthly ratings as well as your latest post-tournament rating fall below 950, you must move to a lower section than the Championship in your next tournament

How to apply

If you meet any of the required criteria listed above and you wish to play up, please choose the higher section on your application form and indicate why you qualify. If applying online, enter the minimum rating for the section you wish to play in, then use the comment field provided at checkout time to indicate why you qualify. Remember, for the Future Masters and Championship sections you can qualify one-time only while your qualifying rating remains below the section minimum.

Note: These options apply only at registration time. You can not switch your section once a tournament has started, whether you had prior knowledge of these regulations or not.