If you’re relatively new to Oregon Scholastic chess, you may have played at a couple of OSCF qualifier tournaments this year but still not have qualified for OSCF State in Seaside.  That’s because you may not yet have an established rating (ratings have a way of bouncing around a lot early in a player’s career, and having an artificially high or low rating at State isn’t good for competition).  The list of players currently in the “have two qualifiers, need established rating” category is here.  How do you get an established rating?  Look after the break to learn more….

For most scholastic players in Oregon, the way to get an established scholastic rating is by playing 15 NWSRS-rated games in your entire chess career.   (So once you’ve met this requirement, you never need to worry about it again.)  To see how many career games you have, if any, go to this website and look yourself up, if you’re there, look under the “#Gms” column.  If that number is 15 or more, you’re set.  If it’s not, you need to get it to 15.  (If you’re not even on the list, you haven’t played any NWSRS-rated events yet (note that Chess for Success tournaments are unrated), but you will show up as soon as you play a qualifier tournament.)  If you have played a lot of USCF-rated events, but no NWSRS rated events, contact us.  (If you don’t know what that means, it likely won’t apply to you!)

How do you get more rated games?

1) Every OSCF qualifier tournament you play will add rated games, so play more tournaments.  Note that byes don’t count, nor do forfeit wins or losses.  Note that Chess for Success doesn’t rate their tournaments, so those games may make you a better player, but since they’re not rated, they don’t help us know which section to place players in at State, so they don’t count, either.

2) If you politely ask the tournament organizer at one of the tournaments you attend, they might be willing to find another player for you to play an “extra game” against.  They can then turn them in for a rating along with their tournament report.

3) The rated games do not have to be tournament games.  If you follow these basic rules, you can have a mini-tournament at your own club or in your neighborhood, and turn those games in for a rating.  If you have questions about this, please contact us.