Attention USCF Members!

New Dues Rates and Tournament Rules are coming in 2012

The USCF Board of Delegates passed a number of motions in August of 2011 that will directly impact tournament directors and affiliates starting in January of 2012, if not sooner.

Most dues rates were revised slightly, a table showing the new rates is included later on in this note and is also available at the TD/Affiliate Support Area. One change worth noting: All one year or longer memberships will now be eligible for the $3 affiliate commission.

In addition, tournament memberships will be discontinued in January of 2012 and will be replaced with three month trial memberships. These trial memberships will include three copies of Chess Life or two copies of Chess Life for Kids. We hope to start offering these three month trial memberships in early October. Like tournament memberships, these trial memberships can only be sold by USCF affiliates at tournaments.

In addition to the dues changes, quite a few changes were made to USCF tournament rules. A full update to the rules changes made since the publication of the 5th edition of the USCF rulebook should be available on the USCF website in October, but we want to give you some advance (if still unofficial) notice of the changes that are likely to affect organizers and TD.

The most significant of these rules changes as far as TDs and organizers are concerned are probably the ones dealing with allowable time controls.

As you may already know, rule 5Fa was deleted from the rulebook by the Delegates in 2010, with an effective date of January 1, 2012.

Rule 5Fa is the rule that allowed TDs to subtract one minute of time from a delay-capable clock for each second of delay or increment used, even if that is not stated in pre-tournament publicity.

That rule will no longer be part of the rulebook as of January 1, 2012! TDs will no longer have the option to subtract time from the clock for the initial time control.

In order for organizers to be able to continue to run tournaments at time-limited venues and have those events dual rated, the new time control rules will take into account both the total time per player and the number of seconds of delay or increment used in order to determine which rating system(s) that event should be rated under. TDs will also be required to report time control information, including the delay or increment setting used, when submitting rating reports.

As before, there must be at least 5 minutes of time on a player's clock at the start of the game in order for the section to be USCF ratable. Also, sections which do not have a sudden death final time control will continue to be regular rated only.

If the total time per player (in minutes) plus the amount of delay or increment (in seconds) is at least 30 and no more than 65, that section will be dual rated.

If the total time per player (in minutes) plus the amount of delay or increment (in seconds) is greater than 65, that section will be regular rated only.

If the total time per player (in minutes) plus the amount of delay or increment (in seconds) is at least 5 and no more than 29, that section will be quick rated only.

For example, a section which has a time control of Game/25 with 5 seconds of delay or increment will be dual rated, because 25 + 5 is 30. However, a section which has a time control of Game/26 with 3 seconds of delay or increment will be quick rated only, because 26 + 3 is only 29.

Likewise, a section which is Game/60 + 5 seconds of delay or increment will be dual rated, but one which is Game/55 + 15 seconds of delay or increment will be regular rated only.

If you run events with time controls around Game/30 or Game/60, you will need to make sure that the advertised time controls are what you want in order for the event to be rated under the rating system(s) you intend.

If a player does not have a delay-capable clock, then the time on the clock is set to the same amount of time that a delay-capable clock would be set to.

In other words, if the event is Game/25 with 5 seconds of delay or increment, an analog clock would be set to 25 minutes, not 30 minutes!

Any deviation from these rules must be included in all pre-tournament publicity for that event, including the TLA.

TLAs for 2012 events will need to specify what increment or delay setting they are using in order to make it clear to players exactly what the time control is.

A new online editing form will be available in October which will include several new fields to support the new time control reporting procedures.

You can get a sneak peek at this new form by going to https://secure2.uschess.org/TD_Affil/tnmt_edit_test.php. Comments on this prototype of the new online form for entering or editing rating reports can be sent to Mike Nolan, mnolan@uschess.org, through Friday, September 23, 2011. There is also a topic on this new reporting form in the USCF Tournaments Forum.

USCF Dues Rates as of 1/1/2012:

Membership Type
 Details
 1 Yr
 2 Yr
 3 Yr
Adult
 12 issues of Chess Life
 $46
 $84
 $122
Adult
 No Magazine
 $40
 $72
 $104
Senior (65 or older)
 12 issues of Chess Life
 $40
 $72
 $104
Young Adult (Under 25)
 12 issues of Chess Life
 $33
 $61
 $88
Young Adult (Under 25)
 No Magazine
 $26
 $47
 $67
Youth (Under 16)
 6 issues of Chess Life
 $28
 $51
 $73
Youth (Under 16)
 No Magazine
 $22
 $40
 $57
Scholastic (Under 13)
 6 issues of Chess Life for Kids
 $24
 $43
 $61
Scholastic (Under 13)
 No Magazine
 $17
 $30
 $42
Family Membership
 Plan 1 - With Adults
 $75

Family Membership
 Plan 2 - No Adults
 $47

Life Membership
 12 issues of Chess Life annually
 $1500

Senior Life Membership (65 or older)
 12 issues of Chess Life annually
 $750

Life Benefactor
 12 issues of Chess Life annually
 $3000


All of these memberships are eligible for a $3.00 affiliate commission.

In addition, the USCF will start offering three month trial memberships soon.

Three month trial memberships will be $15 for those over age 24, with three issues of Chess Life, $10 for those under age 25, with three issues of Chess Life, and $8 for those under age 13, with two issues of Chess Life for Kids.

Trial memberships are not eligible for an affiliate commission.