March 6, 2025
Dear New York State Scholastic
Championship Players, Parents, Coaches and Guests,
Thank You All for registering for the 57th edition of the New York
State Scholastic Championships— one of the USCF’s longest-running
scholastic chess tournaments!
This
year we have the most players that this event has ever had in its history! We
again have had to cap entries due to space limitations. I want to Thank
Everyone who helped us keep our Wait List moving, including those who advised
us early that they would not be attending and those who made their requests for
section switches early. Because of everyone's help, we were able to move
97 players from the Wait List to the actual tournament.
PLEASE CHECK THE LIST OF ADVANCE ENTRIES AT OUR REGISTRATION
PAGE:
(or click here for a list of the advance entries).
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR PLAYER’S
INFORMATION IS LISTED CORRECTLY FOR THE TOURNAMENT SECTION, SCHOOL AND GRADE.
PLEASE EMAIL director@chess.us to
contact Continental Chess about corrections needed.
PLEASE EMAIL US AS SOON AS POSSIBLE REGARDING CORRECTIONS!
PLEASE
BE ADVISED: THIS CLOSE TO THE TOURNAMENT, WE MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO PROCESS
ADDITIONAL REQUESTS TO CHANGE SECTIONS.
Also
please see the New York
State Scholastic Championships website, which has standings and
pairings, and links to the information for this year as well as results from
prior years.
WE
WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE KNOWS WHERE THEY WILL BE PLAYING BECAUSE WE HAVE
THREE SEPARATE LOCATIONS FOR THE TOURNAMENT GAMES IN THIS LARGE EVENT!
The
Middle School Championship, K-8 Under 1600 and K-8 Under 900 Sections will not
be played in the Hilton Hotel or in the Saratoga City
Center. The Middle School sections are in a DIFFERENT location: in
the Excelsior Springs Ballroom, next to the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel. The Courtyard and the Excelsior Springs Ballroom are about a ten minute walk north of the Hilton along Excelsior
Avenue. The Courtyard by Marriott Hotel’s address is 11 Excelsior Avenue, and the address of the Excelsior Springs Ballroom, next to the hotel, is 47 Excelsior Avenue, in Saratoga Springs. You should
be able to walk to the end of the Hilton Hotel’s parking lot and then continue north on Excelsior Avenue, past the Olde Bryan Inn and
onto the Courtyard Hotel and the Excelsior Ballroom on the left.
We
understand the inconvenience in having the Middle School sections separated
from the rest of the sections in the Hilton Hotel by a 10-minute walk outdoors in the winter. However,
we are very fortunate to have such a first-rate tournament facility and hotel so close to the Hilton available and able to accommodate our large number
of players.
Five
sections of the tournament will be played in the Saratoga Springs City Center, adjacent to the Hilton Hotel
via an indoor walkway. The K-5 Under 1400 Section will be mostly played in Room
B on the first floor. The Elementary Championship, K-5 Under 1000, K-5
Under 600 and the Primary Championship Sections will all be playing in the Main
Hall on the first floor of the Saratoga Springs City Center, known also as Hall D.
The
K-3 Under 800, K-1 Championship and K-1 Under 400 Sections will all be held in
the Saratoga Ballroom of the Saratoga Hilton Hotel.
Note that the
Hilton Hotel has a reduced rate for parking for Chess
participants: $6 for up to four hours and $12 a day for overnight parking.
We recommend that
you sign up for our What'sApp Participant Groups,
where you can be updated quickly with important news about games in your
section.
The links to the What'sApp Groups will be on the Tournament Website at
chessevents.com
We will also try
to text the pairings to the individual players or parents (but receiving
pairings by text in an event as large as this will often be subject to delays),
and we will make them available on the tournament website as well. If you
registered online and provided your cell phone number with the texting pairings
option, you should be all set. If not, you can provide that information to
the Tournament Staff for future texting of pairings.
PLEASE BRING A CLOCK WITH TIME-DELAY. The tournament will provide sets and
boards but NOT clocks.
The
Skittles Room for these sections will be in Room M1, on the first floor of the Saratoga Springs City Center.
At
9:30 am Eastern Daylight Time on Sunday March 9th, we will also have a New York State Chess Association Open House and Tournament
Feedback Forum. Here you can learn about NYSCA, a 501 (c) (3) organization and America’s oldest state
chess association, and its efforts to promote and support Chess in New York
State.
Please email Continental Chess at director@chess.us if you have any questions.
Players
who are withdrawing from the tournament: Please
tell us your name, ID number and section. We request at least one hour's
notice if you are not coming to a game-- requests made less than one hour
before the round may result in your losing by forfeit.
Below
are some additional links to other useful information.
The
Continental Chess website, which has much chess information
and historical data.
The
New York State Scholastic Championships website, which has
standings and pairings, and links to the information for this year, links to What'sApp groups and results from prior years.
The
Tournament Rules
The
Kindergarten/First Grade Rules
The
Continental Chess Code Of Conduct
A
Parents’ And Coaches’ Guide To Scholastic Chess
Thank
You Very Much for your participation and we truly appreciate your support as we
strive to provide all of you with an excellent tournament!
Welcome or welcome back to historic Saratoga Springs, New York!
Steve
Immitt
Continental
Chess