# At what point of a tournament does a player need to be a USChess member? **URL:** \ **Category:** Running Chess Tournaments\ **Created:** [October 19, 2026, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899 "2026-10-19T23:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JorgeA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JorgeA](https://forum.uschess.org/u/JorgeA)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2026, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/1 "2026-10-19T23:16:13Z")
Our club runs tournaments in which rounds take place once a week, e.g. round 1 takes place on a Thursday, round 2 the next Thursday, and so on. Once in a while, a new player shows up at our club wishing to play but they haven’t yet joined USChess, or their membership has expired. What is acceptable policy in this case? Do we need to put an obstacle in their path by asking them to pay dues before playing, or can they simply play in that night’s round and then join at their leisure before the tournament is submitted for rating? Thanks in advance for any insights. ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 12:09pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/2 "2026-10-20T12:09:13Z")
JorgeA. . .One useful thing to follow is to have them be a USCF member of some kind. If they don’t want to buy a full membership, charge them for a $20 temporary membership and pay the fee yourself as the affiliate. Their membership needs to be current one way or another if they want to be rated. The other option is to have an unrated section in your tournament if you have enough players for it. Depending on someone to join in the near future is not the way to handle it. ---
**Author:** ![JorgeA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JorgeA](https://forum.uschess.org/u/JorgeA)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/3 "2026-10-20T14:35:19Z")
Thanks, Ken. It’s a question we’ve been talking about and I thought it would be useful to get more points of view here. The basic scenario runs like this: A player new to the club comes in to visit a few minutes before the second round starts, sees the buzz, and asks if he can join the fun. TD asks if he’s USCF, looks him up, and finds that he has an expired membership. (Alternative scenario: the new player has never been a USCF member.) TD has seen it’s time-consuming to join USCF on a phone and doesn’t want to hold up the start of the round. On the other hand, TD also doesn’t want to discourage the new player from participating, so he gives the player a half-point bye for the first round and asks him to join USCF during the week before the next round. Another factor is that there is an odd number of players, so adding the new player means that everybody gets to play that night. We understand that there’s an additional rating fee if the player never gets around to joining USCF. But if he does join USCF before the end of the tournament, then the game that he played before the dues went in still counts for rating, is that right? ---
**Author:** ![ulmont](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/ulmont/32/151_2.png) [@ulmont](https://forum.uschess.org/u/ulmont)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/4 "2026-10-20T15:24:15Z")
There are two answers here and one note. 1. The rules are fairly clear that a member must be a member for all the time of the tournament. > 23C. US Chess membership requirement. > For the inclusive dates of the tournament, each player must be a member in good standing of US Chess, unless US Chess regulations waive this requirement. 1. As a practical matter, it may be physically impossible to comply with that rule. Consider the case of a tournament beginning in October and continuing into November. A player with no membership joining in November can’t go back in time and sign up in October. So if the player gets the membership before tournament submission then the tournament can be submitted. 2. I would absolutely not let a new player play without getting them signed up online on the spot; players show up for one game and then disappear on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![JorgeA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JorgeA](https://forum.uschess.org/u/JorgeA)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/5 "2026-10-20T15:47:41Z")
Thanks @ulmont, this is good guidance. ---
**Author:** ![KenFarrar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KenFarrar](https://forum.uschess.org/u/KenFarrar)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/6 "2026-10-20T17:39:21Z")
The payment for the $20 temporary membership is online as well as paying to join the USCF for a year. ---
**Author:** ![user123](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.uschess.org/user123/32/3181_2.png) [@user123](https://forum.uschess.org/u/user123)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 8:29pm UTC](https://forum.uschess.org/t/at-what-point-of-a-tournament-does-a-player-need-to-be-a-uschess-member/61899/7 "2026-10-20T20:29:39Z")
I came across the following messages from a TD explaining to PlayerA why PlayerA’s won game appeared as forfeit win on US Chess crosstable. I wonder, in similar situation, is there an alternative way to handle? > We did not collect enough information from PlayerB to be able to get or generate a US Chess membership and it is dubious as to whether we will be able to. To be able to rate the event, we have treated it as a forfeit win and removed PalyerB from the tournament. US Chess doesn’t allow the event to be rated with a non-member. We are sorry it impacted PlayerA - the forfeit win doesn’t impact rating and it didn’t change his standing in the tournament. > PlayerB was an adult who had entered the tournament. He was told repeatedly before and during the tournament that he would need to buy a US Chess membership to play in this rated section, but refused to get one. After our final warning, he quit the tournament in the middle of Rd 4 rather than get a membership. > > We apologize that PlayerA won’t get official credit and the rating points for his win. However, because PlayerB lost all 3 of his games, he would start with a very low rating, in the 1-200s. So the amount of rating points PlayerA missed out on would have been minimal.