In each section of the tournament, players can join together to form a team. The team score is the sum of the top 4 scores among the teammates. Team trophies will be given to the top teams competing in each of two types of teams:
Schools - students on a single campus under one principal.
Clubs - clubs must meet for at least 8 months per year and be a USCF affiliate, limited to 10 players in a section, players must have attended 6 regularly scheduled meetings of the club in the previous 3 months. (A club officer must be able to provide verification that players are eligible to compete for their club.)
Players may represent both a school and a club. The exact number of team prizes varies by section. For schools, we will be using the “Plus 2 Pairing” rules, so you won’t in general play a teammate unless you both have at least a +2 score and there is no other way to pair your scoregroup. For clubs, we will avoid pairing teammates until the last two rounds of the tournament. But for those final two rounds, club affiliation will be ignored in the pairing process.
Because the Grades 7 to 12 U1000 section has become very large, we have decided to divide it into two sections, removing all of the unrated player, pairing and awarding individual prizes separately for those currently with and without ratings, but combining them for the awarding of team prizes.
In order to help us keep track of the teams entered, ensure that each is placed in the proper category, and help us to maintain contact should additional information be required, we are asking that coaches or other contacts for a team, fill out a form and either submit it by email or include a printout with an entry.