The Livingston Scholastic Chess Tournament is our major tournament which is organized 3 times a year - fall, winter and spring. The winter edition was held in January and was a success as more and more of our chess kids are getting better at competitive chess. Also, they tend to have a better understanding of the playing conditions, rules and regulation of the game as directed by the US Chess Federation. It also serves as an opportunity for training as professional chess players with them getting use to notation, chess clocks and a chance to boost their ratings.
For this tournament, we have 5 sections namely Rookie, Novice, Junior, Primary and Reserve. The sections are categorized by ratings and as such each kid's rating would determine what section he/she plays. Although most of the sections are US Chess Federation rated and require US Chess membership - Novice, Primary and Reserve, the rookie section is for beginners and as such, it's not rated and does not require any memebership.
We do adjust the rating benchmark for each section so as to ensure that kids with same playing strength are put in the same section.