Texas Team Championship 2024

If you're an individual looking to form a team, please fill out this form and we will be in touch to see if we can help you. You can also join our Facebook group team tourney community chat and create a post. Click here to link to the group chat to find other players.

Date: January 19-21st, 2024; Friday night is a fun filled evening of unrated Blitz and Hand & Brain chess! Sat/Sun is the rated rounds.
Time: Look for the event itinerary below.
Venue: Crowne Plaza Houston Galleria located at 7611 Katy Fwy, Houston, TX 77024. GPS Link. Plenty of free hotel parking.
Hotel Info for Travelers: We have a discounted room rate of $104 per night which includes complimentary breakfast on both Sat/Sun morning. Registration link here.
Who Can Play: You must have a current USCF membership. All players must have a TCA membership to compete in this event. Juniors this is only $3 a year. College students $3 a year. Adults $5 a year. Details here. Check to see if you are a TCA member here. There is NOT a requirement to be a resident in Texas to play in this particular event.

Sections: Two sections available, OPEN and SCHOLASTIC (scholastic section is limited to students or homeschooled in grades preK-12) OPEN section is a 2-day 5 round G/90;inc30 event. Scholastic section is a one day, Saturday only, 5 round G45;d5 event.

Team Regulations for the OPEN SECTION: 5 round Swiss, this is "fixed roster" team event, each team is restricted to 4 boards, time control G90;inc30, 3 rounds on Saturday, 2 rounds on Sunday. Each team will consist of 4 players with ONE additional alternate for a total of 5 players. Lowest rated player will be the alternate. An alternate is not mandatory.. however, if one player of your main team gets sick or something happens then you will face a dilemma! Highest rated player shall be assigned to play board 1, all others shall be assigned in descending order by rating accordingly. Average rating of the 4 player team must be UNDER 2200 based on the Dec 2023 USCF supplement rating. Any foreign player residing in TX with a FIDE rating but without a USCF supplement rating will be assigned a rating of 100 points plus their FIDE rating. Unrated players, whether foreign or domestic will be assigned a base rating of 1500 unless there is a higher post tournament provisional rating based on recent tournament play.
Prizes/Awards for the OPEN SECTION: 1st, 2nd, 3rd place TEAM Trophy Cup plus individual medals for all members of award winning teams. 1st place team wins minimum $500 guaranteed. 2nd place team wins $300 minimum. 3rd place team wins $200 minimum. Prize fund is $2,000 based on 32 teams registered. Special biggest upset award trophy. Top High School Team Trophy (grades 9-12, same school), Top Middle School Team Trophy (same school, grades 6-8), Top Elementary School Team Trophy (same school). The top high/middle/elementary is for 1st place only. Individual medals will also be awarded to the team members of the 1st place winning High/Middle/Elementary teams. *NEW* Added Top U1600 Team Trophy plus Top U1300 Team Trophy +individual medals for the team members for those two teams.

Team Regulations for the SCHOLASTIC SECTION: To form a scholastic team, members of each team do NOT have to be from the same school. Average rating of the combined team members must be no more than 1000 (i.e. if you have four players rated 1400, 1150, 750, 700 = average rating of 1000). Use December 2023 Supplement rating for all calculations and board order assignments. Each team will consist of 4 players with ONE additional alternate for a total of 5 players. Lowest rated player will be the alternate. An alternate is not mandatory.. however, if one player of your main team gets sick or something happens then you will face a dilemma! Highest rated player shall be assigned to play board 1, all others shall be assigned in descending order by rating accordingly
Following awards are available for the scholastic section only:
1st place Plaque or Trophy plus individual team member medals
2nd place Plaque or Trophy plus individual team member medals
3rd place Plaque or Trophy plus individual team member medals
One Biggest Upset Individual Award
Scholastic teams are eligible for the special contest awards (ugly sock, chess hat, best team name).

Byes: If you need to request byes for rounds you know you can't attend in advance, please text 281.698.0068.
Rating Info: This event will be USCF Rated and FIDE rated (for open section only). Request for a FIDE ID if you do not have one.
Entry Fees: $200 discounted EF IF ALL TEAM MEMBERS HAVE TCA MEMBERSHIP / $225 regular EF per team (which includes all TCA fees) if paid by 10pm cst 1/17/24. Final deadline to register is 01/17/2024 after which pairings will be done and teams will get the opportunity to prepare against their opponent(s). A team captain/coach/guardian will need to register each team collectively and make a one time payment. We are not taking multiple EF payment registrations from individual members of each team.

Special Team Awards:

Best TEAM NAME. Come up with a unique team name such as "Zugzwang Zealots", "Chess Soul Crushers", "Stalemate Scam Artists", "Blunder Prone Wizards", and so forth. No you cannot use any of the previously mentioned team names if you want a chance at this award. The best named team will win a special commemorative award emblazoned with their team name!
Best CHESS HAT(s). At a minimum ONE chess themed hat per team must be brought to the event if you want to compete for this award. It will be cooler if all team members each have and wear a hat for picture taking purposes. Those who make the effort to create 5 hats will get more brownie points over a team who only supplies ONE hat. Of course if the ONE hat is super elaborate in comparison to 5 really basic ones then that does matter. You will NOT be wearing the hat(s) during the competition itself during a round. Winning best chess hat team will receive a gift card award.
UGLIEST SOCK Contest. All members (4 minimum) must wear the ugly socks for round 1 of the event. Pictures will be taken. The team wearing what are deemed the ugliest socks amongst all teams competing will win a special award. The socks do NOT have to be chess themed.

Hand & Brain Tourney: Friday Jan 19th! $20 per 2-player team entry fee. G/8;d0. 5 rounds. 70% of entry fees returned in cash prizes distributed to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams. Each two player team consists of one Hand and one Brain. The two players work as one. The Brain names a piece, R, B, N, Q, K or p and the hand choses the move for that piece (legal moves only of course!) The brain cannot indicate which specific piece (not the dark square bishop or P on c4) JUST the type of piece. This takes place Friday at 645pm. Bring cash and register in person by 630pm or pre-register online here. EF is bumped to $22 due to cc processing fees.
Unrated Blitz Tourney: Friday Jan 19th! This is an individual player event, not a team event. $20 Entry fee. 70% of entry fees returned in cash prizes. Prize amounts to be determined based on # of entries and sections. Sections TBD day of depending on # of entries. 7 rounds; G/5;d0 time control. Standard US Chess blitz rules shall be followed. Bring cash and register in person by 8pm. Or register via credit card ($2 more to pre-register due to cc fees).

Playing Equipment Guidelines: Boards and sets will be provided. Bring Clocks! Do not wear any electronic headphones/earbuds or electronic watches. Phones must be completely turned off and placed near the board on top of the table in the provided bins. Alternatively don't bring a phone into the playing hall at all.

Questions? If you can't find the answer after reading thru all the info on this page, TEXT 281.698.0068 or email [email protected]. Do not call. TEXT PLEASE or request a call back. Calls will have to be returned on weekday evenings or weekends. TEXTS will get responded to the fastest.

Submit Team Information Via Google Forms

Another option is fill out the PDF form found here and email it in.

If you'd prefer to email in your team info, please gather the below info and input into the above pdf form link or via email to [email protected].

team name
team captain name, email & phone number
individual 4 team members names, USCF ID and FIDE ID numbers plus info for one alternate member
if you INSIST that you do not need or cannot find an alternate member, put NO ALTERNATE in those fields - however I caution you that if one or more of your team members get sick it will put your team in a bind if you don't plan ahead and have a backup alternate member

Venue Photos

Pairings can be found in our FB group posts!

Itinerary for Open Section:

Itinerary for Scholastic Section:

Registered Teams (open section):

Note, all ratings shown should be USCF Dec Supplement ratings as advertised. Calculations and board order are based on DEC ratings.

Texas Team Championship Jan 2024.