This note is offered to alert players of the need to join the Irish Chess Union; and to provide additional information about Irish chess scene to those who are somewhat new. Finally, you are being invited to join a local chess tournament on December 1st at the Carlton hotel!
Joining the Irish Chess union
You do need to consider joining the Irish Chess Union if you are to play rated competitive chess games. The Irish Chess Union information is available at www.icu.ie . The ICU runs an individual membership. This means you must join the ICU yourself by completing the form on their website. For example, the cost for a new junior to join is €10. Joining means you join for a full year (annual subscription) and no further costs arise.
As a club, we do need our senior and junior players to join the ICU so that they obtain chess ratings and can play in team events.
As the club will shortly run two RAPID chess tournaments, I am adding some information below which may assist those who are new to the chess world.
1 Rated chess games
In joining the ICU, you ensure your competitive chess games are rated. You can then obtain an international (FIDE) and Irish Chess rating (ICU rating) when participating in Irish chess tournaments or Irish team events. Chess Ratings tend to be a very accurate guide to how strong/weak both you and your opponent is at chess. Having a rating also is critical for club and national team selection and especially if in time you wish to be considered for Irish representative teams. (Blanchardstown often has three or four players who are strong enough to play for Ireland so , yes, you do need a rating to be considered!)
2 Types of chess tournaments (rating system)
Having mentioned chess ratings, it is helpful to describe the types of chess played. Tournament chess competitions fall into three categories, depending on how much time a player has for his or her moves.
For example, in Blanchardstown club as they meet on Saturdays, our juniors often play 5-minutes chess using the chess clocks. This is called Blitz Chess. Allowing a little more time , say 15 minutes, and perhaps a few extra seconds each time a move is made, is called Rapid Chess. These types of chess are somewhat new being supported by modern chess clocks which can handle the task of adding extra time each move. Classical chess is however still the most popular form of tournament chess. Here a player is given perhaps two hours for their moves, with 30 seconds added each move. This is the form used to determine the World Chess Champion.
So, summarising rather roughly we have:
BLITZ: 5 minutes each, to play all moves
RAPID chess: 10 minutes all moves, with 10 seconds added each move
Classical Chess: 90 minutes for first 40 moves, 30 minutes for following 20 moves and 30 seconds added each time a move is made.
3 How can you get a FIDE rating?
You simply need to play in rated chess tournaments. Probably you need to play around 10 games and a rating can be calculated.. The ICU website (www.icu.ie) has a calendar section showing when rated events are being held. So, simply play in any event described as FIDE rated.
4 Finding a local chess tournament?
There are not many rated chess events in Dublin West. So our Blanchardstown club has decided to host two events at local hotels very soon (December 1st; January 12th). This means that if you play in those, your chess rating journey will have commenced because you will obtain a FIDE Rapid Chess rating!
5 GENS UNA SUMUS – Sunday December 1st, JUNIOR and SENIOR RAPIDs – How to enter?
In brief: the event will be held on December 1st, at the Carlton Hotel (Tyrellstown) – the games are played on Sunday afternoon (juniors) and evenings (senior event).
You can join the event now by entering via the ICU website. Reads the flyer for full details. See https://www.icu.ie/events/1933 .
[Quick guide: Go to www.icu.ie; look at “Upcoming events”, and click on “Calendar” located at bottom – scroll down to December 1st and you will see the event details for GENS UNA SUMUS]
Gens Una Sumus – translates as “we are all one family“, which is the motto of the International Chess Federeation (FIDE) and a sentiment we all share both as a club and as a locality
Blanchardstown Chess committee
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