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Join USCF! Join the ISCA! Join Indy Chess! What does it all mean?
If you are new to the chess community, all these memberships requirements/offers can be daunting, so we try to break down the basics for you here.
1) US Chess Federation (USCF) membership
This membership is required to play any "rated" chess event anywhere in the country because it gets you a US Chess ID number (or member ID#). If the event is advertised as "rated" (as opposed to unrated, or casual), the player will get an official rating based on performance that is tied to their USCF ID#, or see their rating go up or down after the event based on performance. It means the tournament director has to pay to upload an event report after the tournament, and a fancy algorithm calculates ratings changes, then sends the player an email a few hours later with your new rating report.
This membership costs $45/year for adults, about $20 for a kid, with other discounts available for seniors, families, etc. If a child is in 3rd grade and under, some tournament directors will get them a free junior membership, but it's only good for tournaments where they play other kids in 3rd grade or under. Some tournament directors don't mess with those memberships because of delays often involved in processing them.
2) Indiana State Chess Association (ISCA) membership
This membership is not required to play in any rated event (so far), but it DOES get you discounts as high as $10 off the four events that ISCA organizes annually: Indiana State Championship, Indiana Team Championship, the North Indiana Open, and the Southern Indiana Open. Other tournament organizers in Indiana have recently offered discounts on their independent events to ISCA members to support Indiana Chess, including the annual Michigantown Madness tournament in February 2022 and 2023, and the frequent, large BC Chess Club events like their tornado tournaments in Indianapolis.
This membership only costs $15/year, so pays for itself quickly if you participate in two large tournaments! A patron membership to support ISCA at a higher level is available for $30.
3) Indy Chess membership
Indy Chess is a local club, not a state or national association like those above. Membership in Indy Chess is not required to play in most of our events, but it DOES get you discounts to all of the 68 scheduled events per year (soon to be even more events!). For example, it gets a $5 discount to
any Tuesday Weekly Chess Night, a $5 discount to any Scholastic Sunday tournament, and a $10 discount to a week-long, all-day summer camp for a kid. As Indy Chess expands its programming to include workshops and more events, more discounts will be available, including 10% off chess/club merchandise that should be available by December 2023.
This membership is $45/year for an individual, or $65/year for a family. It pays for itself if you attend just nine (9) events, plus it helps subsidize Indy Chess's charitable programs, like all-girl workshops, summer camp scholarships, and clubs at under resourced schools. Remember, your first visit to a Tuesday Weekly Chess Night is free!
4) Other Notes
Most formal chess clubs in the nation use a membership model with annual dues/fees (St. Louis, Marshall, Charlotte, Mechanics' Institute, etc.). Many in and around Indianapolis do not. Some just have the registration fee for any rated event they run (like the popular BC Chess Club), and others have no fee at all because they just do casual chess (e.g., meet-ups at various libraries) with low costs. If you want to visit an event or meet-up, just email the organizer ahead of time and ask if they have any dues or membership fees. If it is a rated tournament, be sure to send them your USCF ID# in advance, and make sure it isn't expired!
FIDE: If you're not sure if you need to be a member of FIDE or not, you don't. We say that because the International Chess Federation (FIDE, or "Federation Internationale de Echecs") does not have many rated events in or near Indianapolis (yet), and players who seek that level of competition/rating are already pretty knowledgeable of the membership details for FIDE and why they might seek them.
Question about a membership? Email us at info@indychess.org!
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