2023 National High School Championship: Special Announcement

What is the purpose of this announcement?

This announcement outlines changes that US Chess is making to its normal event operations at the 2023 National High School Championship . The changes apply only to this year’s event and only the specific days of Thursday, March 30, and Friday, March 31.

Why are these changes being made?

Our national scholastic events generally follow the same format from year to year. This year, due to a series of contractual points with the Washington Hilton, we have some space issues that we are working around.

What are the changes?

These changes will affect the following operations.

The Bughouse tournament will be held across several neighboring conference rooms within the Washington Hilton on the morning of Thursday, March 30, beginning at 11 am.
- The Bughouse tournament will be capped at a maximum of 44 teams.
- Registration for the Bughouse will be onsite at the Hilton, with the usual 10:00am deadline.
The Blitz tournament will be held in the Palladian Ballroom of the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW, Washington DC 20008, beginning at 5 pm.
- The Omni Shoreham is 0.8 miles from the Washington Hilton (approximately a 5-minute drive by car or a 15-minute walk).
- The Blitz tournament will still have the same registration cutoff, start time, and time control.
- We plan to offer free shuttles between the Washington Hilton and the Omni Shoreham. Details will be provided soon.
- US Chess will be releasing a separate Blitz tournament announcement once details are finalized. We expect to put that announcement out no later than Monday, March 20.
- There will be a separate online Q-and-A session regarding the Blitz tournament, with scheduling to be announced soon.
The Skittles area (Columbia) will not be available until after 6:00pm Friday, March 31.
- The hotel is providing additional seating on the Concourse and First Floor levels to help accommodate those who are waiting for players.
Many of the team rooms will not be available until after 6:00pm Friday, March 31.
- US Chess has prepared a separate announcement regarding team rooms for teams, programs, and organizations that have reserved one.
The main vendors (Chess Store and the T-shirt concession) will not operate at full strength until Saturday morning, April 1.
- These two vendors will ultimately be in the Skittles room (Columbia).
- The Chess Store will have a pop-up location on Friday morning, with their most tournament-relevant offerings (particularly chess clocks) for sale. The exact location of that pop-up store will be announced at a later date.
The Girls Club will likely not open before the morning of Saturday, April 1.

So, what happened here?

There are multiple events booked at the Washington Hilton during the early part of the 2023 National High School Championship. These events have space needs that conflict with ours. Our contract was signed after the contracts for these other events. However, we were not alerted to the space conflicts until very recently. We were able to resolve some of the conflicts, but not all of them.

We should be operating as normal by the end of the night on Friday, March 31.

Is there anything else I should know?

The cooperation of our players and other attendees will be critical for the success of this event, even more so than usual. In particular, we ask for your patience and understanding on Friday morning, March 31. While we won’t have a Skittles area until later that evening, there will be space throughout the hotel to sit. We encourage all parents and coaches to make advance plans for meeting with players after their first round games. We also encourage you to attend our online town hall (date to be announced), where we will be able to answer your questions.

US Chess apologizes to our players, their parents, their coaches, and our event partners for the changes to this year’s event and the resulting inconvenience. We thank all of you for your continued support, and we pledge to provide a quality event.

I still have questions. Where can I ask them?

Contact Boyd Reed, US Chess Director of Events, at Click here to show email address.