2025-2026 Scholastic Regulations

Updated Jan. 23, 2026 with a new version of this year's regulations. 

These new regulations include:

10.10.1   Special circumstances might require infrequent and temporary adjustments to the tournament schedules outlined in this section. In such cases, the Director of Events, in collaboration with the Scholastic Council and the Chief Tournament Director, is empowered to change the start times and/or time controls (see 10.11.1) for any number of rounds across any sections. Additionally, the total number of rounds might be reduced; however, maintaining the originally scheduled number of rounds is the highest priority, and a reduction should occur only when absolutely necessary. Changes should be made first to Unrated sections, then to Under sections, and only finally to Championship sections—and secondarily to lower grade sections before higher grade sections. When any such change is required, US Chess will disseminate the information widely and as early as possible.

The Scholastic Council and the Executive Board have approved the 2025-2026 Scholastic Regulations. This year’s regulations can be found here. Substantive changes in this year’s regulations include:

• If the venue seating capacity allows, US Chess will make every effort to accept onsite entries at our National Scholastic events. See Section 3.2.2, which is completely revised for 2025-26.
• In Section 3.2.3 we specify upper limits for Early Entry and Late Entry Fees. See also the table in Section 4.5.2 which lists Early Entry deadlines for several of the Spring 2026 National Scholastic events.
• Section 4.7 includes provisions to help ensure that players listed as Unrated are Unrated. When a player listed as “Unrated” in the tournament rating supplement receives an Over-the-Board or Online rating after the tournament supplement is published that player is likely to no longer be considered as unrated.
• Players listed as “Report to Section Chief for Pairing” on the Pairing Chart could be paired for a round. Please read Section 10.1.4 through 10.1.6 and the accompanying footnote carefully to understand what is new because it may affect you or a teammate.
• In Section 13.5.7, US Chess now includes additional measures for handling suspected fair play violations.

If you have questions about the regulations, please contact Director of Events Pete Karagianis at Click here to show email address.