Thursday Chess in West Chester, PA
The West Chester Chess Club plays USCF rated OTB chess on Thursdays!
- You will need an active USCF membership to play. You can purchase or re-activate a USCF membership at the USCF site. Please do so at least a day before to insure that the USCF fully processes your membership.
- Please arrive no later than 7:30PM to register. First time players should arrive earlier so we can process your membership.
- Later arrivals run the risk of not being paired. Please see the club's check-in policy for more details.
- Players are split into two sections, a > 1600 section and a < 1600 section. Players > 1500 may play in the > 1600 section at the TD's discretion.
- Club play is limited to players 16 years or older (excluding younger players who were active members prior to June 25, 2025). Please see the club's policy page for more details
Every four Thursdays the West Chester Chess Club runs a USCF rated swiss tournament. You can start play in the Swiss at any time, and play as many nights as you can make. The swiss tournaments run for 4 weeks. You can join a swiss at any round. You do not have to start play in round 1.
The following is the remaining 2026 schedule:
- Please arrive by 7:30 at the latest to register. EARLIER IS BETTER AND HELPS THE TDs. Pairings are then set and play begins at 7:40.
- In the first four Thursdays of an event, games are 1 hour and 30 minutes, delay 5. So just one game but it can last for hours!
- Where noted above the last day of a swiss is a quad, where you are paired with three other closely rated players. Games are 30 minutes, 5 second delay
Club dues are $20 a year and are pro-rated depending on when you join. First visit is free!
For directions to the club, visit this page.
About the Club Championship:
You need to play 12 Open games to qualify to play in the club championship. Over the years we modified it to limit the field to the top 8 Open Section players based upon the number of Open wins accumulated over the year. Quads do not count.
We play 9 four round swiss tournaments for a maximum of 36 points (by attending each week and going undefeated).
The race to qualify for the 2026 Championship begins Thursday 2/20 as we get back to regular order with the Kickoff Swiss. If you win 43% of your Open games, you have a good chance of getting into the championship. It sounds reasonable enough. But there are no easy games in the West Chester Chess Club!
Good luck to everyone. And have fun.