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 2026 schedule:

    Dates Event Director/Assistant Director  
  Mar 5- Apr 2 Kickoff Swiss/Quad Aaron Biscoe / Ed Snyder  
  Apr 9 - Apr 30 Spring Swiss Ed Snyder / Donald Anderson  
  May 7 - June 4 Memorial Swiss/Quad Donald Anderson / Aaron Biscoe  
  June 11- July 2 Independence Swiss Aaron Biscoe / Ed Snyder  
  July 9 - Aug 6 Founders Swiss/Quad Ed Snyder / Donald Anderson  
  Aug 13 - Sept 3 Summer's End Swiss Donald Anderson / Aaron Biscoe  
  Sept 10 - Oct 8 Autumn Swiss/Quad Aaron Biscoe / Ed Snyder  
  Oct 15 - Nov 5 Halloween Swiss Ed Snyder / Donald Anderson  
  Nov 12 - Dec 17 Holiday Swiss/Quad Donald Anderson / Aaron Biscoe  
  Jan 7, 2027 - Feb 7 week Club Championship
and Gap & Bridge Swiss 		Ed Snyder / Anderson  

 

  • 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 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 wins accumulated over the year.

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. Yeah, 43% sounds reasonable enough. But there are no easy games in the West Chester Chess Club.

Good luck to everyone. And have fun.