Welcome to the Georgia Chess Association (GCA), a non-profit organization committed to creating and supporting an actively engaged chess community in Georgia for both adults and junior players.
For events targeted to adult, collegiate, or strong scholastic players, please refer to the Open Events section below. School-age chess players (Kindergarten through High School) and their parents will find the Scholastic Chess section an excellent starting point to learn about tournaments, chess clubs, and summer camps, as well as a source of general information about individual and school team competition. Additional material, including tournament photos, can be found on Facebook under the search Georgia Chess Association.
To read about chess news and players in Georgia, please visit our on-line magazine Georgia Chess News.
New! Weekly Sports Podcast Covers 2017 Georgia Collegiate Team Chess Championship
Scholastic Volunteers
For those of you who would like to see scholastic tournaments continue, you will need to get involved. GCA is a volunteer run organization. We haven't had volunteers step up this year to form a new committee for the 2017-18 school year. Current scholastic committee members have been volunteering for years and will not be available next year. If you can volunteer to help run one of the following tournaments next school year please contact scholastics@georgiachess.org: Quickstart!, Grade Levels, MLK, State Qualifier, K-8 State Championship, HS Team, Invitational. If you can't help coordinate, there are jobs needed to be filled that can be done from home. The most important being Scholastic Registrar - it's not rocket science but you need to be able to learn user-friendly membership software and have access to email (communicating with parents/coaches). We will train you for any job you take on.
We'll be wrapping up the year in April/May and would love to be able to transfer knowledge, experience, motivation to a new team. Please reach out.
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”
~Elizabeth Andrew
Featured Events
2017 Phillip Taylor Georgia State Championship - Friday-Sunday, April 28-30 at Emory University, Cox Hall Ballroom. Separate Scholastic tournament on Saturday, April 29 at the same location. GCA annual meeting and election of board members will take place on Sunday afternoon between the last two rounds of the Championship.
Open Events
Single and multi-day tournaments are available year-round for players of all ages, many of which offer cash prizes to top scoring competitors as well as state championship titles.
Scholastic Chess
Scholastic events are hosted for Kindergarten through 12th Grade students enrolled in public, private, home-based, and independent study schools. Tournaments range from beginner to statewide championships and allow students to compete as individuals and/or as members of a school team. Scholastic tournaments may be rated (USCF membership required, www.uschess.org to join) or unrated, and players compete for trophies, stipends and individual or school rankings. Tournaments are typically one full weekend day, although some beginner tournaments may take place in a single afternoon, while experienced players may compete in multi-day scholastic tournaments.
