Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Utah Chess Association Chess Excellence Scholarship Fund

Mission Statement: This scholarship fund is designed to encourage youth (ages 5-24) throughout the state of Utah to pursue excellence in chess and to promote intellectual development through this fun and wholesome recreational activity.

Purpose: Chess is perceived as a very inexpensive activity which can be learned in the home and pursued as a hobby and/or recreational activity for a life time. This Utah Chess Association scholarship is designed to reward students for excellence in their chess who want to achieve more than a hobby and who want to represent Utah on the national and/or world stage. This scholarship is also designed to allow individuals and businesses to have a means to contribute to Utah youth who have achieved national recognition and whom may want to pursue chess nationally and internationally.

Requirements for Awards

1. Youth ages 5-24 must reside in the state of Utah for 6 months prior to an award being issued.

2. The Activity Requirement will be 30 rated games (either USCF or FIDE-rated – if FIDE-rated, submitted to the USCF for verification) in the past 12 months in which the award is to be disbursed. Match play and/or Quick rated games are not counted in the aggregate of the 30 required games.

3. Qualifying by Personal Right - Players may earn a personal right to a monetary award within a 12 month period after achieving one or more of the following qualifications:

a) Earning an invitation for one of the following tournaments - World Youth, Pan-American Youth Festival, or North American Youth Championship. Both the World Youth Championship and Pan American Youth Festival have specific requirements for invitation as defined by the USCF. The North American Youth Championship is an open format for anyone that wishes to participate. For the purposes of this requirement, a player would need to be selected as the USCF representative (#1 player who meets the qualifications).

Additionally invitations to the US Junior, US Cadet and US Championship would also qualify. Participation is not required in any of these events, but providing the invitation or other proof from the USCF to the UCA will suffice. The 12 month period will extend from the date of invitation or USCF press release (whichever is earlier) to 12 months after the conclusion of the actual event.

b) Being named to the United States All American Team. The 12 month period for this qualification will extend 12 months beyond the date of the press release announcement to the end of the year for which the participant has been named to the All American Team. For example a player named to the All American Team in September of 2009 would be an All American from that date to December 31, 2010. So the eligibility range to use this as a qualification would be from September 2009 through December 31, 2011 (12 months after the participant's All American status expires.)

c) Being selected to participate in the US Chess School or Kasparov Chess School. The 12 month period for this qualification will extend from the date of invitation through 12 months after the chess school has concluded.

d) Being within the top 5 players of the United States Top 100 List for their age. The 12 month period for this qualification will begin upon the 25th day of the month in which the supplement is published and it will continue through a 12 month period following the 25th of the month in which the new supplement replaces the supplement used as a qualification.

4. Youth between the ages of 18-24 may continue to receive this assistance if they qualified by personal right with the above requirements at age 17 and they meet the activity requirement. For scholarship disbursement purposes they will receive a percentage based on the number of qualifiers that they achieved at age 17.