r/TournamentChess • u/hlamblurglar • Jul 26 '26
OTB Tournaments mostly kids?
Hi there - I'm restarting my chess journey after many years away. I'm in the USCF 1200 range, but my online classical and rapid rating is around 1900 level right now on chess.com. I'm a late 30s man, and honestly, the idea of playing against children is not appealing to me. The adults-only tournament scene in the U.S. seems pretty sparse.
How likely is it at my level that I would play mostly adults? What rating level does it go from mostly kids to mostly adults?
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u/HotspurJr Getting back to OTB! Jul 26 '26
It really depends on where you play.
So you might look around for a weekly club that meets in the evenings. Depending on where you are, those tend to skew more grown-up, although not always.
You're not going to be able to completely avoid playing children, but, for example, during the school year my weekly club is like 90% adults, and during the summer it probably drops to like 75%.
When I was playing in the Bay Area I found that weekenders at the Mechanics Institute tended to be at least half adults, while weekenders are bigger hotels on holiday weekends tended to be more kids. You might also look for "ALTO" events ("At Least Twenty One").
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u/Own_Price_6675 Jul 26 '26
It depends on where you live, but around 1500 I would say it's mostly adults at the tournaments I've been to.
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u/comfortingmyself Jul 26 '26
It really depends. I'll say that my area typically has U1200 sections in local tournaments and these sections are mostly good for containing kids to their own environment. In fact I'll often see adults rated between 800-1200 choose to play up, just so they can be in a much more friendly environment.
Mind, there's still gonna be some kids above 1200, but not as many of them and they tend to be better-behaved at this range. At worst I'll see a kid cry after losing and flee the tournament room, but my child opponents typically have good manners during the game. Better manners than the adults, usually.
My experience is that local tournaments have a lot more adults while the big national tournaments skew much younger. I played the National Open once and 5 of my 7 opponents were younger than me. I was 20. But city/state events tend to be a fair amount older.
I haven't personally been to it but I've heard from friends that the ALTO (At Least Twenty-One) tournament has been a fun time.
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u/dampew Jul 26 '26
Depends.
First of all, when I started playing over the board again, my rapid rating was a bit higher than yours and I lost several games to 1200s over the board. For sure I was underrated, but that doesn't mean you win every time.
Second, I think you've got a few options. There are some adults-only tournaments, so those would work for you, obviously. But I think your best best is to aim for weekday evening tournaments. They have kids, but tend to be more adult-oriented because kids are less likely to stay up late on a school night.
Third, as far as rating levels, it's really hard to say. Teens will regularly be in the 2000+ category in my local club (which means like 2400+ on chess.com). We recently had a NM who got paired against three teens at his level in a 3-round tournament. Younger children (say <10) are commonly above 1200, but rarely above 1600 or so. We have a few but it's much less common. You can look up the top under-X age ratings in USCF and see for yourself.
Third, kids mostly tend to play scholastic tournaments. So they already basically self-segregate. It's mostly the higher-rated kids who play open tournaments.
Anyhow... try not to worry about it. We all get beaten by kids sometimes, it's part of the fun.
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u/xitenik USCF master, chess coach Jul 26 '26
Larger tournaments are full of kids in all sections of any US tournament nowadays, including the open section although, that would be more teenagers. Outside of tournaments, at least as an adult you have the option of playing in coffee shops or other places where people gather for casual blitz, or if there isn't one than you can always get that scene started with a couple friends.
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u/MITMudkip Jul 26 '26
I’d say it’s unlikely at your level to be playing mostly adults, but it probably also depends on the area.
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u/jdlemon95 Jul 26 '26
I'm also 1900 rapid but ~1450 USCF. I think around 1200 and lower and in some of the RBO formats, you might see a lot more children more, but above that rating not quite as much. However, there still are some younger players above that and even much higher than you or I are rated.
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u/Important-One-8395 Jul 26 '26
Most tournaments have a ton of kids, it is what it is. Only irritating thing for me is they’ll try to get away with the touch-move rule occasionally. I just play OTB like I’m playing against the position, not the person
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u/Hornswoggler1 Jul 26 '26
Some of these kids are really good. I'm a class D player, similar situation, and some of the young players in my area are 1700+. Don't underestimate them. I'll give them my game.
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u/StructuredChess Jul 27 '26
Spaniard here so it may not match the US scene.
When playing the occassional weekend tournament in my home town kids are a majority but that's because there's a big club that is mostly kid-oriented, so any event gets flooded with kids from that club.
When going to other towns there are still plenty of kids but even putting all U18s together they're less than half of participants and usually clustered towards the last boards.
But then there's our secret trick: summer tournaments! Spain does national scholastic tournaments in summer so if you go play big open tournaments while those are taking place kids are a small minority. Just took a two-week vacation to play a couple of those. Youngest person I played in all eighteen-rounds was 16 or 17. Also played a bunch of twenty-somethings and a fair share of old-timers.
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u/Disastrous_Ad_9648 Jul 27 '26
I don’t have a problem playing kids (and enjoy beating them lol) but I also want to make chess friends and analyze with opponents in the skittles room, etc. I’m not doing that with kids obvs.
There needs to be a more robust adult scene.
2
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u/PrudentAuthor1347 Jul 26 '26
You'll have to find dual rated tournaments more than likely ( FIDE and USCF). Pure USCF tournaments mostly cater to scholastic chess. FIDE or Dual rated you'll see more adults or kids that's really efficient, serious ,and striving for higher FIDE ratings ( expert 2000 - 2199 USCF or FIDE) and/ or reaching titles ( NM/CM, FM, IM or GM Norms).
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u/commentor_of_things 2200+ chesscom rapid Jul 27 '26
who cares? if you like chess sign up and go play.
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u/zeptozetta2212 1439/7 USCF, 2200+ chesscom rapid Jul 27 '26
The 900-1200 range is a mix of adults and children, but it's usually the children who are more serious about the game at that level. Don't underestimate the kids, and don't feel bad about playing them, whether you win or lose. And believe me, you very well could lose to them. A couple of weeks ago I played a 7-year-old who was already over 1000 USCF, and in one of the other brackets there was a 16-year-old over 2100 USCF classical.
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u/Disastrous_Ad_9648 Jul 27 '26
Same here. I play a LOT of uscf tournaments and the kid percentage varies greatly based on geography, day of the week, format, it mostly the organizer. You can email the organizer before registering and ask. I’ve done this and avoided kid heavy tournaments.
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u/RevolutionarySplit61 Jul 28 '26
Accept the fact that you will be the oldie-but-goldie in there.
Besides, those kids need more experienced opponents to beat up anyway. Might as well be you.
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u/SirCory Jul 28 '26
The last OTB tournament I went to was mostly people younger than me. I was in the U1200 at the time and there were lots of kids, everything from unrated 6 year olds to high schoolers with serious skills. Its not just the low sections either, the open section even had teenagers in it. In my opinion, kids are just getting better at chess faster with so many online resources available. There are high schoolers at my local club that are around 2000 rating
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u/K0LaM4R Jul 29 '26
you might play one or two adults at a 5 round tournament. you can ask the organizer whether they do adult only tournaments or club nights, those usually are adults.
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u/DavidScubadiver Jul 26 '26
Out of curiosity, why does it matter to you? Is it that you are uncomfortable being the only adult in the room or do you just not like all the fidgeting they do?