How to Get Started as a Tournament Player

1 Create a US Chess (USCF) membership ID

US Chess (the national governing body — formerly "USCF") issues every rated player a unique member ID. You need an active membership to play in a US Chess–rated tournament; without one, your results won't count toward an official rating.

Go to US Chess's join page and fill in your name, date of birth, and address.
Membership is tiered by age (scholastic, youth, adult) — the join form picks the right option for you and shows the current fee before you pay.
Your member ID appears immediately after checkout — write it down, it's what tournament directors will ask for at registration.
New to the process? US Chess's own Information for New Members page covers what to expect at your first event.

💰 Money-saving tip for scholastic memberships

Buying (or renewing) a scholastic (18-and-under) membership? Rose City Chess resells US Chess scholastic memberships at their bulk rate — $12.50 vs. $20 buying direct (as of this writing). It arrives as an e-voucher by email rather than an instant ID like buying direct from US Chess, so budget a little lead time before your first event. Adult memberships through them are at the regular price, so buying direct is simplest there.

2 Find tournaments nationwide

Every US Chess–rated tournament in the country is listed centrally, and it's searchable by location.

Upcoming Tournaments — filter by state, or search by address and a mile radius, to find events near you.
National Events Calendar — the marquee national and scholastic championships (state/regional qualifiers often feed into these).
Not sure which state body organizes events near you? US Chess State Chapters lists every state's affiliate.

3 Find tournaments in Oregon / Portland

Each state has its own US Chess–affiliated organization that runs local events — usually split between an adult/open federation and a scholastic (K-12) one. For Oregon:

Oregon Chess Federation (OCF) — the state's US Chess affiliate for adult and open events, including the annual Oregon Open and Oregon Closed championship.
Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation (OSCF) — K-12 events, including the OSCF state championships; see also their state tournaments page.

Several Portland-area clubs and academies also run their own regular, US Chess–rated tournaments directly:

Puddletown Chess — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; runs monthly scholastic tournaments and free training classes.
Chess A2Z — nonprofit chess education and tournaments, co-organizes events like the Oregon Junior Open.
Rose City Chess — lessons, camps, and regular meetup tournaments around Portland.
Roshen's Chess Academy (Roshen Nair Foundation) — monthly scholastic tournaments run as fundraisers for OCF and Portland Chess Club.

Playing somewhere other than Oregon? Use the State Chapters link above to find your own state's equivalent — most states run the same adult/scholastic split.

4 Find a local scholastic chess club

Rather than a fixed list (club rosters and contact info change often — this guide won't try to keep pace with that), use the maintained directories below:

US Chess Club/Affiliate Directory — search by ZIP code and distance, filterable to schools and chess camps/programs specifically — this covers the whole country, not just Oregon.
In the Portland area: Portland Chess Club (est. 1914) runs regular play and keeps its own list of other Oregon-area clubs and organizations, scholastic included.
OSCF (linked in Step 3) is also a good source for which schools currently field a scholastic team, since school clubs form and dissolve year to year.

Once you're registered

A few of this site's own tools are useful from here:

Heading into an event and want to know what your rating will look like afterward? Try the USCF Rating Estimator (or the FIDE one, if it's FIDE-rated).
Organizing a school or club tournament yourself, rather than just playing in one? Swiss Pairings runs the whole event — pairings, standings, tiebreaks, and a wall display.
After your first few rated games, drop the PGNs into Performance Analysis for a full breakdown of where to focus training before the next one.