Team Registration
A section can collect a team label or require a roster with named players. Follow the tournament’s registration steps: a school or club label needs no captain, while a roster has seats, join permissions and payment rules.
Choose a School or Club Label
A Team label section asks for an optional label during registration. Select a suggestion or type a name when the organizer allows it. Register and pay individually; a label does not reserve seats, create a captain, or require teammates to register together.
Create or join a roster
On a tournament with roster sections, Register asks how you are entering: Create a team, Join a team (find a team on the Teams tab where teams accept open joining; when every team is invitation-only it opens the registration form, so sign in with the email your captain invited, or open your invitation link), or a registration item. That item reads Register without a team when some section lets players enter without a team (the organizer may place you on a team later), and Complete my team registration otherwise. Either opens the registration form, which is also where you finish a seat your captain reserved or invited you to, and where you enter a join code when the team accepts one.
Choose Register, then Create a team, on the tournament page, or Create a team on its Teams tab; you do not need to start player registration first. If you open it from a registration’s team step, the section you were registering in is already selected. Sign in, choose the section, enter the team name and roster size, and complete any Team questions or coach contact fields. Leave I am playing on this team checked if you are the playing captain. Clear it when creating the team as a nonplaying coach. A playing captain has their own entry; a nonplaying coach does not need a player seat.
Creating the team only reserves a playing captain’s seat; it does not register you. The success screen says so and offers Continue to my player registration, which opens registration with your team’s section already selected, where you complete your player details and any payment your entry requires. If you had already started a registration that placed you in a different section, it is kept, and the section step offers to switch you to your team’s section. If the section charges one fee per team, it also says the team is entered only once that fee is paid from the team dashboard (players register at no charge); if the captain pays for every player, it says you can pay for seats, including your own, from the team dashboard. If the captain may choose per player, you register and pay as usual, and you can pay for a player by naming them in the roster on the team dashboard and marking them Captain pays. A nonplaying coach or team manager is told that no player registration is needed and goes to the team dashboard to invite players.
The team dashboard shows invitation controls allowed by the organizer. It shows the join code only when the section allows joining by code (open joining); under invitation-only joining it shows Invite your players guidance instead, and the success screen after you create the team gives the same guidance. With Captain decides, the captain chooses invitation-only or open joining. Under Captain required enrollment, the playing captain must finish registration first or be included in the same named checkout. Under Invitation only, a code alone is insufficient: request an invitation for the email you will use to register. Under Open join, enter the code in registration to reserve an available seat. A private tournament may also require its own admission invitation.
When registration shows a seat you already hold, select it and continue. Complete your player details, Player questions and payment. An unpaid seat is a temporary hold; it does not guarantee admission if capacity or roster rules prevent finalization.
If the team pays one entry fee
Some sections price per team. The team dashboard then shows a Team entry fee card with the amount and a status: Unpaid, Payment in progress, Paid, Waived, Refunded or Unavailable. Only someone with team payment authority: the team’s creator or non-playing coach (manager), a captain, an assistant who has both roster-editing and payment-clearance permissions, or the organizer. A coach contact email alone is not enough. It is paid (Pay … team entry fee, through PayPal); others see a note saying the team’s coach or captain pays. Members register at no charge, and discount codes do not apply. The team is not entered until the fee is paid and the roster reaches its minimum. If you started a payment and did not finish, finish it from the same card; an abandoned attempt is released automatically after it expires. The fee is refunded, to whoever paid it, only if the whole team withdraws under the tournament’s refund policy; one member leaving does not refund it.
Invitations
A captain or coach with permission invites a player from an open seat with Send invite, entering the player’s name and email. Where the tournament cannot email the invitation, the seat is reserved and the dashboard asks you to copy the invitation link and share it yourself. The invitee opens the link, which selects the team and its reserved seat, and registers and pays like any other player. Share the link only with that player.
The dashboard shows each seat as Open, Reserved, Invited, Claimed or Paid. A seat with an invitation still waiting for a reply shows only the Invited chip. A second chip appears only once the invitation has ended: Accepted, Expired, Declined or Cancelled. An invitation expires at the earlier of registration close and the roster lock that are still in the future. If neither is ahead, it lasts until the end of the tournament’s first day in its timezone, and if that has also passed, for seven days from when it was sent. An expired invitation does not reopen its seat on its own: release the seat, then invite again. The team’s overall status shows as Draft, Open, Full, Roster locked or Cancelled.
Rating rules and unrated players
Each tournament sets its own team rating limits and how unrated players count (left out, counted as 0, 100 or a set rating, a USCF 31C1 variation, or not allowed), plus an optional cap on unrated players per team. If you have no rating, you may be able to enter an estimate: where USCF membership is not required, the estimate box is the ordinary self-reported rating; where it is required, it appears only if the organizer allows estimates and USCF shows you as unrated. An estimated rating is marked ESTIMATED, and a team’s calculated rating is marked COMPUTED; neither is an official rating. If your rating or an unrated player would make the roster invalid, registration is refused with an explanation, so contact the captain or organizer.
Board order
Boards are assigned automatically by rating, highest first with unrated players last, and the order is not stored unless the organizer sets it. A higher-rated player who joins later moves up automatically. Neither captains nor players choose boards; the organizer can set an explicit lineup, and players beyond the section’s board count are alternates.
Browse teams safely
The Teams tab offers open, complete and all-team views. The organizer may hide forming teams. Forming teams show availability and the next-player rating range without revealing reserved names or contact information. Complete rosters show their registered members and boards or alternates.
The roster’s size and rating rules are enforced when a player joins or pays. A refusal explains the restriction. Contact the captain or organizer if your rating or the remaining seats cannot make the roster valid.
Manage named players
Authorized managers can enter player names, optional emails, federation IDs, ratings and answers on My Team. Use Upload CSV or Excel roster to import the template, including Board, Role and Payer. Review and save each player before checkout.
When the section’s team payment is set to Captain pays named players, the captain (and anyone else who can edit the roster) sees Pay for team on the dashboard, with the estimated total on the button (for example Pay $140.00 for team). People who can only view payment status see a note instead. Checkout first shows a review of each named player and the total. If anything required is missing for a player, such as a phone number for the first player, a required answer, or a USCF ID, checkout lists that player and what to fix and links back to your roster, opened ready to edit. Payment is offered only after every player is ready, then you pay with PayPal. On a private tournament, open checkout from the organizer’s private registration link. Pay for N players (for example Pay $70.00 for 2 players) covers only the seats marked Captain pays. Where the section lets the payer be chosen per seat, a seat marked Player pays is paid by that player from their invitation; to pay for someone yourself, name them in the roster and mark them Captain pays. An email-less player still receives a real player registration without an invented account. Later checkout can pay additional players without charging already paid seats again. Under per-player pricing, every playing captain and alternate pays their own entry price (under per-team pricing, members pay nothing and the team fee covers them); nonplaying coaches and empty seats have no player fee.
If you created the team as a player by mistake, the dashboard shows Switch to non-playing coach while you hold an unregistered captain seat. It releases that seat and you keep managing the team as its coach; a nonplaying coach pays no entry fee.
A captain price adjustment affects only the playing captain’s own entry. The tournament’s ordinary minimum and platform-fee rules still apply.
Answer or delegate questions
Team questions are saved once on the team profile. Player questions belong to each named player. A manager can answer them or select Send … to player for an eligible question and supply that player’s email.
The player opens the delegated-question link and signs in with the matching email. They can update the delegated answers without changing their saved identity, payment or team seat. Names and federation IDs cannot be delegated. Removing the delegation removes access to that answer form.
Entering a phone number does not grant SMS consent. Save the player’s phone, then use Request player SMS opt-in when available. The player must reply to opt in; a ChessRoster account or completed payment is not required for a saved named seat. A captain cannot restore consent after the player opts out.
Find and manage your team
Use View team dashboard after creation, or open My Registrations and use Team dashboard under Teams I manage. Managers can rename the team, update coach contacts and Team answers, add an empty seat or remove an eligible empty seat. Invitation-copy and unpaid-reminder controls appear where permitted; reminders are rate limited. Lock roster asks for confirmation, warns if registered players are below the minimum, and stops new members from joining; only an organizer can unlock it.
A coach contact receives captain-directed notices when enabled and can opt out. A contact email alone does not grant permission to change the roster. A signed-in matching contact can view the dashboard; editing requires a management role.
The dashboard shows open, invited, reserved and paid seats. Only completed registrations appear as paid members on public complete rosters. A captain can release eligible unpaid seats while editing is allowed. For a seat with an invitation still waiting for a reply, use Copy link, Resend or Cancel invite; cancelling withdraws the invitation and frees the seat. Remove takes a player off a reserved seat, or off an invited seat once its invitation has expired or been declined. Locks, deadlines, active checkout and started pairings can restrict changes.
Leave, transfer or withdraw
Where the organizer permits it, Leave team and withdraw my entry, Transfer captaincy, and Withdraw entire team open a preview before confirmation. A current captain must transfer leadership before leaving. Transfers do not charge or refund anyone.
Withdrawal refunds go to the original payer under the tournament’s refund policy. Review the refund and any lost amount before confirming. A no-refund withdrawal is still a withdrawal. Interrupted operations can be resumed; unresolved payment-provider failures remain visible for the organizer to reconcile.
A completed withdrawal reopens that player’s seat. Late additions after play require director board placement and do not change historical pairings.
Teams Only Fixed Roster
In this format, the team is paired as one competitor. Your individual registration, fee and payment remain yours. The director records the match result and total board game points. Public roster and registration lists still show the people; pairing and team standings show the team competitors.