Membership

Membership Benefits

Maybe you live in a part of the country where there is no chess club, or you find it difficult to travel to weekend congresses. Perhaps you work shifts, or are restricted to home for health reasons. On the other hand, you may have good access to chess facilities, but want to avoid elementary blunders and losing in time scrambles. Maybe you'd like to specialise in certain openings, or play international matches for Scotland.

Try correspondence chess! For as little as £10 per annum, the SCCA can help you play at a higher standard and extend your playing boundaries. Membership benefits include:

• Convenience - play the world without leaving home
• Friendship - great camaraderie, and lasting international contacts
• Cost - low-cost membership, tournament entry fees, webserver and email charges
• Quality - high-standard games at all levels
• Grading - formal calculation of ICCF grades
• Titles - SCCA SM title plus ICCF GM, SIM, IM, CCM and CCE awards
• Magazine - highly-rated e-magazine (also available in hardcopy)
• Website - top-rated reference site

Domestic Events

Each year, the SCCA organises the Scottish Championship, which runs for a 2-year period. Eligibility for this event is restricted to Scots and Scots Connections of any member type (refer SCCA Policies for definitions). Within this restriction, qualification is normally obtained through successful completion of earlier Premier and Open stages, and/or grading level. Also annually, Team Leagues and a rolling Challengers event are provided.

All events are available as mixed mode play (i.e. the players can decide on postal, email or webserver play, assuming that all the technical facilities are available to the event).

International Events

The SCCA is a member of ICCF, the correspondence chess equivalent of FIDE. Each year, we play friendly international matches against other nations and chess organisations, with boards at all standards of play.

Scotland also enters teams in formal ICCF competitions, such as the Olympiads and Email Cups, and the recently introduced Champions League. We also organise international tournaments to celebrate anniversaries and commemorate individuals.

ICCF entry fees are updated from time to time and players should check the current rates contained in entry fees before entering events.

Players may also enter ICCF individual tournaments via the SCCA, in order to improve their chess at any level, and later, to obtain rating qualifications towards correspondence IM, SIM and GM titles. A wide range of thematic tournaments is organised to help improve your openings knowledge.

Publications

Both the SCCA website and magazine are rated highly by the international CC community, and contain a wealth of information for reference and enjoyment, including games downloads, annotated game displays, articles, reviews, results, playing rules, and much, much more.

Membership Categories

Category	Fees	Benefits
Patron	£125	Life subscription; commemorative (by agreement); free email magazine; free printed magazine if requested in the first year; free domestic tournament entries for life.
Life	£100	Life subscription; free email magazine; free printed magazine if requested in the first year; domestic tournament entries per Annual Members.
Annual	£10	Annual subscription; free email magazine; free entry to one Championship cycle event; free entry to all friendly internationals; free entry to Challengers; free entry to one team per League; additional Championship sections per published entry fees.
Associate	Free	This covers non-members who may be any or all of magazine subscribers; League players; or 100 Club subscribers. Refer to entry fees for subscription rates.