Duif Answers Your Chess Questions:
A Guide for Fans and New Tournament Players

What's a real chess tournament like?
See Duif's photo essay for chess.net on the NY Open.

See our Parents' page for ideas for parents of young chessplayers

1. FIDE and other Official Ratings
   1. Playing in Rated Events
   2. Rating Distributions, or, "What's an Average Player?"
   3. Rating Lists Available on the Web
   4. Different Kinds of Ratings (Speed, Correspondence, etc.)
   5. Rating Organizations by Country
2. Internet Chess Ratings
3. Titles vs. Ratings

Try our International Directory of Chess Teachers for local teachers as well as those who teach by phone, by mail, and on the Internet

Do you have any information on Ivanchuk/Polgar/ Kasparov/Topalov/ etc?

Sure! We have minibiographies on most of the top players in each event we cover. If you're looking for a specific player, just search for their last name in our Site Search. If you're looking for a specific event, try the Features page.

What's a Standard Size/Color/Style for a Chess Set?

Start with Stephen Pribut's outstanding FAQ for the rec.games.chess newsgroups, available from our Links Page.

See our feature story on the 1996 US Junior Championship--and for more on Tal Shaked, see the feature on the 1996 US Championship.

The US Chess Federation also has a biography section you can check out.

See our Chess Teachers' page and our Parents' Page for coaching ideas. We also have a page on Tips for Starting a Club at Your School.

What are "time controls"?

Duif provides highlight coverage of most important events at the US Chess Federation's weekly news column, Chess Life Online. For detailed crosstables and game scores, see Mark Crowther's fantastic THE WEEK IN CHESS, available from our Links Page.

Whatever Happened to Bobby Fischer?