Yes, of course! Although team tournaments are not as frequently held in Oregon and across the world, they are a lot of fun and enable young players to represent their schools alongside the best of the best from their schools. In these team tournaments, usually 5 players (plus 1 or 2 standby players) represent their schools in teams. CFS allows only one school per team, but OSCF allows as many teams as a school can send to the statement tournament.
Oregon conducts two team championships per year:
- Chess for Success Team Tournament: This is the largest and most elaborate tournament that happens over several months. Schools across the state participate in regional tournaments first at elementary, middle and high school level first. At the regionals, only the top 1 or 2 teams from each region make it to the state finals. Up to 5 players from each school can compete, along with 2 reserve players. During some years there were as many as 1000 players participating! We are hoping that the participation will go back up to that level or beyond again post pandemic. Keep out an eye for announcements from your school chess team or subscribe to updates from Chess for Success at https://www.chessforsuccess.org/
- OSCF Team Tournament: OSCF has been conducting individual state scholastic tournaments for several years and in 2019 they initiated a highly successful team tournament as well. However due the pandemic the OSCF state team tournament was canceled in 2020 and was online only in 2021. In 2022, they resumed over-the-board (in-person) tournaments again. For more details about the 2023 team tournament and other scholar chess news, follow OSCF at www.oscf.org