Answers.Body: <blockquote>
    <p>I live in the UK ... Do you need to be a member of a federation?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Yes <em>you</em> do. You need to become a member of the English Chess Federation. You can do that on <a href="https://www.englishchess.org.uk/guide-to-joining-the-ecf/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">their website</a>. You either need Silver membership, if you are going to play congresses only, or gold membership if you want to play FIDE rated tournaments as well.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>How to find and pick the correct event</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Again the ECF maintains a <a href="https://www.englishchess.org.uk/event-calendar/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">calendar of events</a> on their website. There will be events that don't appear there but the vast majority of events in England will be listed. Events will normally have different sections according to playing strength. Enter the section that best reflects your level.</p>
  
  <p>It is probably also worth your while to find the nearest chess club to where you live and get in touch with them. They will have lots of good advice, particularly when it comes to local events. The ECF have a <a href="https://ecf.azolve.com/clubfinder.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">club finder</a> page which can help you.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>How to prepare for the event.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>That is really far too general a question to be answered here. I would edit your question, if I were you, otherwise it is likely to get closed for being too broad :-)</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-04-18T16:01:33.243Z
Answers.Text: Thank you for your input Brian this is very helpfully. Is there a FIDE membership as well as ECF? I have edited my post to remove the general question. I will re think it and maybe post in a separate post. Thanks for the heads up.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Razor
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-04-18T16:33:55.597Z
Answers.Text: For over-the-board chess, membership of FIDE is via appropriate membership of a federation. The two exceptions to this are if the federation is in a sufficiently serious dispute with FIDE that it has been suspended. Currently that applies to Bulgaria and the several thousand Bulgarian members of FIDE currently have FIDE registration rather than Bulgarian registration. The other case is where the player is in dispute with the federation and FIDE takes the player's side. Example an Iranian female player who was banned by Iran for appearing in a Youtube video without head covering.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-04-18T15:53:03.580Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-04-18T15:53:03.580Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brian Towers
Body: <p>I have recently got back into chess. I only really get to play online these days (May get the odd game OTB with the kids but I have only just started to teach them) I thought it might be a nice idea to try an OTB tournament maybe around September time. I live in the UK and I was wondering if anyone answers a couple of questions.</p>
  <p>How do I find and pick the correct event?</p>
  <p>Do you need to be a member of a federation?</p>
  <p>What should I  expect on the day of the tournament?</p>
  
Tags: <tournament>
Title: My first tournament
ThreadText: # My first tournament
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-18)
  
  I have recently got back into chess. I only really get to play online these days (May get the odd game OTB with the kids but I have only just started to teach them) I thought it might be a nice idea to try an OTB tournament maybe around September time. I live in the UK and I was wondering if anyone answers a couple of questions.
  
  How do I find and pick the correct event?
  
  Do you need to be a member of a federation?
  
  What should I expect on the day of the tournament?
  
  **Tags:** tournament
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2019-04-18. Score: 3 | Accepted answer
  
  > I live in the UK ... Do you need to be a member of a federation?
  
  Yes *you* do. You need to become a member of the English Chess Federation. You can do that on [their website](https://www.englishchess.org.uk/guide-to-joining-the-ecf/). You either need Silver membership, if you are going to play congresses only, or gold membership if you want to play FIDE rated tournaments as well.
  
  > How to find and pick the correct event
  
  Again the ECF maintains a [calendar of events](https://www.englishchess.org.uk/event-calendar/) on their website. There will be events that don't appear there but the vast majority of events in England will be listed. Events will normally have different sections according to playing strength. Enter the section that best reflects your level.
  
  It is probably also worth your while to find the nearest chess club to where you live and get in touch with them. They will have lots of good advice, particularly when it comes to local events. The ECF have a [club finder](https://ecf.azolve.com/clubfinder.htm) page which can help you.
  
  > How to prepare for the event.
  
  That is really far too general a question to be answered here. I would edit your question, if I were you, otherwise it is likely to get closed for being too broad :-)
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Thank you for your input Brian this is very helpfully. Is there a FIDE membership as well as ECF? I have edited my post to remove the general question. I will re think it and maybe post in a separate post. Thanks for the heads up.  
  > **username_1**: For over-the-board chess, membership of FIDE is via appropriate membership of a federation. The two exceptions to this are if the federation is in a sufficiently serious dispute with FIDE that it has been suspended. Currently that applies to Bulgaria and the several thousand Bulgarian members of FIDE currently have FIDE registration rather than Bulgarian registration. The other case is where the player is in dispute with the federation and FIDE takes the player's side. Example an Iranian female player who was banned by Iran for appearing in a Youtube video without head covering.  
  
  ---
  
  