Membership Fees
| Categories | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Notes |
| £ | £ | ||
| Bronze | 18 | 20 | |
| Silver | 27 | N/A | Discontinued as part of Silver/Gold merger |
| Gold | 39 | 35 | |
| Platinum | 75 | 77 | |
| Supporter | 10 | 12 | |
| Free Junior Bronze (one year only) |
N/A | 0 | New from 1 July |
| Junior Bronze | 6 | 6 | |
| Free Junior Silver | 0 | N/A | Discontinued as part of Silver/Gold merger |
| Junior Silver | 6 | N/A | Discontinued as part of Silver/Gold merger |
| Free Junior Gold (one year only) |
N/A | 0 | New from 1 July, replaces Free Junior Silver |
| Junior Gold | 19.50 | 12 | |
| Junior Platinum | 75 | 77 | |
| Free Student Silver (one year only) |
0 | N/A | Discontinued as part of Silver/Gold merger |
| Free Student Gold (one year only) |
N/A | 0 | New from 1 July, replaces Free Student Silver |
Pay to Play and Game Fees
| Categories | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | Notes |
| £ | £ | ||
| FIDE rated pay to play fee | 12 | N/A as a separate charge. | No distinction between FIDE and non- |
| FIDE rated events following Silver/Gold merger – see below for new congress pay to play fee arrangements. | |||
| Congress pay to play fee for players below Gold | 9 | 15 | Difference between Bronze and Gold. Existing Bronze members paying the congress pay to play fee are automatically upgraded to Gold. |
| Congress pay to play fee for players below Gold (juniors) | 9 | 6 | Difference between Junior Bronze and Junior Gold. Existing Junior Bronze members paying the congress pay to play fee are automatically upgraded to Junior Gold. |
| Congress pay to play fee for players below Gold (junior only events) | 2.5 | 3 | |
| FIDE admin fee (players who are non-ENG registered and not gold members) | 1.5 | N/A as a separate charge. | Waived for all players, whether ENG or non-ENG, until further notice. |
| League game fee | 18 | 20 | New Bronze rate. |
| League game fee (juniors) | 6 | 6 | New Junior Bronze rate. |
These fees, which were decided by the ECF Council in April 2024, will come into force at the start of September 2024, and will apply to congresses that finish on or after Sunday 1st September. Between the ending of Silver membership on 1st July and 31st August the existing pay to play rates will apply, but will not serve to upgrade membership from Bronze to Silver. Our experience is that the ECF cannot anticipate every single format or concept of event, and if something is not covered organisers should check for any potential fee issues with the ECF Office by emailing office@englishchess.org.uk
For players
From the player’s point of view there follows a brief summary of the participation that each level of membership entitles our members to without liability to pay any pay to play or game fees.
- Platinum, Junior Platinum, Gold, Junior Gold: full participation in all congresses submitted for FIDE rating and/or ECF rating, together with events which require Bronze or Junior Bronze membership (see below)
- Bronze, Junior Bronze: participation in leagues, club internal tournaments, and any congresses or tournaments that are open only to players from a specified league, county or local area (‘closed’ events) that are submitted for ECF rating
Note – because the cost of Junior Silver and Junior Bronze is the same, the latter was removed from sale in August 2022.
For organisers
Competitions come in a number of categories and the main ones are summarised below, along with their cost implications for organisers. Please seek the guidance of the ECF Office where anything is unclear.
1 – Congresses and FIDE rated leagues
1a Standardplay (as distinct from rapidplay or blitz)
Pay to play fees apply to all players who are not ECF Gold members. Where they are not, a fee of £15.00 for each such player will be charged to the event. If the player was already a Bronze/Junior Bronze member the £15.00 fee will be applied to upgrade their membership to Gold/Junior Gold for the remainder of their membership year. This applies to all such events of four rounds or more; events of fewer than four rounds are outside the scope of pay to play fee arrangements. Juniors are eligible for the junior pay to play fee rate if they are under 18 years of age on the day before the congress starts.
1b Events solely for juniors (juniors should be under 18 years of age on the day before the event starts)
The provisions of 1a above apply, except that the pay to play fee is £2.50 rather than £6.00. This applies to all such events of four rounds or more; events of fewer than four rounds are outside the scope of pay to play fee arrangements.
1c Rapidplay
For ECF pay to play fee purposes rapidplay congresses/leagues are treated as being ordinary congresses/leagues.
1d Blitz
At the moment the ECF does not charge for the registration or rating of these events.
2 – Leagues and other team events (including jamborees) which are not FIDE-rated
N.B. If the event is FIDE-rated the requirements in (1) above apply.
Players are required to be ECF members at Bronze level or higher. Juniors are eligible for the junior pay to play fee rate if they are under 18 years of age on the day before the league starts. Players who are not ECF members at Bronze level or higher do not pay any game fee for their first three* games in the relevant league’s competitions – but once they play a fourth game they become liable for a game fee of £20.00 if an adult or £6.00 if a junior.
A ‘league’ refers to the organising body. If a league organises several divisions, those will be aggregated to decide whether players have hit the four game threshold referred to above.
Please note that the game fee of £20.00 or £6.00 applies once four* or more games have been played. It applies to all games played within events organised by a particular league, in whatever division, in whatever league format, or in a league’s team knock-out or jamboree events if any. However, it is not aggregated across leagues, so a player can play three games in the Eastshire League and three in the Westshire League without fee; but four in one and two in the other will incur a Game Fee of £20.00 or £6.00, and four or more games in the Eastshire League, and also four or more games in the Westshire League will result in both leagues being invoiced £20.00 or £6.00. The fact that one has been invoiced does not waive the charge for the other. Both leagues will have chosen to submit a non-member’s results for ECF rating so the charge will be applied to each.
Leagues which during the season organise events for individuals (other than closed events) rather than for teams, for example congresses, should note that those will be treated as congresses and charged under (1) above. A player who has played four* or more games in a league must be an ECF member at Bronze level or above on 30th June 2025 if the league is to avoid incurring a game fee charge of £20 or £6 for that player for the season 2024/25.
Where a league is considered to be a ‘summer league’, the ECF will recognise any ECF individual membership taken out by a player that includes the date of the last game scheduled to be played. For this purpose, summer league games will not be aggregated with other games submitted by that organisation during the year.
*Rapidplay games – references in this section to numbers of games played assume standardplay games. Rapidplay games contribute to these totals as half a game.
Important – Liability to pay any game fee lies strictly with the league which has made the rating submission, and cannot be derogated to the club(s) or individual players.
3 – Closed events
This section relates to events organised by clubs or leagues and open only to their own members. Arrangements follow the same principle as for leagues above.
Where a league organises a closed event the games played in that event will be pooled with the games played in the league’s team competitions for the purpose of determining liability for game fee.
A player who has played four* or more games in club internal events must be an ECF member at Bronze level or above on 30th June 2025 if the club is to avoid incurring a game fee charge of £20 or £6 for that player for the season 2024/25.
*Rapidplay games – references in this section to numbers of games played assume standardplay games. Rapidplay games contribute to these totals as half a game.
4 – Inter-club matches and games arranged between individual players
‘Friendly’ matches and occasional games arranged outside any formal competition are outside the scope of game fee unless more than three games are involved (seven if rapidplay).
5 – Exemptions
The following exemptions from pay to play fees apply:
- For players from BICC signatory organisations only*, British events organised under the auspices of the BICC (e.g. British Chess Championships, British Rapidplay Championship);
- For non-ENG players only, FIDE events where title norms can be achieved (e.g. 4NCL, Cambridge, London Chess Classic, Northumbria Masters, all-play all GM/IM norm events). The purpose of this exemption is to not discourage non-ENG registered players from participating in such events in order that ENG registered norm seekers have a better chance of playing the requisite mix of opponents;
- Other exemptions such as cross-border leagues (for example 4NCL, BUCA Championships, NYCA Championships), 4NCL wildcards, Braille Chess Association, English Deaf Chess Association;
- Ukrainian asylum seekers with a UKR registration who have been accepted into the UK and given refugee status. Please note that such players are also eligible for free Gold membership – see the relevant 21st March 2022 announcement here: https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-memberships-ukraine/
*British Isles Coordinating Committee signatory organisations: English Chess Federation, Chess Scotland, Welsh Chess Union, Irish Chess Union, Ulster Chess Union, Jersey Chess Federation, Guernsey Chess Federation, Isle of Man Chess Federation.
6 – Online events (all rates of play)
There are no pay to play fees for non-members playing in online standardplay/rapidplay/blitz congresses and leagues. We would ask that the existing ‘honesty box’ approach of asking but not requiring organisers to charge £5.00 for non-ECF members in rated online congresses be continued. We will though keep this under review, and if we find that significant numbers of non-ECF members are in fact starting to play in rated online congresses we may reconsider this approach.
Invoicing policy
1 – When invoices will be issued
Pay to play invoices will be issued as soon as practicable after the congress has submitted results for rating. Where a league is a ‘winter league’, game fee invoices will be issued as soon as is reasonably practicable after 30th June 2025, and in any event, no later than 30th September 2025.
Where a league is a ‘summer league’, an invoice will be issued as soon as is reasonably practicable after the league has concluded, and in any event, no later than 30th November 2025. In this instance, game fee liability will be incurred if a player is not an ECF member as of the date on which the last match in the league is scheduled to be played.
2 – Liability for payment of invoices
By submitting game results to the rating server, organisations accept liability for any pay to play or game fee that is incurred.
3 – Payment of invoices
Invoices will be sent to the person the organisation has made responsible for arranging payment. This will usually be the treasurer named in the rating file.
All invoices should be settled in full within one month from the date of issue. Invoices will be in electronic format, and can be paid via PayPal or bank transfer (preferred), or exceptionally by cheque to the ECF Office.
If payment remains outstanding after this period, as a last resort and where no alternative arrangement has been made with the ECF despite our best efforts to make contact, the ECF reserves the right to refuse to accept any further games for rating from that organisation (and/or that responsible person) until such time as the invoice is settled. Where the rating of games is refused for such reasons, services may take up to 10 days to resume.
4 – Corrections to invoices
If the nominated person was not sent the invoice in the first instance, the invoice will be reissued to the correct person. In this event the date of issue may be reset. The ECF will do everything it reasonably can to ensure invoices are correct. In the event that the amount is incorrect we will correct the error as soon as we can after it has been brought to our attention and reissue the invoice. In this event the issue date will not usually be reset.
The effect of rolling membership on game/pay to play fee
ECF memberships no longer expire on 31st August of each year, they last for one year and expire 12 months later, on the first day of the month they were originally taken out. The expiry date of a player’s current membership is shown on their rating card.
In order to reduce their liability for pay to play fee, congress organisers should be mindful of the expiry date when checking membership status, especially when early congress entries are received. Membership should be valid on the first day of the congress.
League and club organisers should check that membership is current on 30th June 2025 (or for a summer league, the date on which the last game is scheduled to be played); a membership taken out on for example 20th June 2024 will for most of the year show as current, but will expire on 1st June 2025.