Scholastic chess · Charlotte, North Carolina

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association

Helping K–12 students across Charlotte and Mecklenburg County discover the joy of chess and the community it creates.

2026–27 school year

A different tournament season

CMSCA is not hosting chess tournaments during the 2026–27 school year. We’re still glad to share opportunities hosted by schools in our community.

Support CMSCA

Help scholastic chess grow

CMSCA is run by volunteers. Gifts and good word of mouth help us keep chess opportunities within reach of Charlotte-area students.

Make a donation

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in North Carolina. Donations support scholastic chess for K–12 students in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

Donations go through PayPal’s secure donation page. You can give with a PayPal account or a credit card.

Donate with PayPal

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Join our mailing list

Get occasional updates about scholastic chess in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area. Unsubscribe anytime.

Sign up for updates

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Around our community

Community tournaments

These events are organized by the schools named in each listing. Please check with the organizer for the latest details.

Get new events automatically. Subscribe once and your calendar app can keep the community events up to date.

Hosted and managed by St. Mark

St. Mark K–12 Scholastic Fall Chess Tournament

A free, unrated tournament for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, including homeschool, public, private, and parochial school students.

Date & time
Saturday, November 7, 2026 8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Location
St. Mark 14750 Stumptown Rd
Huntersville, NC 28078
Entry
Free Grades K–12

St. Mark registration

St. Mark hosts and manages this tournament and its registration. CMSCA is sharing the listing; CMSCA is not the event host or operator.

Register with St. Mark

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Our mission

A place for young minds to grow

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association (CMSCA) is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps make chess accessible to students in kindergarten through 12th grade in Charlotte and across Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We believe chess can build curiosity, confidence, and connection.

A website that respects your family. This site uses no cookies, no tracking, and no ads, and loads nothing from other companies. It’s built to be usable by as many people as possible, including people who use a screen reader or a keyboard, following the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility guidelines. Privacy notice · Accessibility statement

Contact CMSCA about our organization

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions

Is CMSCA hosting chess tournaments in the 2026–27 school year?

No. CMSCA is not hosting chess tournaments during the 2026–27 school year. We share chess tournaments hosted by schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community instead.

Where can my child play in a scholastic chess tournament near Charlotte?

See the community tournaments listed on this page. Each one is hosted and managed by the school named in the listing, which sets its own eligibility, schedule, and rules.

How do I register for a tournament listed on this site?

Register directly with the host school using the registration link in its listing. CMSCA does not take registrations or payments for these events, and questions about an event go to its host.

How can I hear about new chess events?

Subscribe to the community events calendar in Apple Calendar, Outlook, or Google Calendar, join the CMSCA mailing list, or follow CMSCA on Facebook.

Is CMSCA a nonprofit?

Yes. CMSCA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization run by volunteers. Donations can be made through PayPal’s secure donation page.

How do I contact CMSCA?

Use the Email CMSCA button in the Contact section of this page, or message CMSCA on Facebook. For a listed tournament, contact the host school.

Privacy notice

Privacy and cookies

This website is a simple information page. We built it to collect as little information as possible.

This notice covers pages at www.cmsca.org only. Buttons that take you to other organizations’ sites, such as PayPal, iContact, Facebook, or a host school’s form, are covered by those organizations’ own privacy policies.

No cookies, no tracking

This site does not set cookies and does not use analytics, advertising, tracking pixels, or social media widgets. It doesn’t load anything from other companies when you visit, so there is no cookie banner to accept.

We built it this way on purpose. We check updates with automated tests that fail if anything would add a cookie or a tracker. Anyone can confirm this with a free privacy scanner such as The Markup’s Blacklight.

Links to other services

Some buttons take you to other organizations’ websites, which have their own privacy policies and may use cookies:

  • Tournament registration goes to the host school’s own form (for example, a Google Form).
  • Donations are handled by PayPal.
  • Our mailing list is run by iContact. If you sign up, iContact stores your email address so CMSCA can send updates. You can unsubscribe from any email.
  • Calendar subscriptions use your own calendar app, or Google Calendar.
  • Facebook links go to CMSCA’s Facebook page.

If you email us

We use your message and email address to reply to you. We don’t sell them or share them outside CMSCA. Contact us with any questions about this notice.

Privacy notice last updated: October 26, 2026

Accessibility statement

Accessibility

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Scholastic Chess Association (CMSCA) wants everyone, including people with disabilities, to be able to use this website. We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 at Level AA.

What we do

  • The page uses clear headings, landmarks, and labels so screen readers can navigate it.
  • The site is designed to work with a keyboard, with a visible focus outline and a “Skip to main content” link.
  • Text and buttons are designed to meet WCAG contrast requirements, and the page is designed to zoom to 400% without scrolling sideways.
  • Images have text alternatives, and the organization’s name in the banner also appears as text.
  • The site has no autoplaying media, flashing content, or time limits.
  • The site works without JavaScript, except that our email address appears only when JavaScript is on (to protect it from spam). Facebook is offered as an alternative.

How we test

We aim to review the site periodically, about once a year and when we make significant changes, using automated checks (axe-core, against WCAG 2.2 A and AA), keyboard-only navigation, contrast measurements, and layouts from 320 pixels wide to large monitors. Our most recent review was on October 25, 2026. Despite our efforts, we can’t guarantee that every part of the site meets every guideline at all times.

We also use automated checks for accessibility basics, such as headings, labels, and image descriptions.

Known limitations

This statement covers pages at www.cmsca.org. Some links lead to services CMSCA does not control, such as a host school’s registration form, PayPal, iContact, Google Calendar, and Facebook. Their accessibility is the responsibility of those organizations. If one of them is a barrier for you, let us know and we’ll do our best to help you find another way.

Report a problem

If you have trouble using any part of this site, please contact us. Tell us what you were trying to do, what happened, and how we can reach you. We’ll do our best to respond within five business days and, where we can, to provide the information in another way.

Accessibility statement last reviewed: October 25, 2026

Disclaimer

Website notice

CMSCA is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We share this information to help Charlotte-area families find scholastic chess opportunities, and we do our best to keep it accurate and up to date. We can’t guarantee that it is complete, accurate, or current, and it may change without notice.

This website, its calendar feed, and their contents are provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. Event information, including dates, times, locations, schedules, rules, fees, and registration details, may change or may contain mistakes, whether an event is hosted by a school, another organization, or CMSCA. Please confirm the details with the event’s organizer before you attend.

Links to other organizations’ websites are provided for convenience. CMSCA doesn’t control those sites and isn’t responsible for their content, availability, privacy practices, or accessibility. CMSCA also isn’t responsible for how search engines, AI assistants, or other websites copy, summarize, or display information about CMSCA.

To the fullest extent allowed by law, CMSCA and its board members and volunteers are not responsible for any loss or harm resulting from use of, or reliance on, this website or the sites it links to.

Translated pages. We offer this website in several languages to make it easier for Charlotte families to use. Translations are made with the help of AI translation tools and are checked by volunteers when possible. They may not be accurate or complete. The English version is the official version: if a translation and the English version differ, the English version applies. CMSCA is not responsible for mistakes in translations or for decisions made based on a translated page.

If you notice something that’s wrong or out of date, please let us know.

Website notice last updated: October 26, 2026

Get in touch

Contact CMSCA

Questions about CMSCA as an organization are welcome by email. For a listed tournament, please contact the hosting school using the registration link in its listing; CMSCA doesn’t run those events and can’t answer questions about them.

You can also reach us on Facebook.