The Irish Chess Union

Annual Subscriptions and Membership of the ICU

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Subscription Season

The membership year runs from 1st September to 31st August and payment of an annual subscription grants membership of the ICU for that period.

Subscription seasons are often referred to by the 4 digits of the start year plus the last 2 digits of the end year. For example, the current season is 2024-25.

Subscription Types

The relevant age (for subscriptions types that are age-based) is calculated on the 1st day of the 2nd year of the season. For example age must be under 12 on 2025-01-01 to be eligible for the Under 12 subscription in the current season, 2024-25.

Subscriptions whose description contains the word New (e.g. New U18) are only for new members (players who have no ICU ID yet).

How to Subscribe

Click Shop, click on the type of subscription that suits the circumstances (standard, unemployed, under 12, over 65, etc.) of the person to be subscribed and then click one of the following buttons:

• Select Me if you're already logged in and want to subscribe yourself,
• Select Member to lookup an existing member by ID or name,
• New Member to create a new member.

Note that when paying for subscriptions types that are only for new members, the Select Me and Select Member buttons will not be available. The minimum information required to create a new member is:

1. last name,
2. first names (middle initials suffice),
3. full date of birth,
4. gender,
5. existing FIDE federation (or desired federation if not already FIDE-registered).

When you've added all the items you want to pay for, including your subscription, checkout the cart and pay with your credit or debit card. Please supply an email address so we can send a confirmation email.

ICU ID

When you subscribe for the first time you are sent (via the confirmation email) a unique number which is yours for life and is used to identify you when, for example, you:

• enter Irish chess tournaments (so your rating can be tracked),
• subscribe again in the future (and identify yourself by ID rather than name),
• create a login account for the ICU websites (so information relevant to you can be displayed).

Season Ticket

This is a short sequence of letters and digits which is proof that a subscription has been paid by a particular member for a particular season. A member who is in possession of a valid season ticket can use it to create a login account for the ICU websites. Season tickets should be kept secret to avoid impersonation.

For payments that involve subscriptions, the confirmation email includes ICU IDs and season tickets for each subscriber. When purchasing subscriptions for other people, please pass on this information in confidence.

Grace Period

In practice many subscribers pay late, even though the Membership Bye-laws specify that subscriptions are due on or before September 1st. For the purposes of the September rating list and logging into the ICU websites only, members who subscribed for the previous season are considered to still be members for the months of September to December. However, if you still haven't subscribed by January your rating won't be published that month and your logins, if you have any, will expire.

For all other purposes, the grace period does not apply. This would include, for example, eligibility to represent Ireland or to play in tournaments (such as the Leinster and Munster leagues) that require membership of the ICU (unless their organisers have a similar grace period).

FIDE Federation

If you're subscribing for the first time (creating a new ICU ID) and are not yet registered with FIDE you must choose which federation you want to belong to for when you play in your first FIDE-rated Irish tournament (some, not all, tournaments in Ireland are rated by FIDE as well as the ICU). Federation is the same as country for most people, though please note the Irish federation includes Northern Ireland.

• If you are Irish (or Northern Irish) then just choose Ireland as your federation and you will automatically be registered with FIDE after your first FIDE-rated tournament.
• If you are foreign, living in Ireland and want to register as Irish with FIDE then choose Ireland for your federation and you will automatically be registered with FIDE after your first FIDE-rated tournament. However, please be aware of the following two points:
  1. there are additional eligibility requirements to represent Ireland as an adult or as a junior,
  2. it can be expensive to change federation if you later change your mind.
• If you are foreign and don't want to register as Irish with FIDE then choose whatever federation you want. However, you will not be able to play in any FIDE-rated tournaments in Ireland without first obtaining a FIDE ID from your chosen federation. The Irish rating officer (who reports FIDE-rated Irish tournamants to FIDE) can only register Irish players.

Alternative Payment Method

We strongly recommend paying for subscriptions online because of the speed and reliability of computers. However, if you really can't or won't do this then you may also pay the old fashioned way by sending a cheque in the post. Be advised though that you:

• may wait days or possibly weeks (instead of seconds) for your payment to be processed,
• will add to the workload of an unpaid volunteer for the ICU.

If you still insist on paying for subscriptions this way, then as well as your cheque and contact details, include the following details per subscriber:

• For existing members:
• subscription type,
• name,
• ICU ID.
• For new members:
• subscription type,
• last name,
• first names (initials of middle names is sufficient),
• full date of birth,
• gender,
• FIDE or non-Irish national rating (if one exists),
• existing FIDE federation (or desired federation if not already FIDE-registered).