Rated Tournaments

Hey everyone,

I want to start to play in rated tournaments. I live in New York and I'm not sure how to go about doing this. The USCF is a part of FIDE and has its tournaments in the US, right? Is that it?

So I would become a USCF member and then I would need to find tournamnets to play in in order to get and raise my rating. My rating automatically starts at 0, right? Which tournamnets are appropriate for me? I see endless lists on the USCF site and I simply don't know which would be the one to enter.

Once I find the approopriate tourneys, how should I go about preparing for them? (Play more? Study more?)

According to USCF standards, am I required to have a rating of 2000 to earn the title of CM? If so, is that the only requirment? Are there any lower titles? The reason for my asking is that my goal is to one day become a titled player.

Currently, I am not close to being a strong player; however, I will train and work hard to become one, no matter how long it takes :)

So if anyone can help me out and steer me in the right direction, I would really appreciate it! Thank you for your time :)

You're lucky.  There are lots of tournaments in the New York area. 
Ideally, you might wish to visit a tourney and hang around and watch some of the games before you enter one. 

When you do enter one, you'll most likely be competing for the best unrated prize.  After your first tourney, you'll be given a rating.  It will be a provisional rating, and will stay provisional until you play your first 25 (?) games, but it will be a rating nontheless. 

You'll do fine.  To prepare, start playing with a chess clock to get used to hitting it after every move.  Start recording your games if you're not doing that already, since that will be required. 

And yes, play and study as much as you can before the tourney.

The master title begins with a rating of 2200.  Below the master title there is the Expert title, and then below that there is Class A, B, C, D, and E, I believe.

Technically, there is no rating of 0.  For your first tourney, you're "unrated," not zero.  Your first rating will depend upon your results, against the players you play against.  For example, if you were to play against six players who were each 1400, and if your score after the six games was three points, you would have a rating of 1400.

Write back after your first tourney and let us know how it went. 

Thanks for all the advice and info! I'll get on with starting my chess career and let you know how its going. I truly appreciate it :)