So I joined the USCF a few weeks ago, and this coming weekend I'm entering my first tournament. Of course, I'm unrated, and I have a question regarding this.

There's an open section and an unrated section, and I'm under the impression that I can enter into either. My question is, if I enter the unrated section for my first few tournaments, will I be given a rating eventually? I don't quite understand how they pick and adjust your rating if you're winning or losing against opponents with no ratings. Can anyone enlighten me? How's this work?

Thanks!

Ah, or possibly to answer my own question, does an unrated section in a tournament imply that all of the games are unrated and the players may or may not be?

You will be assigned a rating, this is your provisional rating... it will be adjusted according to your results with other players... once you have played (I think 20 or 23, something like that), enough tournament games, (that is -- once enough data about your play has been recorded) your rating stops being provisional and becomes your real USCF rating. Games played in the unrated section count as games toward your rating just as games played in the open section would -- I'm 99% on that.

The unrated section means you'll be playing against other people at some stage of the provisional rating process, and their ratings will be a bit flaky, as is yours.

Awesome. That's exactly what I needed to know. Thanks.