Private Club Tournaments

In a private club, how do I set up an Arena so that someone attempting to enter it gets a message that says to enter the tournament one must obtain membership approval? When the club Admin approves, the player becomes a member and is automatically entered in the event. Right now, player clicks on the "Join" button and nothing happens, no membership request is generated. What am I missing here? Does this have anything to do with the Club Category? (Social, Learning, etc.)

Hi @JediGoat 👋

Great question! In private clubs, Arena tournaments won't automatically trigger a membership request if someone tries to join without already being a club member. Unfortunately, Chess.com doesn't currently auto-link tournament registration with membership approval.

To work around this:

1. Make sure your tournament is set to Club Members Only.
2. Let players know they need to request to join the club *first* before they’ll be able to enter the Arena.
3. Once approved, they can then click "Join" and enter the event normally.

Club Category (e.g., Social, Learning) doesn't affect this behaviour. Hope that helps!

By default, if your club is Private, events (other than Daily) are private and require the members to be approved prior to joining them. They would need to join the club and then join the event, after being approved for the club.

@JosephReidNZ there isn't a setting on events for that.

Thanks for the replies. I have clicked on "Join" in live Arenas and gotten a message like "This is a private event, you must join the club". I then went to the club site and made a join request, which when granted, allowed me into the event. How was that message generated on the tournment page, lower right? In the club I'm Admin in, the "Join" click generates no feedback at all.

Their club was private, and yours might be public.