When should start playing real tournaments?

I think you should play real tournaments when you think you are ready. Don't rush yourself, and don't have insomnia by drinking caffeine before a tournanment. Not the best choice. But yea, maybe buys some chess books and study like that before bed and after waking up, then go to school, then study online. :>

15 year olds should not be using caffeine.

Wsg, I play occasionally OTB chess (934 Regular 898 Quick USCF rating)

I recommend just playing whenever you cant win them all and the best way to practice and learn is from failure. First tournament I went to I was winning against a 1300 USCF when I was unrated and almost won then hung backrank mate and ended the tournament 1/3 yet somehow tying for 3rd place. I learnt a lot from that experience mostly to improve memory of theory and also learn to get better playing with black. I understand your issue with using arrows I'm still struggling without using them during OTB matches, but one thing I recommend is trying to play mental chess. You can play a mental chess match with a friend or recite theory in your head to improve memory and vizualization, being able to visualize the moves in your head will help with calculating long sequences. For FIDE rating I'm not an expert, but I think you just have to participate in a FIDE Rated tournament, I don't think you need a FIDE membership for FIDE Rated tournaments I think your USCF membership works just fine to enter. Hope this helps.

There was free coffee in the hotel lobby and my dad couldn't find water so I drank it in-between rounds :/

uhhh okay

Anytime?

It can be beneficial in small amounts. I used it when I was twelve in a similar situation - playing after a nearly sleepless night.

My statement about caffeine is grounded in willed ignorance. While I did not start drinking coffee until college, I drank ice tea by the gallon beginning about age 13. Obviously, I was consuming caffeine.

Even so, when I see teenagers downing energy drinks the way my generation drank Coca-Cola, I fear that our culture has made some bad turns.

You’ve experienced the sleeplessness and the effect on your chess. Hence, you know that you are ready to compete, but need to guard your sleep during multi-day events.

Check to see if there are community chess clubs in the area, or if your school has a chess club. That can get you used to: playing face to face; the clock; notation; and touch move. You will make mistakes, but if you do so in a club environment in probably non-rated competition then you can relax more about those inevitable blunders. I know from my years over 2100 USCF that no rating is immune to blunders, so don't get disheartened when they happen (which I also need to remind myself as I've dropped a couple hundred rating points from my peak around three and a half decades ago).

I'm 55 and played my first tournament game a year ago. I was unrated and got a 900something USCF afterwards. I was not well but turned up because I paid and owed it to my opponents. Of course, my first didn't show. 2nd game, my first actual tournament game, was a losing, 3 1/2 hour game. The 3rd I accepted a draw after 50 minutes because I wanted to go home and sleep.

I have played two more tournaments since and raised to something like 1300 USCF. It's never too early or too late to play in tournaments, especially those that offer different brackets based on rating. I play in U1400, there's an under U800 then I think there's a U1800.

Soon as you know the rules and know notation! Which I guess is in the rules...

Hey, its hard to match OTB rating and online rating to each other because there both different gamemodes. OTB you typically have more time and your opponents a lot sharper then in 10+0 rapid but you usually are as well. Im apporximately 1530 OTB USCF while my Rapid is fluctuating in the 1800s. I think if you can beat people in u1400, you should start playing tournaments OTB just to gain that experience and setting. Just make sure your not too egotistical, you can end up murdered by a 1200 if your not careful. Treat every game like you need to play your best until you win. Good luck!

At least not in the evening or afternoon

I think a little caffeine is ok in the morning

I both agree and recall that I consumed most of my ice tea in the afternoon when my father put my brothers and I to work maintaining our home on hot summer days. We drank our tea out of quart jars.

I'm 1687 USCF, and I was stuck at 1200 for over 6 months. I would recommend to just play tournaments to gain experience. For me, getting a coach helped me gain a few hundred points in a month. You shouldn't get a FIDE rating too early, since it will be 50-100 points lower than your USCF. Blindfold chess can help but as I said, playing more OTB will help calculation skills the most. You should probably aim to play up, so if you are 1400 and you can play in U1500, U1700 and U1900. I would play in U1700 or U1900 to gain the most experience. To improve I usually spend my time annotating master games in my openings, I also review lines that I'm unfamiliar with and review my own games to fix mistakes. Good luck!

After FIDE made major changes to calculated sub-2000 FIDE ratings (on 1 Jan 2024 they did a one time conversion of sub-2000 ratings using the formula Revised FIDE Rating = Old FIDE Rating + 0.4[2000 - Old FIDE Rating] ), the new conversion formula (to initialize a new US Chess rating from an existing FIDE rating) is:

General conversion:
 
USChess = -1073 + 1.5667*FIDE if FIDE <= 2000 (USCF higher for FIDE 1894 and lower for FIDE 1892) (FIDE 2000 -> USCF 2060) (FIDE 1000 -> USCF 494)
USChess = 20 + 1.02*FIDE if FIDE > 2000 (FIDE 2000 -> USCF 2060 and the difference increases for higher USCF)
 
Youth conversion:
 
USChess = -453 + 1.2667*FIDE if FIDE <= 2000 (USCF higher for FIDE 1699 and lower for FIDE 1697) (FIDE 2000 -> USCF 2080) (FIDE 1000 -> USCF 814)
USChess = 80 + 1.0*FIDE if FIDE > 2000 (80 difference for all FIDE of 2000+)

So lower rated USCF players would, on average, have a higher FIDE rating if they are equally active in both rating systems.

IM Daniel Rensch made a nice video about improving board visualization: https://www.chess.com/video/player/achieving-full-board-awareness