Quick answer
Quick answer: Arrive early, hand your phone in or leave it outside, write down every move on the scoresheet, and shake hands at the end.
The chess is the easy part. The rules around the chess are what catch first timers.
You will lose games to stronger players, and that's the entire reason to go.
Nobody expects a new player to know the etiquette, and the arbiter will explain anything you ask before the round starts.
The phone rule is real
Start here, because this is the one that ends tournaments before they begin.
The FIDE Laws of Chess forbid having any electronic device in the playing venue unless the arbiter has approved it.
The penalty is forfeiting the game. Not a warning, not a time penalty.
Some events soften it in their own regulations, and you cannot rely on that.
I read the article itself rather than a club summary, because the wording is stricter than the version people repeat. Leave it in the car, in a bag outside the hall, or hand it to the arbiter. A phone ringing in your pocket has cost stronger players than you a full point.
Default time
The second way to lose without playing a move.
Every event sets a default time in advance, and if it doesn't specify one, the default time is zero.
Zero means you lose if you're not at the board when the round starts.
The arbiter can decide otherwise, and you should not plan around that.
So find out the event's default time before the first round, and turn up thirty minutes early anyway. Half the players do, and it's the calmest half hour of the day.
You have to write the moves down
This surprises online players more than anything else.
Each player must record their own moves and their opponent's, move after move, in algebraic notation on the scoresheet the event provides.
Both players do it independently, and both sheets are checked if there's a dispute.
The relief comes only when you have under five minutes left and no increment of thirty seconds or more.
Our notation guide covers the writing itself, and it's worth practising at home before the day.
Practise the scoresheet first
A specific piece of preparation nobody suggests and everybody needs.
Writing while playing splits your attention, and the first few games feel clumsy because of it.
Play three games at home with a paper scoresheet beside you and record both sides.
By the third one it's automatic, and on the day you'll be thinking about the position instead of the pen.
I checked my own habit doing this and found I was recording my move before playing it, which is the wrong order and an arbiter will correct you.
Touch move applies
The rule you have never met if you only play online.
Touch one of your pieces meaning to move it and you must move it. Touch an opponent's piece and you must capture it, if a legal capture exists.
Releasing a piece on a legal square ends the move immediately, before you press the clock.
You can adjust pieces by saying j'adoube first, and only on your own move.
Our touch move guide covers the exceptions properly, and reading it once removes the most common first tournament shock.
Illegal moves cost time, then the game
Everybody makes one eventually, so know the price.
An illegal move is completed once you press the clock. The position goes back and the arbiter gives your opponent two extra minutes.
A second illegal move in the same game loses it outright.
So the first one is a bad moment and not a disaster, and the second is the disaster.
The usual causes are castling out of check and moving a pinned piece, both of which come from playing fast in an unfamiliar setting.
How draw offers work
There's a correct way, and it's simple.
Make your move first, then offer the draw, then press the clock.
An offer stands until it's accepted, verbally declined, or your opponent touches a piece meaning to move.
So playing on is itself a refusal, and repeating an offer every few moves is bad manners the arbiter can penalise.
Offer once. If they play on, that's your answer, and asking again just annoys somebody who is concentrating.
The arbiter is on your side
New players avoid the arbiter, which is exactly backwards.
Their job is fair play, playing conditions and running the competition, and they can penalise anything from a warning up to expulsion.
You call them by raising a hand quietly, not by arguing across the board.
Ask them anything before the round starts, including questions you think are stupid. They would far rather explain a rule than adjudicate a row about it.
And if something goes wrong mid game, stop the clock and call them rather than sorting it out yourselves.
Pairings and the swiss system
How you end up playing who you play.
Most weekend events use a swiss, where you're paired against somebody on a similar score each round.
So round one is often a mismatch, and by round three you're playing somebody at your level.
That means the tournament gets harder as it goes if you're winning, which is the opposite of what new players expect.
Nobody is eliminated. You play every round whatever your score, which is the main reason a swiss is used for open events.
What the day feels like
The practical shape, since this is rarely described.
It's quiet, much quieter than you expect, and the silence is part of the concentration.
Games are long. A classical round can run four hours, and two rounds in a day is genuinely tiring.
Bring water and food, because the venue often has neither and you can't leave to find any.
And expect to feel drained afterwards in a way that online chess never causes.
What to bring
A short list, and each item earns its place.
Two pens, because one fails and you cannot borrow mid game.
Water, food and something to eat between rounds.
A jumper, since halls are cold and you'll be sitting still for hours.
Your rating card or membership details if the event asks for them, plus a book or a board for between rounds. Do not bring a laptop or a tablet, for the same reason you left the phone outside.
Losing is the point
The mindset that decides whether you come back for a second event.
You will lose to somebody who plays a move you didn't consider, and that game teaches you more than fifty online blitz games.
Write the game up afterwards while it's fresh, because the scoresheet is the whole reason you wrote it down.
Then analyse it properly rather than skimming an engine line.
Our analysis method is built for exactly this, one serious game reviewed slowly.
Preparing in the fortnight before
Two things matter and the rest is noise.
Know your openings well enough to reach a playable middlegame without thinking, because clock time spent in the opening is time you don't have later.
And practise your basic endgames, since long games actually reach endgames and online blitz rarely does.
Cramming a new opening the week before is the classic mistake. Play what you know.
You can drill your existing lines on the opening trainer, which is the right use of the last two weeks.
Clocks work differently to online
A small mechanical thing that costs new players whole games.
You press the clock with the same hand you moved with, and you press it after the move, not while thinking about it.
Forgetting to press it is common and entirely your own problem. Your opponent has no obligation to remind you.
Check which side of the clock is yours before the round starts, because they get set up facing either way.
Our clock management guide covers spending the time itself, which is the harder half.
The short version
Phone out of the venue, or you can forfeit a game you never played.
Arrive well before the default time, which is zero unless the event says otherwise.
Record every move on the scoresheet, both sides, until you're inside five minutes without increment.
Touch move applies, and a second illegal move loses the game.
Ask the arbiter anything before the round, expect to lose, and keep the scoresheets. They are the most useful thing you take home.