The following are the rules by which the club champions will be determined this year, in each division (A, B, C). Changes from last year are shown in bold.
In order to be eligible for the championship, barring extraordinary circumstances, a player must have played at least one-third of the possible games in the preceding (1999-2000) season. This is to make sure that contenders are placed in appropriate divisions.
A player's end-of-season rating in 1999-2000 determines the division in which they will be competing in 2000-2001. Players rated above 1700 are in Division A, players rated 1400-1699 are in Division B, and players rated under 1400 are in Division C. Players who are within 50 points of a division boundary have until the end of September to decide if they want to play on the other side of the boundary.
In order to win a championship, barring extraordinary circumstances, a player must play an average of at least two games per evening over the 2000-2001 season, and 1.5 games per evening over the first half of the season. This is to prevent a player from joining the performance rating system late and unduly perturbing other contenders' ratings.
The champion will be determined on the basis of Iterated Overall Performance Ratings. That is, the championship rating will be the performance rating that a player would have had if the entire season were treated as one big tournament, and all the contenders had been unrated.
Contenders are strongly encouraged to play in the June tournament. If they are unable to do so, they must announce three weeks in advance when they plan to stop playing rated games at the club.
The following players are eligible contenders this season:
| Division A | Tim Anglin, John Chew, Robin Daniel, Lisa Deift, Ray Francis, Shaun Goatcher, Zev Kaufman, Fern Lindzon, Lloyd Mills, Libero Paolella |
| Division A or B | Evan Berofsky, Leah Katz, Lisa Kessler, Tim Knowles, Mike Krepakevich, Ron Manson, Marty Schuster, Sinna Vijayakumar, Lynda Wise |
| Division B | Diane Brown, Sal Desiato, Vinnette Francis, Brenda Megannety, Anne Molloy, Vivienne Muhling, Neil Naft, Maddalena Palazzo, Gene Rawlins, Trevor Sealy, Ruth Simpson, Gene Tyszka, Idelle Weinstock |
| Division B or C | Jillian Bathgate, Betty Collins, Kate Doe, Norma Manson, Joy Thomas, Donna Wyonch |
| Division C | Kristen Chew, Nan Doe, Shirley Drucker, Karen Falconer, Stan Jeffay, Ani Migirdicyan, Gary Sagara, Sandi Spencer |