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 (2000-2001) season. This is to make sure that contenders are placed in appropriate divisions.
A player's end-of-season rating in 2000-2001 determines the division in which they will be competing in 2001-2002. Players rated above 1650 are in Division A, players rated 1400-1649 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 2001-2002 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.
Players may play either using NSA or WSC rules. If players disagree, NSA rules shall be in effect. Games played under WSC rules will also be tracked under a SOWPODS rating system.
The following players are eligible contenders this season:
| Division A | Lloyd Mills, Libero Paolella, Zev Kaufman, John Chew, Tim Anglin, Lisa Deift, Glenn Dunlop, Fern Lindzon, Evan Berofsky, Sinna Vijayakumar, Sal Desiato |
| Division A or B | Lynda Wise, Trevor Sealy, Ron Manson, Lisa Kessler, Tim Knowles, Tony Leah, Brenda Megannety, Mike Krepakevich, Marty Schuster, Maddalena Palazzo |
| Division B | Stuart Levinsky, Hy Francis, Neil Naft, Gene Tyszka, Anne Molloy, Vivienne Muhling, Gene Rawlins, Ruth Simpson, Vinnette Francis, Diane Brown |
| Division B or C | Betty Collins, Idelle Weinstock, Patrick Knowles, Joy Thomas |
| Division C | Kate Doe, Donna Wyonch, Norma Manson, Kristen Chew, Jillian Bathgate, Gary Sagara, Merran Dunlop, Sandi Spencer, Stan Jeffay, Ninel Brown, Shirley Drucker, Karen Falconer, Nan Doe, Ani Migirdicyan, Barry Muskovitch |