Chess Tournaments

I've never played a rated chess game over the board, so I have no idea how chess works outside of online. Could I just join a tournament without having played a game before, and would I start off with a rating of 1200? 

Also, looking online I found some chess tournaments and how does the prize money work? For example I saw one with the entry fee of $200, and an estimated prize money of $4000 per category. Like (2200+, 2000-2200, 1800-2000, 1600-1800, 1400-1600, 1200-1400, 1000-1200) or so. $4000 is a lot, so I'd assume that really good players would play in the 1200-1400 or 1000-1200 and then drain their rating somehow and keep doing this, just for the prize money? 

Thanks for your reply. Seems quite fun to start playing in rated games in tournaments. I think I'll start that soon. That being said, I highly doubt I'll put myself in a $200 tournament without a guarantee of winning my money back so I guess I'll be doing like $5-20 ones? (hopefully they have them). 

Thanks, again was informative with the floor rating concept. 

That being said, wouldn't a 2000+ rated player for example be able to be sneaky enough to pass the system? It's really cheap and dishonest but $4000 is a lot of money, especially on the side for just one weekend. What I mean is, like this player can disguise himself as a low rated player by only winning just enough games and only playing just well enough to win the tournament's first (or second). In which his rating, I would assume would only increase by no more than +100 (I would think). He can then play horridly on low prize money tournaments, just so it doesn't raise suspicious that he wins every single tournament (but just barely). 

Like tournament 1, he plays horridly to start off with a low rating. Tournament 2 say he plays 20 games and only needs to win like 10, draw 5, and lose 5. (or whatever is necessary in general). Tournament 3 he plays so he can get 3rd prize. Tournament 4 he loses. Etc. 

You're required to record the moves, so get used to writing the notation if you're not too familiar with it.

I wouldn't expect it to happen, but it's good to know if you have any kind of dispute or claim to make (say your opponent makes an illegal move and doesn't take it back) just stop the clock and find the director to sort it out.

Oh, and you don't call check or checkmate, the only time you talk during the game is to offer/decline a draw.  I agree with realitymate, it wouldn't hurt to go to a club first, if there's one in your area you can ask upcoming tourneys and maybe get a car pool going :)

A few years ago I was playing in The Piet Robbertse tournament.

We were about 5 minutes into the 1st round, and the only sound was from the clocks.

Then, out of the C section, a nine year old voice at about 150db "CHECK!"

Everybody cracked up.

Indeed, a player CAN sandbag, and while I believe it's easy to detect, it's hard to detect ACCURATELY, and even harder to enforce.  Imagine you discovered someone had a -150 elo performance in low rated games.  AHA you say, he must be a sandbagger!  But wait, what if he just didn't try because he didn't care about the prize money?  What if he relied on tricks that people would only prepare for in a high money game?  What if he played against the same low rated players every time and did well against them compared to the rest of the population.

Furthermore, making the leap to exclude somebody is risky buisness.  What if somebody accused you of defamation?  You could be sued big time! 

It's easier to just modify the rating system to make sandbagging harder.  A tournament could pair people based on their performance in high stakes games only.

Thanks for your comments. I agree with you RealityMate, it would be really hard to be able to continuously mess with the system without getting caught. Not only that, it probably really is just a waste of time in the end. The main reason I'm asking this is because $4000 really does sound like a lot of money, and it really shouldn't be hard for a 2000+ rated player to win a 1000-1200 tournament. But it probably would only work one time.

Orangehonda- For the notations, would it be it e4, Nc6, 0-0, Nxe5, etc notation? After analyzing my games I've gotten somewhat used to using notations, but I don't think I could be very quick and accurate to record. Sounds nice to join a club, but I don't think I can really spare much for membership, nor have time to attend too often. Also I didn't realize that you couldn't say check, haha. Whenever I played against my friends OTB, I would say check in a sort of subtle voice but I always felt silly saying it, but I would say it because I thought it was required. 

Delta- I guess it sort of is a relief to know that the rating system is quite accurate and cannot really be messed around with. As much as I want to play against better players, it's nice to know the competition is somewhat level, and once I reach a certain rating range there would always be a fight to get to the top. I did think that for my first tournament, if I were to start off at a low rating I should be able to go ahead and win $4000, as it really is a lot of cash. But I've also seen that in probably most of these tournaments, unrated players can only win up to a certain amount of money. 

Paulgottlieb- Thanks for your comment. I guess I was more curious than worried about "sandbaggers." You guys gave me really good answers to what I thought to be a problem in the rating system. I'm in New York City at the moment, and it seems like there should be chess clubs and such around, but I can't really find any information about it. 

Thanks. The Marshall Chess Club is actually really close to where I live :).