United States Chess Federation

The United States Chess Federation (USCF) is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership doubled to 60,000 due to interest in Bobby Fischer's rise to the World Championship. USCF membership dipped after Fischer's withdrawal from public competition to just below 50,000, and didn't surpass its 1974 peak until 1992. Strong membership growth in the past decade has been spurred by the increase in scholastic chess clubs and the spread of chess computers.

The USCF publishes two magazines, "Chess Life", which is advertised as the "most widely read chess magazine in the world", and "Chess Life for Kids", which is a new publication for scholastic members, which represents just over half of USCF membership.

The USCF was incorporated in Illinois on December 27, 1939. It later became a 501(c)(4) after it established a headquarters in New York City.

Membership

USCF membership almost doubled during the 1990s and early 2000s, due to a boom in scholastic chess players, from approximately 50,000 to almost 100,000. This boom resulted in dramatic growth in scholastic chess throughout the country, as well as financial pressure on the organization, as the low dues charged to scholastic players did not cover the costs of servicing their memberships and the USCF could not grow sponsorship dollars quickly in response to the increased membership. Current membership is about 80,000, and USCF operations have recently returned to a break-even basis.

Activities

The USCF provides the main rating system for tournament chess in the United States in conjunction with approximately 2,000 affiliates, mostly chess clubs and local chess organizations. Earlier, the USCF used a rating system that was invented by Arpad Elo, a college professor of physics who was a chess master. Elo worked with the USCF for many years, and the system is utilized in a variety of other games and sports, including USA Today's college football and basketball rankings. Recently, the USCF has transitioned to a rating system that was proposed by Mark Glickman. Glickman, currently the chairman of the USCF Ratings Committee, is a college statistics professor who plays chess and has written numerous papers related to rating systems. The current rating system as implemented by the USCF is still an Elo rating system, but with a sliding K factor. There is an ongoing discussion within the USCF Ratings Committee of going to Glickman's Glicko-2 system in the future. The Glicko-2 system is an enhanced version of the Glicko system that would better allow for rapid jumps in ratings by young and upcoming scholastic players whose ratings might improve dramatically in a short period of time.

USCF also sanctions over 20 national championships, including the U.S. Championship, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Junior Championship.

Its most popular events are the three National Scholastic tournaments, held annually in different parts of the country. Every four years, the "Supernationals," an event combining all three Scholastics in one tournaments are held in one city. The last Supernationals drew over 5,000 players to Nashville, Tennessee and drew worldwide media attention. The Supernationals are signed to Nashville until 2021, ensuring Tennessee 25% of all National Scholastic events.Fact|date=May 2008

USCF was at one point the largest seller of chess books and equipment in the country. The USCF now outsources their sales to ChessCafe. [http://www.uschess.org/ebstatementregardingbanderenegotiations.php Click here to read more.]

The USCF works with the U.S. Chess Trust, a chess-related 501(c)(3) organization that provides funding for scholastic and prison chess, among other activities.

The USCF moved its operations in 2005 and 2006 from New Windsor, New York to Crossville, Tennessee. During the move, then USCF president Beatriz Marinello stated in the annual report that a key reason for the move was to make USCF "a national organization, not a New York organization."

Controversy

In 2002, the USCF made a controversial decision to remove former world chess champion Bobby Fischer from its database and [http://www.uschess.org/docs/pdf/15EBactionsvolex02.PDF revoked] his membership, based on his anti-American political statements. In 2006, that decision was [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/section_194.php vacated] by a successor board, possibly due to concerns that the 2002 decision appeared to be retaliation against free speech and counter to American ideals.

In October 2007, a lawsuit was filed in federal court by a former executive board member accusing other USCF officers of misconduct which he alleged influenced the results of the July 2007 USCF Executive Board elections. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/nyregion/08chess.html] On August 28, 2008, US District Judge Denny Chen dismissed the suit with prejudice pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2) and 12(b)(6). [http://chessusa.blogspot.com/2008/09/update-text-of-sloan-vs-truong-decision.html Text of Sloan vs. Truong et al. Decision]

ee also

* Presidents of the United States Chess Federation
* Executive Directors of the United States Chess Federation
* Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE)
* International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF)
* Scholastic chess in the United States

External links

* [http://www.uschess.org/ USCF official website]