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23-511: USCF may refer to: United States Chess Federation , the governing body for chess competition in the United States. United States Commodity Funds USA Cycling - United States Cycling Federation Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title USCF . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

46-589: A representative to each of the five invitationals. The five invitationals are: The National Tournament of Senior State Champions (50+), The GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions (9-12), The Dewain Barber National Tournament of Middle School State Champions (6-8), The John D. Rockefeller National Tournament of Elementary School State Champions (K-5), and The Ruth Haring National Tournament of Girls State Champions (K-12). Players generally qualify for these events by winning

69-437: A significant refinement of Elo's system. US Chess awards titles for lifetime achievement. These should not be confused with the titles awarded by FIDE , such as Grandmaster and International Master. US Chess awards a player who achieves a rating of 2200 or above the title of National Master and sends the player a certificate. Likewise, a Senior Master certificate is awarded for a rating of 2400 or higher. Until 2008,

92-525: A state championship tournament, although each state affiliate is allowed to use any criteria for selecting its representatives. The U.S. Championship , an invitational event, has been held since 1936. (For many years before that, the national championship had been decided by head-to-head match play.) Noteworthy past winners include Samuel Reshevsky and Bobby Fischer , eight times each; Walter Browne , six times; and Larry Evans , Gata Kamsky , and Hikaru Nakamura with five times each. The 2023 tournament

115-471: A stronger player. Ratings are often used by tournament organizers to determine eligibility for "class" prizes, and eligibility to enter "class" sections, in tournaments. USCF first instituted a rating system for over-the-board play in 1950, using a calculation formula devised by Kenneth Harkness . In 1960, the USCF adopted a more reliable rating system invented by Arpad Elo , a college professor of physics who

138-638: Is the U.S. Open . It began as the Western Open in 1900, held in Minnesota. It is the "congress" of US Chess – the annual meeting of the Delegates is held concurrently, as well as many smaller gatherings and events. Several hundred players participate (the highest number, 836, was at the 1983 event in Pasadena ). Five invitational events are held concurrently. Each US Chess state affiliate nominates

161-514: The Life Senior Master title. The system is somewhat more complicated than this simple example suggests. The old Life Master title was renamed Original Life Master to avoid confusion with the new Life Master title; both are recognized and tracked by US Chess. Titles are posted on the same Player Search web page as ratings. US Chess organizes or sanctions various national championships. Most of these are held annually. The oldest

184-471: The US Chess Federation from 1950 to 1960. When a player competes in a tournament, the average rating of his competition is calculated. If the player scores 50% he receives the average competition rating as his performance rating. If he scores more than 50% his new rating is the competition average plus 10 points for each percentage point above 50. If he scores less than 50% his new rating is

207-583: The "Supernationals," an event combining all three in one tournament, is held. The last Supernationals in 2017 drew over 5,500 players to Nashville, Tennessee and was claimed to be the largest rated chess tournament ever. The oldest of the three, the National High School, was first held in 1969 by the Continental Chess Association. The Elementary, Junior High, and High School championships should not be confused with

230-683: The National Grade Level Championships, held in December, in which each grade level from K to 12 has its own championship. Except for the U.S. Championship, the tournaments listed above are organized by US Chess itself. But the US Chess calendar of national events also includes quite a few events that are bid out to interested affiliates. Here is a partial list: US Chess also organizes national championships of correspondence chess: US Chess publishes two magazines,

253-764: The US Chess website. Kenneth Harkness Kenneth Harkness (byname of Stanley Edgar ; November 12, 1896 – October 4, 1972) was a chess organizer. He is the creator of the Harkness rating system . He was born in Glasgow , Scotland . He was Business Manager of the United States Chess Federation from 1952 to 1959. He was also the editor of Chess Review , which merged into Chess Life . He had lived in Boca Raton , Florida . He became an International Arbiter in 1972. He

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276-829: The USCF has grown substantially since then, largely because of the explosive growth of scholastic chess . Annual national championship tournaments are now held at different grade and age levels; none of these tournaments, which now attract thousands of players, even existed prior to 1969. At its founding, the USCF had no employees and no headquarters, but in 1952, it hired a Business Manager (the position eventually became Executive Director ), headquartered in New York. In 1967, headquarters moved to Newburgh, New York ; in 1976, New Windsor, New York ; in 2006, Crossville, Tennessee ; and in 2022, St. Louis, Missouri . The U.S. Chess Federation has, in effect, two governing bodies. The Board of Delegates, composed of 140 persons designated by

299-486: The calculations and publishes the results. A player can have up to seven ratings: for correspondence games, for over-the-board games at regular (slow), quick, or blitz time controls, and for online games regular, quick, or blitz time controls. Ratings are posted online on the US Chess Player Search web page. Ratings for over-the-board play range from 100 to nearly 3000, with a higher rating indicating

322-431: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USCF&oldid=1219226921 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages United States Chess Federation In 1939, the United States of America Chess Federation

345-466: The monthly Chess Life , and bi-monthly Chess Life for Kids , which is geared towards those under 14. Chess Life , which began in 1946 as a bi-weekly newspaper, is now a glossy full-color magazine of 72 pages per issue. US Chess also publishes a rulebook. The current 7th edition is self-published by US Chess and produced in paperback and kindle forms. The most relevant chapters for over-the-board play are also available to download for free online from

368-438: The only other title awarded was that of Life Master , awarded to players who played 300 or more rated games while maintaining a rating above 2200. In 2008, the USCF implemented a system of "norms-based titles", patterned after the titles awarded by FIDE: if a person has (for example) five tournaments in which they demonstrate strength above 2400, and if in addition their rating at some time eventually reaches 2400, then they earn

391-526: The prestigious invitational U.S. Championship since 1936. The combined membership at the time was around 1,000. Membership experienced consistent, modest growth until 1958, when Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Championship at the age of 14. This began the "Fischer era", during which USCF membership grew thirty-fold, to approximately 60,000 in 1974, after Fischer had won the World Chess Championship . The Fischer era did not last long, but

414-484: The state affiliates, as well as some other categories, meets annually at the U.S. Open. The Executive Board, composed of eight persons elected by the membership to staggered four-year terms, meets monthly. US Chess implements rating systems for chess players. In each system, a rating is a calculated numerical estimate of a player's strength, based on results in tournament play against other rated players. Tournament organizers submit results to US Chess, which carries out

437-529: The top score and the bottom score. For his services, Harkness is in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame . With Irving Chernev , Harkness co-wrote An Invitation to Chess. He was responsible for a number of the first American chess rulebooks . Harkness died on a train in Yugoslavia, on his way to Skopje to be an arbiter at the Chess Olympiad . Harkness devised a rating system that was used by

460-422: Was a chess master . Elo worked with USCF for many years. The system he invented, or a variant of it, was later adopted by FIDE , and is utilized in other games and sports, including USA Today's college football and basketball rankings. USCF has made further adjustments to the rating calculation over the years; the present calculation was influenced by the "Glicko rating system" developed by Prof. Mark Glickman,

483-738: Was a member of the FIDE Permanent Rules Commission. Harkness was responsible for introducing Swiss system tournaments to the United States, and also introduced the Harkness rating system, which was a precursor to the Elo rating system. One method of tiebreaks in Swiss system tournaments is named after him. In the Harkness Method, players tied on points are ranked by the sum of their opponents' scores discarding

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506-668: Was created in Illinois through the merger of the American Chess Federation and National Chess Federation . The American Chess Federation, formerly the Western Chess Association, had held an annual open championship since 1900; that tournament, after the merger, became the U.S. Open . The National Chess Federation, founded in 1927 to organize U.S. participation in the Olympiads , had held

529-468: Was won by Fabiano Caruana . The U.S. Women's Championship , also invitational, has been held since 1937. In recent years it has been held concurrently with the U.S. Championship. The 2023 tournament was won by Carissa Yip . The largest national championships are the Elementary (K-6), Junior High (K-9), and High School (K-12) Championships which are held annually in the spring. Every four years

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