With the release of the Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit,” there has been a huge increase in the number of new, or new to the club anyway, chess players. That has been awesome! We’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone and adding fresh faces and perspectives to our ranks.

With these new players, some of you are already familiar with the concept of USCF “rated” play, though we’ve humorously discovered that this has been largely through tournaments as a kid. You’ve found that your rating from 3rd grade still counts and you have to start from there, even if you’re a player 1000 points stronger now!

For others, you are probably familiar with online ratings through chess.com or lichess.org, but aren’t sure what a USCF rating is or why you’d need one. The purpose of today’s blog is to let you know. Keep reading!

Disclaimer: In an effort to provide some levity, my writing may come across to some as demeaning or condescending. Trust that my intent is only to inform and please do not take offense.

Why do I need to obtain and maintain a USCF rating, anyway?

1. In the United States, the USCF standard rating is the only “real” rating. That doesn’t mean that your coveted 2000+ rating on lichess.org doesn’t count… it just means that it doesn’t count to anyone else but you. The de facto standard throughout the world is a FIDE rating and within the U.S., it so happens to be a USCF standard rating (60 minutes per side per game or more). The rest of the USCF ratings are interesting (Quick and Blitz), but they aren’t what people mean, when they ask, “What’s your rating?”
2. Standard rated USCF tournaments are the toughest competition you will face. Period. This will make you a much, much better chess player. What do I mean by this? When a player’s “real” rating is on the line, they will fight much, much harder for a win than your buddy at Mario’s who’s just spilled beer and pizza sauce on the board.
3. It’s a chess club thing. The “older” chess club members have already bought into this system and are interested in maintaining their USCF ratings. Often, tournaments are very expensive. We pay for hotel rooms, restaurants, and entry fees that are driven by significant tournament hall rental fees and prize funds. A typical tournament weekend can cost hundreds of dollars. A USCF rated tournament run by the chess club, where the players compete for a donated prize, and pay an entry fee meant to cover the rating fees for the games (yes, the USCF charges us to rate our games), is much, much cheaper, but still provides a similarly competitive experience. Our membership has historically valued the opportunity to play rated games, locally.
4. When we hold USCF rated tournaments, we don’t want to alienate our new members, especially if they have no idea what these tournaments are all about. Hence, we have offered an abundance of free, unrated tournaments, where everyone can be included.

How do I get a USCF rating?

1. Purchase a USCF membership. This can be done here. Please email us with any questions you may have about the various membership options. To summarize them, they are all either with or without printed or digital copy of the “Chess Life” magazine. You get what you pay for.
2. Play in USCF rated tournaments. After 26 tournament games, you will receive your “published” rating. Before that, your rating may fluctuate wildly. This is to get it to your playing strength as quickly as possible.
3. Although HCC or ACF (Alabama Chess Federation) memberships are not required to play casually at the club, we periodically hold events where one or both of those memberships are required. If you want to play in State Championship level events, you’ll want to sign up with the ACF. For local events, we may require a HCC membership to cut down on the cost of doing business as a club and to reward those who have graciously contributed to help maintain our operating costs. Check out our membership options here. We really, really, do our best to ensure that an HCC membership quickly pays for itself and hope you’ll agree.

Why are we even talking about this?

See #4 above. There has been a great deal of interest in holding rated tournaments again, to include our annual Huntsville City Championship. We’d like to make that happen, and we’d really like for everyone to feel included.