The United States Chess Federation is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating system, awards national titles, sanctions over twenty national championships annually, and publishes two magazines: Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids. The USCF was founded and incorporated in Illinois in 1939, from the merger of two older chess organizations. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its membership as of 2020 as COVID hit was 97,000; as of 2024 the membership was 112,000.
Paul Truong is an American chess player, trainer, and organizer. He was born Trương Hoài Nhân in Saigon, South Vietnam. Truong holds the USCF title of National Master and the FIDE title of FIDE Master.
Laura R. Smith, formerly Laura R. Ross, is an American chess player.
Albert J. "Al" Lawrence is an American chess expert and author.
Alexander Vladimirovich Ivanov is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. Born in Omsk, present-day Russia, he moved to the United States in 1988. FIDE awarded him his Grandmaster title in 1991. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, fellow chess player and Woman International Master Esther Epstein.
Ray Robson is an American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010. Robson fulfilled the requirements for the title in 2009 at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 16 days, making him the youngest ever United States Grandmaster at the time.
Tim Redman is Professor Emeritus of Literary Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. The author of Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism (1991), his research focuses on Ezra Pound and more generally on American and British modernism. He retired as Professor of Literary Studies in 2019.
Alexander Onischuk is a Soviet-Ukrainian-American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1994, and won the 2006 U.S. championship.
Elshan Moradi Abadi is an Iranian-American chess grandmaster.
Tal Shaked is an American chess grandmaster who is best known for winning the World Junior Championship in 1997.
Arthur William Feuerstein was an American chess master, and winner of the first U.S. Armed Forces Chess Championship in 1960. He represented the United States twice in FIDE Student Olympiads.
The Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship is the foremost intercollegiate team chess championship in the Americas. Hosted in part by the United States Chess Federation, the Pan-Am Intercollegiate is open to any team comprising four players and up to two alternates from the same post-secondary school in North America, Central America, South America, or the Caribbean. The Pan-Am began as such in 1946, and is held annually, usually December 27–30. It has usually been held in the United States, but was hosted in Canada four times. The current format is a six-round fixed-roster team Swiss-system tournament scored by team points. Sometimes the Pan Am Intercollegiate is held as part of a larger event called the Pan American Chess Championship comprising the Pan-Am Intercollegiate, Pan-Am Scholastic Team Championship, and Pan-Am Open.
Susan Polgar is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, at the age of 15, she became the top-ranked female chess player in the world. In 1991, she became the third woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE. She won eleven medals at the Women's Chess Olympiad.
The Dallas Chess Club (DCC) is one of the major chess organizations in the United States and a gold affiliate of the United States Chess Federation. The club has approximately 300 members, including a number of FIDE titled players such as: Grandmaster Alejandro Ramírez, GM Amon Simutowe, IM Jacek Stopa, IM Marko Zivanic, IM John Bartholomew, IM Robert Sanchez, IM Keaton Kiewra, FM Keith Hayward, GM Darwin Yang, FM Tommy He, and WIM Sarah Chiang. There are also a number of US Chess masters such as: Dion Su, Mihail Bantic, Austen Green, Jimmy Heiserman, Adarsh Jayakumar, Nelson Lopez, Jarod Pamatmat, and Abhishek Mallela. International Master (IM) Stopa is the club's most prominent member, as he tied for first place at the US Open in Indianapolis in August, 2009. James T. Campion directed the club for many years from old East Dallas. Historically, the club's most famous member was Ken Smith for whom the Smith-Morra Gambit is co-named, and the DCC hosts an annual tournament in his honor. In 2010, DCC hosted the state chess tournament.
Shinsaku Uesugi is a Japanese chess player who holds the title of FIDE master. He won the 40th Japanese Chess Championship in May 2007 and became the youngest ever national champion. He also played for Japan at the 38th Chess Olympiad in November 2008 and became co-champion of the U.S. National High School Championship in April 2010.
Conrad William Holt is an American chess grandmaster who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in September 2012.
Rochelle Ballantyne is an American chess player. She is best known for appearing in the 2012 documentary Brooklyn Castle. Her USCF rating is 1988, putting her in the 99th percentile of American junior players. Her FIDE rating is 1912, with her highest rating achieved being 1954 in January 2012. According to the USCF's rating system, she is currently an "Expert" or "Candidate Master."
Mauricio Flores Rios is a Chilean chess player who holds the Grandmaster title. As of January 2015 he has a FIDE rating of 2531, is number 1 in Chile among active players.
Akshat Chandra is an American chess player. He started playing Chess during a visit to India in 2009 when he was nine years old. In 2015, he won the US National K-12 Championship and was also the US Junior Champion, the first time both titles were held by the same person in a single year. He earned the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in March 2017.
Eric Rosen is an American chess player. He was awarded the FIDE Master title in 2011 and the International Master title in 2015. Rosen began playing chess as a child with his father and brother and became the United States Chess Federation (USCF) K12 national champion in 2011. While attending the University of Illinois, Rosen was on the chess team that secured a spot at the President's Cup in 2013 and 2014.
