FAQ

1. What time do you meet?

Meeting time is Thursdays at 7:30 PM
 
2. Where do you meet?
The club meets at the O'Neal Building, 10 Falcon Crest Drive, off of Pleasantburg (Hwy 291) at I-385.


3. What does it cost to join the Greenville Chess Club?

Adult Membership is $30 for 12 months
Youth - Under 20 Years Old - Membership is $15 for 12 months
Discount for First Time Members!
 

4. Can I play without joining?

Yes, you can play casual games without joining either Greenville Chess Club or USCF,  but you must join USCF to play rated games.
 

5. What is USCF?

The UNITED STATES CHESS FEDERATION (USCF) is the governing organization for chess in America. A not-for-profit corporation, it has more than 80,000 paid members. Its membership spans every state and territory of the U.S.
 

There are nearly 2,000 USCF-affiliated chess clubs, and more than 100,000 chess players participate in USCF events every year. The official publication, Chess Life, is distributed nationally every month to more than 250,000 readers.

The USCF was founded in 1939 and grew gradually until 1972, when membership doubled due to interest in Bobby Fischer's rise to the World Championship. The last five years have seen the rolls swell by nearly 50 percent, spurred by the growth of scholastic chess and the spread of chess computers.

The USCF sanctions thousands of chess tournaments with a half-million rated games each year. It is the organizer of 25 national championship events including the US Championship, the US Women's Championship, and the Amateur, Junior and Senior championships. The USCF sponsors the National Scholastic Championships which annually draw over 3,000 players.

USCF also sponsors American participation in international events. The United States Team is the current World Champion, winning in Zurich in 1993 ahead of Russia, the Ukraine and six other finalists.
Thirty-one of the world's 415 grandmasters are Americans.

As a not-for-profit membership organization, the USCF applies its revenue to services and programs benefitting its members and chess in America. The US Chess Trust, a charitable trust administered by the USCF, supports chess programs for schools, veterans, hospitals, and prisons worldwide.
 

7. What is rated chess?

Rated chess is simply games that are played between rated players.  The outcome of the game determines the changes in the players ratings.  In general a win increases your rating, and a loss decreases it.
So what is a rating?
The USCF rating system, developed by statistician Arpad Elo in the early 60s, rates the performance of chessplayers in sanctioned tournaments. Most ratings fall between 400 and 2600, with an average of about 1350. The highest rated player in the US is Grandmaster Gata Kamsky, rated 2784 as of June 1997. In 1970, the World Chess Federation adopted the USCF rating method for international events. In 1993, World Champion Gary Kasparov achieved the highest international rating ever, 2805, breaking Bobby Fischer's 1972 record of 2785. In 1997, Kasparov broke his own record and achieved a rating of 2820. (The next highest player, Vladimir Kramnik, was rated 2770 on the same list.)
 
8. What does it cost to joint USCF?

Adult membership in USCF is $40/year.
Age 19 and under, $20/year
Age 14 and under, $13/year
A family discount is available also.
Complete details can be found at: USCF Membership Info
 
9. How do I find you?

Click here for directions.