I used to love the USCF tournaments. As stated by the previous poster, they are too far away. I would often get up at 3:30 or 4:00 AM to be at the tournament on time. The last round would start around 4:00 or 5:00 PM, and I would be totally drained. I enjoyed my USCF membership and Chess Life magazine as long as I was a youth/scholastic member. (hehe) When I had to start paying the adult price, I decided that it wasn't worth it since I didn't know if I would be going that far to a tournament. I haven't been to a live tournament in years and years. A friend of mine is a life member. He bought membership in the 70's or 80's for a mere $600. He never has to pay another cent and gets the magazine for life !!!
If you live in or near a town where live players are, it is certainly worth the money. There is nothing like a live tourn (the thrills of each round, the skittles between games, analysis after the game with your opponent, the ticking clock,the emotions !!! ) Tournament chess is a great thing. I think you actually HAVE to buy membership if you plan to play in a tournament of USCF correspondence match.
Search your local area for clubs and tournaments. If there are at least 2 tournaments a month then it is worht the membership in my opinion. It gives enough time to prepare for touranents as well as study your lost games. Seattle, vegas and boston and ohio have a lot of tournaments that I know of. I'm in vancouver washington and the only thing near me is the portland chess club. It is a half hour drive from my house. I'd say thats very close. The closest thing to me besides that is two hours away. If its not within a half hour drive then its probably not worth it either. I have no complaints about uscf, great organization and facilitates chess well.
Originally posted by CamelClutch I am leaning towards purchasing a USCF membership.
If you are currently a member or have been one in the past, please fill in the blank on the following two statements:
1) The thing that I enjoyed the most about being a USCF member was....
2) The most disappointing thing about being a USCF member was....
1.. (A) Being part of a large stable organization offering OTB and Correspondence play. (B) The chess instruction sections are pretty good.
2. (A)The USCF treats correspondence chess as secondary. It only offers e mail and snail mail tournaments, and not many of them. (B) The coverage of correspondence chess in the magazine is tiny and boring. (C) USCF management is very political and frequently nasty. (D) The USCF is about 10-15 years behind other organizations in there use of computer technonogy, they offer nothing involving server chess, and there website of no better than average.
Please Note* I've not been a USCF member for about 2 years, so things may have changed, but this is what I've noticed.
😏
Originally posted by CamelClutch I am leaning towards purchasing a USCF membership.
If you are currently a member or have been one in the past, please fill in the blank on the following two statements:
1) The thing that I enjoyed the most about being a USCF member was....
2) The most disappointing thing about being a USCF member was....
I am a lifetime member.
I enjoyed OTB tournaments, but it has been years since I've been, partially because they are not frequent in my area and partially because I have a wife and kids now. I enjoy getting a magazine, and for sure the articles could teach me a lot if I had time to carefully read them. I think online chess has reduced the demand for OTB tournaments which has resulted there being fewer of them.
Someone else said it though, the USCF is astonishingly far behind in using the Internet. So much so, I fear for their long term survival. It used to be that the USCF was the only practical place to go to get a meaningful rating, but this site and many others do that well. The USCF is pretty slow updating your rating.
As I said, I have a lifetime membership, but there's a good chance it won't be around as long as I am.
I think it will be around for a long time. The usa will always endorce events on which the americans can compete. I think that a uscf rating is much more accurate than one given on here which is based on who you choose is your opponent. We've seen many people reach 2000, by only playing 1600-1800 players.
Face to face chess is just better, you know that it is brains against brains and there is not a book behind your opponent or a computer. Imagine being at a board and looking up the book lines, hold on a minute sir let me look to see what is the best opening move I don't seem to know this line.
It rewards the player who has done his homework and puinnishes he who does not study his lines or know how to improvise. It is more grueling mentally than online chess and it tests true chess ability through several games a day.
Chess will not be a dying game because of the innefecancy of the uscf. Chess will die as a whole in the entire world due to video games computers and other forms of entertainment that do not require the brains to enjoy them.
Originally posted by kmac27 I think it will be around for a long time. The usa will always endorce events on which the americans can compete. I think that a uscf rating is much more accurate than one given on here which is based on who you choose is your opponent. We've seen many people reach 2000, by only playing 1600-1800 players.
Face to face chess is just better, you know that i ...[text shortened]... games computers and other forms of entertainment that do not require the brains to enjoy them.
USCF Membership
21 Dec '08 20:38
Back to Top