I built this to explore public US Chess Federation data: active members, regular ratings, median ratings by state, rating distributions, and participation adjusted for population.

USCF is the main organization for rated over-the-board chess tournaments in the U.S., so this is basically a snapshot of where organized tournament chess is most active.

A few things that surprised me:

Texas has the most active members, ahead of California and New York Median rating varies quite a bit by state Some smaller states are much more represented after adjusting for population The national median regular rating is 838 in this snapshot

Data is valid as of June 1, 2026, updated monthly.