What is the state today of Over the Board Chess, and the USCF?

It has been six years since I last played in a tournament, and I let my membership lapse, and generally dropped out of the Chess world.  I had been pretty involved, organizing tournaments, being a member of a USCF committee.  (Outreach.  Waste of time.  Everyone else on the committee, including the leader, was only interested in putting their name on a form, not actually doing anything.)  However, some things happened.  I had health issues and I took up a new hobby (type II diabetes, and being a First Robotics mentor, respectively), that took up my time.

Now, though, I'm back.  I have some more free time.   What did I miss?

To elaborate, have there been any significant changes in the chess world in the last five years?  What little I can see doesn't give me a lot of hope.  I looked for a calendar of events at the USCF site and, just as was the case five years ago, there was almost nothing on it.  The USCF's "TLA" system is pathetic.

You still have to be a member to play in any rated tournament, and I didn't see any one day membership options, so if you want to play in the smallest tournament, you have to pay forty bucks on top of the entry fee, which is also generally too high.  When I had been playing, we at least had several series' of local tournaments, including one that I ran myself, that were inexpensive (ten bucks or less), but those have dropped off of the Michigan Chess Association's calendar, so it seems like those are gone.  I see chess clubs listed at the USCF site, but a couple that had been there six years ago aren't there now.

Does anyone know if membership is up or down?

Here at chess.com there's a new look and feel, which seems good, but I couldn't find the "events" listing, which chess.com formerly made available to any member to advertise events happening in meatspace.  Is it gone, or have I just not found it?  I always told USCF that they should encourage, if not demand, their tournament directors to post notices here, but they never did it.  They viewed chess.com as a rival, which in my opinion was truly sad.  They actually opened up a truly pathetic online chess service to compete against chess.com, which was bad in every way it could be bad.

Anyway, as much as I like online chess, I would prefer over the board play, at least a few Saturdays or weekends per year.  What's it like for trying to find such opportunities?  The USCF seems, at first glance, to be no better and possibly worse at encouraging that than they were five years ago.  Is there hope for the offline chess world?

Or, if I want to change the world, will I have to do it myself?

Just like it's been in the past, a lot of things are left to local organizers. Depending on where you live, there may be more or less OTB available in your region.

I run events in my area, and there are clubs close enough to get some other events in. Can't say if that is true for your region.

With the aid of google, I ran across the 2018 USCF Annual Report.

It said that membership was up, but I think that was supposed to be compared to 2017.  I got the feeling, but there weren't numbers in what I read, that there were years of decline.  The financial report mentioned growing numbers of memberships, but flat revenue, meaning that more kids were joining, but more adults were leaving.  In 2018, apparently that trend moderated or slightly reversed.  So, those are good signs.

      The report itself was a lot more "web friendly" and served as much better advertising than the ones I remember.  It's good to see someone has caught on to the importance of that.

    One thing I stumbled on was a 2014 announcement of a short term, low cost, membership.  Two months for 20 bucks.  I remember several variations on this theme from my USCF days but then, as now, all of those memberships had one thing in common.  They weren't advertised.  You can't buy one from the web page.  They were really a thing to help out TDs when someone showed up with a lapsed membership.  I thought that was daft, but I thought the same about a lot of USCF policies.

Does anyone know if they still offer that? It might make the different between me attending or not attending in January.  I can't see paying for a 25 dollar entrance fee and a 40 dollar membership, but it's a good tournament.  (At least it was last time I was there, as TD)  That extra 20 bucks might make the difference for me.

There is a trial membership that is available that a TD can use. It is two months for $20.

http://www.uschess.org/two-month-memberships.html

As for the ability to find rated tournaments. that depends on where you live. I live in Central New Jersey, and there are always tournaments to play in. If I had the energy, I could play more that 200 rated games a year. In other regions, there are very few opportunities.

USCF > FIDE

That really sums it up.

USCF players regularly wipe the floor with FIDE rated 200-300 points above them.

Thanks.  That's the page I saw via google, but I was afraid of the 2014 date.  I didn't know if it was a stale announcement.  I was afraid I would show up to the tournament, talk to the TD, and find out it was no longer available.

I double-checked on the affiliate area and that option is in the Membership batch area. It's not really cost effective, but if you're only going to play a tourney or two in a short time, I guess it could be worth it.

No they don't. Where did you get that idea?

It's true that the two month membership isn't really a "good value", but I'm not sure how deep I will dive back in, so I might really only go to one tournament, in which case it is a better value.

One of my beefs with uscf was that they were really set up for two groups of people.  They were for ™ lifestyle" players, i.e. people for whom chess was their primary hobby or a semiprofessional or professional activity, and for parents who thought chess was good for their kids.  Those groups are the only ones willing to pay the high costs.

Everything is the same except that the player composition has changed considerably (even in that short time) and if you play in an open tournament today, including in the open section, you'll encounter more kids than previously. Because these kids improve rapidly and there are so many of them, the ratings of many older masters are at best holding steady but usually falling and/or floored, so it'll be interesting to see what has become of the ratings of the strongest veteran players you used to know in the time since you stopped playing. 

Because I play OTB, personally witnessed it numerous times and it's the general consensus among professional players.

Where did you get the idea?

Then why is the USCF rating of USCF and FIDE members reliably higher than their FIDE rating?

Players in the 2019 US Championship: Average FIDE rating 2682, average USCF rating 2760. FIDE rating is lower that USCF rating in 12 out of 12 cases.  FIDE ratings are generally lower than USCF ratings. That's just simple arithmetic. 

Generally speaking, a player's USCF rating, especially over a certain point, is higher than their FIDE rating. But a 2200 USCF is likely going to be closer to 2100 FIDE and perform at that level. I would have to check the rulebook, but the USCF has a conversion for FIDE ratings to USCF and it is something like FIDE + 150 = USCF.

So, while the USCF rating is higher in magnitude, the strength of two players of similar ratings between the two systems will tip towards the FIDE player being stronger.

No, it's not "simple arithmetic", though it seems indeed to be the case. This is not consistent with the proposal that "USCF players regularly wipe the floor with FIDE rated 200-300 points above them.", because these USCF players would then have a FIDE rating at least 200-300 points above their USCF rating.

Could you quote some of those experts who represent the "general consensus" that "USCF players regularly wipe the floor with FIDE rated 200-300 points above them."  Are you actually claiming that, for example, players rated 2200 USCF regularly wipe the floor with players rated 2400 FIDE?  

I am rated 2235 Fide and the vast majority of my losses have been to opponents with a lower USCF rating.

It's the same for our national club and generally during tournaments, similar to the international vs US debate.

For example we're playing at the Australian Open in 2 weeks bracket C and everybody's scared of Russia's representation including Smirnov's brother, despite the fact that their Fide/USCF ratings are not very impressive. They have been killing nonstop for the 3rd year

So you you're saying that their FIDE rating is also low, which makes more sense. But since they are scoring so well at certain FIDE rated events, it implies that they suck at others, which I find disturbing.

Well, you implied that.They weren't all uni rated, but the majority was around 2100 USCF. 

I only recently made 2200 Fide and it was a drag.

Because I did not qualify last time I had to play the lower bracket and with shame I must admit that almost half of them beat me in my strongest openings, it was my worst tournament.

The same thing happened to the Dutch and French clubs.

Same thing this year with junior ranks, it's always the locals but they play like absolute machines.