I visualized United States Chess Federation (USCF) ratings by state

Name: I visualized United States Chess Federation (USCF) ratings by state
Availability: InStock
Author: k2xl

by k2xl·Jun 19, 2026·3 points·0 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidRabbit HoleNiche Gem

Texas beats California in active members; state medians vary wildly.

Strengths

•Population-adjusted representation reveals insights raw member counts hide.
•Monthly updates with real USCF data show genuine ongoing commitment.
•Heat map with click-through state exploration makes data genuinely explorable.

Weaknesses

•Dashboard on public data without novel analysis methodology or predictions.
•Chess community is niche; limited appeal beyond tournament players.

Post Description

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.