Hi folks!
Waaaay back in the 70s/80s, the annual RL was published in the Dec issue (IIRC). I have rejoined the USCF, and cannot find a comprehensive RL. By that I mean a RL that includes all members. I can look up MY rating, but I can’t seem to find on the website a complete RL. Would someone here tell me where, on the website, I can find the RL?
Thanx!
There is not a single comprehensive ratings list published. the website lookup allows one search by name - or allows one to get lists with a bunch of folks by entering partial information. For example if I want a rating list of everyone in Kentucky where I live if I just enter Kentucky into the state and enter nothing in the other blocks then I get a list of all rated players in Kentucky. (there are nearly 21,000 by the way - which is a reason we don’t print out a list any more.)
If you do want a comprehensive list for all US players then simply leave everything else blank and enter the United States in the country code. Be forewarned there are nearly 900,000 listings.
Why would this be needed? I can understand a need to look up any individual member, or even the top players in certain groups, but not this.
Alex Relyea
i like allen’s answer better.
…scot…
Also, any club TD or higher can go to TD/A and download the latest golden database (though it won’t have the number of games for provisional players).
Mr. Wiewel makes an excellent point, and one I had forgotten about. Mr. Campbell has apparently never been a TD, so he can become a club TD just by filling out a form. Then, in TD/Affiliate, he can get a PDF of the information that used to be in Chess Life, including provisional games. Note that the 2015 PDF runs 361 pages, which may answer questions as to why we no longer include it in Chess Life.
I still wonder what the use is.
Alex Relyea
Edit: Fixed typo.
The annual ratings lists for 2008 through 2015 are available as PDFs in the TD/Affiliate Support Area or the Members Only Area. The 2015 list runs 361 pages.
Any US Chess member, whether certified TD or not, may use the Members Only area of the web site to access to the same rating databases as TDs access through the TD/A support area. Logging into the Members Only area requires the member to enter his US Chess ID number and PIN.
The annual and semi-annual rating lists are also available as PDF files.
(Edit: Apologies to Mike Nolan for essentially duplicating his post. I was sufficiently long-winded that he apparently posted his succinct answer while I was savoring the sound of my own keyboard.)
For the most recent rating by active members of a club, you can go to “Clubs” and click on a club’s ID number. You can change the parameters to list the most recent participants in club tournaments or go back about 5 years. You can also expand how many you want to look at. Since we do not have wifi at our club site, when there are tournaments, as the organizer I download the player lists at home for several local clubs. It gives me the latest rating, USCF ID #‘s, and expiration dates of all the usual suspects who may show up. It does not take that long at registration to look up players’ latest rating on these few sheets of active players. We use the sheets to double check ID # before sending in results for rating.
The lists also give me an idea who plays most frequently, who are the highest rated players who have come to past tournaments, and who will need to renew USCF membership soon. That helps to better serve the club members better. Some of the players look at the lists the same way they used to read the old paper supplements to find which of their old friends are still active.
Note that some of those files are update only files. Those are not comprehensive.
The Golden databases are comprehensive, but may not have ratings of all inactive members. I simply do not remember. I know some are there - all may be.
The Golden database has all players, inactive or active, rated or not yet rated. The only times a player is not in the Golden is if: the first-time member joined after the golden was created; the player’s membership lapsed so many decades ago that it was purged out of the old files prior to the office moving to the current type of database; possibly the person is dead (I think they are still retained even then and just marked as deceased but maybe they eventually get purged from the Goldens); the players played in a non-rated tournament and erroneously thought they were members; maybe something else I’ve overlooked.
Edit - I’ve since learned that deceased players remain in the Golden (marked deceased) and are never purged.
Yes, this is true, but this was also true of the printed rating lists. Inactive members were eventually omitted from the list. Back in the day, this was presumably done to save printed pages. What a treat it used to be for TDs to have to schlep around printed rating lists from earlier years as well as the monthly supplements, thumbing through pages of tiny print to find ratings. With the years exacting their toll on my own eyesight, I now feel especially sorry for the older TDs back then. 
At least it’s possible to increase the magnification when reading a PDF file.
The 1985 supplement was a bit of a godsend because it had player that had ever been rated up to the end of 1985. By November of 1989 the search sequence (stopping once found) was: Oct 1989; Aug 1989; June 1989; Dec 1988; Dec 1987; Dec 1986; Dec 1985; nothing found so the player is unrated. Everything could stop with December 1985 instead of continuing on for another couple of decades.
You had to get a rating before appearing in any list, and you had to play a tournament before appearing in another one, so somebody who renewed but had not yet played could show up as having an expired membership. That was a reason for the catchphrase “it isn’t hard, remember your card”.