Sorry, I’m sure this must be out there somewhere, but I can’t find it in the FAQ’s or via google. Where is there a copy of the USCF rules available online? I have the 5th edition rulebook, but sometimes it is not with me 
. It would also be useful to refer players to.
As it has been discussed often on this forum: The publisher, McKay, will not allow the book to be published on-line. McKay has a legal contract with USCF going back many, many years that give them “first right of refusal” each time the rulebook is published. To date they have not refused to publish this work.
Tim Just
5th Edition Editor
Thanks again Tim. for those interested, the follwoing thread seems to cover this uschess.org/forums/viewtopic … ight=mckay.
The basic rules of how to play chess should be available on the website.
There are also plans to have a small ‘basic chess instruction’ app on the new website fairly soon.
That would be nice.
The whole rulebook thing seems to be a bit of a tangled web. While I understand there are contracts, etc, it is a little ridiculous to tell a player that s/he has no online access to the rules of the USCF, particularly since s/he might have just paid $49 for a membership. Hopefully, USCF will be able to get permission to post the official rules in a web format online before the next edition.
I’m thinking about putting together a few summaries for the tournament player and posting them on my club’s website.
Unfortunately, that is not likely.
This is an issue that has been discussed at length before.
The publisher has ABSOLUTE RIGHTS under a contract that dates back well over 20 years and was pretty much industry standard at the time. I doubt they’d be interested in the USCF buying back some or all of the rights even if we had the funds to do that.