We have now crossed the 17000000 ID threshold.
I’d be curious about when the ID numbers rolled over from 15999999 to the 16000000’s?
The first two of these are approximate:
The first ID starting with 14 was issued in February of 2009.
The first ID starting with 15 was issued in October of 2013.
The first ID starting with 16 was issued in August of 2015.
The first ID starting with 17 was issued in March of 2019.
We have already used a lot of IDs that start with 20 and 21 during the pre-numbered ID era, and we’ve also used IDs that start with 22, 25 and 26 for various administrative purposes, so we’ll probably skip from 19 to 30. My guess is that will happen in 2023 or 2024.
One possibility is that we might switch to IDs that start with 3 when US Chess goes to a new membership system as part of the ongoing upgrades in technology.
It took less than 2 years to get from 15 to 16. Was there a membership spurt during that period?
Bill Smythe
There’s a lot of seasonality to when new IDs are issued, because the bulk of new IDs are scholastic/youth memberships and most of those are issued between mid-September and late March.
Also, we started using the 8th digit as a check digit a few years after we started processing tournaments online, because we were seeing lots of ID errors due to transposition of digits on recently issued IDs, so we only issued about 100,000 IDs between 15000000 and 16000000 instead of 1 million. (And actually less than that due to some system issues that cause IDs to be generated but not actually used.)
Here’s a table that I think is fairly accurate, it shows the number of IDs assigned by quarter from 2014 to 2018:
[code] year count
2014-1 9905
2014-2 4457
2014-3 3780
2014-4 10700
2015-1 9964
2015-2 4850
2015-3 4054
2015-4 10946
2016-1 10868
2016-2 5195
2016-3 4359
2016-4 11050
2017-1 11886
2017-2 5574
2017-3 5370
2017-4 11287
2018-1 11612
2018-2 5852
2018-3 5005
2018-4 11472
[/code]
Well, let’s see:
If the use of check digits began between 2009 and 2013, then that could explain why it took almost 5 years to get from 14 to 15, but under 2 years to get from 15 to 16. But it could not explain why it reverted back to a longer time (about 3-and-a-half years) to get from 16 to 17 – unless check digits were discontinued, which I assume didn’t happen.
Or, if check digits started being used before 2009, then it still looks to me as though membership grew twice as fast between 2013 and 2015 as it did between 2009 and 2013, and again between 2015 and 2019.
Bill Smythe
It appears that the ‘date id issued’ field wasn’t added to the database until we had already issued about 25,000 IDs starting with ‘15’. So my earlier projection of when the first 15’s were used is off by anywhere from 6 to 12 months.
Needing to go to IDs that start with a 3 in 2023-2024 is a guess, it could be off by a year or more.
This might be a more accurate estimate, it comes from transaction data, since the first use of an ID is probably when a membership is purchased for that ID:
14 2008-07-29
15 2012-10-29
16 2016-03-10
17 2019-03-07
And, yes, the rate at which IDs are being issued has gone up some in the last 2-3 years. That’s consistent with our membership growth over the last few years and the number of rated events and games.
I’d be curious to know who’s got the lowest number and verified still living.
When the IDs were issued in around 1977, it was done geographically, starting with the northeast. So if what you’re trying to figure out is who has been a member the longest, IDs won’t help determine that. But you could look at a Golden Master file, it will have the IDs still in the system from then and is in numerical order. The first few IDs on it were apparently test IDs issued by staff. (Thousands of IDs were deleted during the 80’s and 90’s when the membership lapsed, we have no computerized record of those IDs.)
I’d be curious to know how many new member ID’s overall have been issued since 2010. Of that number, how many are still active?
When the USCF first issued ids in 1976, it appears that those in Western Massachusetts were given the lowest numbers, and, in fact, any member who lived outside of greater Boston had an ID that started with 1000----. Without searching too extensively, the lowest I can find is that of former Springfield scholastic star, Stanley Targonski (10001838), but I am interested to see if there are lower ids of living players.
Jack Martin
10008191
WinTD allows you to sort the database by ID number. With a little searching, I found Eugene Grumer of FL (10000831), a Life member who last played in Sept. 2018.
– Hal Terrie
Thanks. Mr. Grumer “Come on Down!!”
I had always assumed that the IDs would have started at 10001000, since I can’t recall anything lower from those early days of IDs. When the USCF required IDs on rating reports, in January 1976, it took a couple of months to get used to. Fortunately, in my club, every player started with 1000----, so it only required checking the last 4 digits. Of course, within a few months, new members screwed it all up!
This data seems to be reasonably correct and complete. I tried to filter out things like duplicate IDs and other types of corrections, but it may include former members whose IDs were deleted in the 80’s and 90’s who later rejoined and had their old ID reactivated.
I did it by fiscal year rather than calendar year because the bulk of new members are scholastic/youth, so I think it makes more sense to have everyone in the same academic year together.
This shows the number of new members during the fiscal year and what percentage of them are current members as of 2/28/2019.
[code]fiscal_year count current pct
2005-05-31 24902 511 2.1
2006-05-31 24469 569 2.3
2007-05-31 24313 631 2.6
2008-05-31 23835 773 3.2
2009-05-31 20752 822 4.0
2010-05-31 19824 964 4.9
2011-05-31 19434 1169 6.0
2012-05-31 21701 1625 7.5
2013-05-31 22442 2087 9.3
2014-05-31 22914 2789 12.2
2015-05-31 22571 3520 15.6
2016-05-31 22274 4978 22.3
2017-05-31 23602 7665 32.5
2018-05-31 24538 14852 60.5[/code]
Here are all the IDs lower than 10001000 showing the expiration date and current state. The first few all appear to be ones entered by the staff.
Based on the present of several members from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with IDs below 10001400, I would speculate that members in Puerto Rico and other US territories might have gotten their IDs first, then the ones in western Mass., with IDs that started around 10001400.
The first ID that is active and current is that of Mr. Grumer.
[code] memid memname memstate memexpdt
10000001 J NATHAN MISNER NY 2012-05-31
10000002 JUDY NORA MISNER TN 2007-07-31
10000003 J AMSCHEL MISNER NY 2007-05-31
10000004 J PHILIP MISNER TN 2012-06-30
10000084 JORGE F FREYRE PR 2007-11-30
10000238 JOHN LOGUE NY 1986-06-30
10000246 EMILIO G PENA RODRIGUEZ PA 2001-12-31
10000343 J BIENVENIDO RODRIGUEZ PR 2099-12-31
10000351 MANUEL RODRIGUEZ ORMAZA PR 1995-05-31
10000475 LUIS TORRES-BAUZA PR 2009-03-31
10000505 PEDRO NEGRONI PR 1995-02-28
10000556 WILLIAM J GROLEMUND VI 1986-01-31
10000572 HAROLD A HANNO FL 1991-03-31
10000581 WALTER S HOYT CA 1987-01-31
10000602 RONALD GARVIN JOSEPH OH 2010-07-31
10000661 DR BERNARD J RUMSCH FL 1991-06-30
10000696 STEVEN D SALINGER NY 1991-09-30
10000726 CHIU YUM-SAN MD VI 2099-12-31
10000831 EUGENE L GRUMER FL 2099-12-31
10000947 MANUEL BORBOLLA PR 2099-12-31
10000998 MANUEL E MORAZA CHOISNE -N- 2008-02-29[/code]
The lowest number will be one of the players active as of when IDs were issued but may not be the first one still playing. Pal Benko was playing long before IDs were issued and his is 10080321 while Sammy Reshevsky has 10093708.
I first joined the USCF in the late 80’s when I was stationed in Ft. Hood, I’m pretty sure I’m still using that original ID. I think I didn’t lapse my membership until after I got out of college, when I was living paycheck to paycheck for a while. So, we we’re in the 12 million range in the late 80’s.
Weren’t the 1976 IDs done by ZIP code? Someone who had been playing for 30 years and was in Alaska then would have had a much higher number than someone who joined for the first time in Puerto Rico.
Alex Relyea
Sammy Reshevsky died in 1992. I don’t know if Benko is still actively playing (I think he is living in Hungary these days), his last US Chess event was in 1998.
Thank you for the information.