EDITED: I’m writing this from someone who used to run a non 501c3, and wife runs a Local Nonprofit 501c3.
added the section about how to possibly get around the tightened 501c3 requirements.
for what it’s worth, i used to run a similar recreation league (Non-chess), with about a $15000 annual budget, 350 or so dues paying members and most years turning a profit or loss about 10-20% of the total averaging about breakeven with 10k in the bank.
The cost of setting up a 501c3 is high but not too bad. THe 990 is a bear to file. Even a friendly, chess playing accountant might charge you $500. Most bigger firms the price is $1,500 and up, even for an organization as small as yours. Sure you’ll get stuff donated to you possibly so the business/individuals can take a deduction, but I’d be careful unless you have a wealthy patron who’s eyeing making a large contribution, or, at the risk of being morbid, someone older or even possibly terminal who would like to leave you a decent sized bequest while they are still alive.
Lastly, it’s true the qualifications for what qualifies as a 501c3 have tightened. With alternate 501c7 categories and things that are much more confusing to potential sponsors, it’s important to have some charitable intent in your organization, which isn’t a bad thing anyway. There is something of a gray area here, but it’s pretty liberal. For example, Kiwanis and other such 501c3s often hold for profit events, and for profit dinners as fundraisers, but also have the arm that helps local people in the community. This kind of is a shame, because many organizations that are drinking clubs more than charities have been grandfathered in, but i think with some planning (and really, the two ideas i mentioned are things your membership may want to do anyway), you can get around it easily enough.
Similarly, if your club gave free equipment to disadvantaged kids, or ran a charity tournament each year with the overage going towards buying turkeys for families on thanksgiving, you could possibly get the 501c3 designation.
One thing you can do, if you aren’t totally isolated, is to run an event in conjunction with a registered 501c3. So for the recreation league we used to run, we partnered with an organization about 50 miles away who was a 501c3, and they undertook the fundraising (our event was an all night tournament). We split the overage with them, but did about 75% of the legwork, while they procured free bagels (from the bagel place at 2 pm aka their closing time), other grocery goods, and a giant container of starbucks coffee. They also as such got use of a nicer facility at a good discount. Their philanthropic arm (that runs free summer camps for kids) got a nice donation as a result, and our smaller organization can keep our prices super low for our kids.
The 501c3 also requires a tighter ship when it comes to meeting minutes, and the ongoing filing expenses. It may be worth it, but to me the breakeven point is $50k in hand, and annual revenue of 25k or so, or a large donation that would be realized if you registered.
hope that helps.