The USCF was founded and incorporated in Illinois in 1939, from the merger of two older chess organizations.

[5] The National Chess Federation, founded in 1927 to organize U.S. participation in the Olympiads, had held the prestigious invitational U.S. Championship since 1936.

[7] Membership experienced consistent, modest growth until 1958, when Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Championship at the age of 14.

The Fischer era did not last long, but the USCF has grown substantially since then, largely because of the explosive growth of scholastic chess.

[12] The Board of Delegates, composed of 140 persons designated by the state affiliates, as well as some other categories, meets annually at the U.S. Open.

The Executive Board, composed of eight persons elected by the membership to staggered four-year terms, meets monthly.

USCF first instituted a rating system for over-the-board play in 1950, using a calculation formula devised by Kenneth Harkness.

In 1960, the USCF adopted a more reliable rating system invented by Arpad Elo, a college professor of physics who was a chess master.

The system he invented, or a variant of it, was later adopted by FIDE, and is utilized in other games and sports, including USA Today's college football and basketball rankings.

[14] USCF has made further adjustments to the rating calculation over the years; the present calculation[15] was influenced by the "Glicko rating system"[16] developed by Prof. Mark Glickman, a significant refinement of Elo's system.

It is the "congress" of US Chess – the annual meeting of the Delegates is held concurrently, as well as many smaller gatherings and events.

The last Supernationals in 2017 drew over 5,500 players to Nashville, Tennessee and was claimed to be the largest rated chess tournament ever.

Chess Life, which began in 1946 as a bi-weekly newspaper, is now a glossy full-color magazine of 72 pages per issue.

The most relevant chapters for over-the-board play are also available to download for free online from the US Chess website.