Chess expert is a title given by the United States Chess Federation (USCF). It is awarded to chess players rated from 2000 to 2199. Players rated above that are masters while players below that are class players. Approximately 50,000 chess players have USCF ratings, of which approximately 2500 are rated 2000 or better. Thus, chess experts are in the top 5% of all USCF tournament chess players.
The title of chess expert is not awarded for life. Every time a tournament chess player plays a game, his rating goes up or down depending on the game's outcome and on how strong his opponent is. If the rating of a chess expert falls below 2000, he is not a chess expert any more. This is in contrast to international titles awarded by FIDE, which are awarded for life. In European countries the term of "expert" is not used. Instead, players of that level are called "Candidate Masters", although the FIDE Candidate Master title generally requires a higher rating (2200 FIDE).
It is possible (and common) for players in the United States to have a rating that places them in the 'expert' category, while still retaining the title of 'Life Master' or 'National Master'. The 'title' of 'master' is awarded to anyone meeting the criteria laid down by the USCF, including having once been rated over 2200. Like the FIDE titles of FIDE Master, International Master, and Grandmaster, the title of 'Master' is awarded for life. Players with a rating below 2200, but who have earned the title of 'National Master' or 'Life Master', are, according to the USCF, still referred to as 'masters'.
The first USCF rating list was published in December 1950. On that list, experts were players rated from 2100 to 2300 and masters were players rated from 2300 to 2500. However, within a few years, it was discovered that the ratings were rapidly deflating. As a result, the classifications were dropped by 100 points so that since then experts were rated between 2000 and 2200. In 1960, the USCF adopted the new Elo rating system replacing the original Harkness System. There have been continuous adjustments to that system ever since, with the primary purpose of stabilizing the rating system against the forces of inflation and deflation, so that a chess expert today will be approximately the same strength as a chess expert was 20 or 40 years ago.
This information stated here also applies in Canada, under the auspices of the Canadian Federation of Chess (CFC), with one difference being that Class E encompasses all players rated under 1200. Similar class distinctions may apply in other national chess federations as well.
Famous quotes containing the words chess and/or expert:
“It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn’t mind being a Pawn, if only I might join—though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“Do you know what Agelisas said, when he was asked why the great city of Lacedomonie was not girded with walls? Because, pointing out the inhabitants and citizens of the city, so expert in military discipline and so strong and well armed: “Here,” he said, “are the walls of the city,” meaning that there is no wall but of bones, and that towns and cities can have no more secure nor stronger wall than the virtue of their citizens and inhabitants.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)