Is Senior Master an official title?

I've seen some videos of people being "Senior Master" but I've never seen someone with a "SM" before there name. What does this title mean?

In USCF there isn't a title above NM (like FIDE's IM or GM) so they call people way over 2200 "senior master." I think it takes USCF over 2400 or something.

Anyway, it just means the guy probably doesn't have any FIDE title, but wants you to know he's not some low level NM at 2200, he's a high level USCF player at 2400+ (or something around there).

Oh ok. I could not find a straight forward answer anywhere. Thanks.

At one time, I believe that a USCF Senior Master title was earned by getting one's USCF rating up to 2400. Perhaps it is hard to find information about this because the USCF no longer awards that title. As far as I can tell, there is now a somewhat more complicated system where a USCF player can earn a 2400 title by having a number of tournament results that satisfy some definition of being impressive for a USCF 2400 player. The name of this title seems to be "Life Senior Master", perhaps in order to avoid confusion with those who obtained the SM title as part of the older USCF title system.

http://www.uschess.org/datapage/top-players.php

I was speaking from the 2400's POV. A person calling themselves a senior master instead of NM wants to be sure you don't mistake them for a weaker class of player.

Cut and paste from Wiki:

United States

The USCF currently gives a national title for achieving five performances at a certain rating level:

Title	Rating
Life Senior Master	2400
Life Master	2200
Candidate Master	2000
1st Category	1800
2nd Category	1600
3rd Category	1400
4th Category	1200

Note: 1st Category titles and lower do not require the listed rating.

Here is the link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_title

Is there any reason to believe the Wikipedia page is up to date with appropriate details?

They used to call the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th category by letters A,B,C, & D respectively.......guess that has changed???? I had to play a lot just to make B level......

Classes are still part of the nomenclature AFAIK.

And the 1st, 2nd, etc categories aren't automatically given for achieving a rating, you have to earn norms by preforming well in (four or five) separate tournaments.

"... The basic premise of the Title system is to award permanent titles based on sustained performances at particular rating levels. To be more concrete, a player who is vying for the 1800-level title would need to demonstrate several qualifying tournament performances in which his/her game results would be considered impressive for someone rated 1800. ... The Title system has no effect on the original Life Master title, which requires 300 games above a rating of 2200. ..."

http://www.glicko.net/ratings/titles.pdf

Yes it is an official title in the USCF, not sure about other federations. Senior Master is the highest title a player can get in USCF which is reaching 2400. They still have them around, it's just nowadays most of them just opt for becoming a IM (Senior Master skill level ranges from equivalent to an FM to sometimes even IM level without Norms). USCF Senior Masters where alot common in the early 2000s on down . Now most players with a strength on the level of 2400 FIDE/USCF or past 2300 FIDE/USCF opt to try to pursue a Fide FM or IM title,especially if there reaching beyond 2200/2300 into the 2400 range.