What is a "club player"? I often see this phrase being used in chess articles, apparently used to distinguish these players from professional chess players, grandmasters, etc.

But what exactly are they?


What Elo range?
Only players associated with a club?
Why not call them amateurs?
If you call somebody a club player, you not only distinguish him from professionals and masters (though those obviously play in clubs too), but also from hobbyists. And that distinction makes some sense, because hobby players usually don't reach a strength beyond 1500 Elo or so. 

So a club player is somebody who is serious about chess, plays rated games regularly and knows something about the game. He is only implicitly not a master (otherwise you'd call him that). Depending on which distinction you want to stress, you might also call him a "rated player" or an "untitled player". 

The term amateur is also often used, but of course, depending on context, an amateur can also be a hobbyist or even a non-professional world class player (like, Euwe, McShane, Malakhov …).