Chess Scotland Noticeboard

Manuel Perez Carballo · Pawn Joined: 30 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

I was just wondering about the following. Although I am from Spain I have been living in Scotland for almost seven years now. When I first came here the then SCA used my FIDE ELO to give me a grading (if I am not mistaken it was something like 2150 at the time). Over the years my playing skill has, let us say, "deteriorated"... Wink

This has obviously been reflected in my Scottish grading dwindling down to my current 2049. During my time here I have also played a number of FIDE graded players with mixed results. But my FIDE ELO didn't change until recently. According to my grading results in CS excellent Online Grade Lookup I have played 3 FIDE games this quarter, which surprisingly have resulted in my FIDE grade changing for the first time in six years, going up to 2160! Surprised

Had previously played FIDE games been taken into account I am sure my ELO would have surely gone down as well. I am raising this because I am going to play in the Edinburgh Congress and I see there are grading prizes (or at least there were last year, one for those graded under 2100). Not that I would have any chance of winning it ( Laughing

), but I was wondering which grade would be used, my brand new 2160 FIDE or my more down-to-earth/realistic 2049 SC. I was also curious as to whether there was any reason for my previous FIDE games not having been processed. Thank you very much in advance.

DMB · King Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 267

You can view your FIDE record at their site. It lists all games processed.

So the 3 games you mention are the first half of the SNCL 2006-2007.

2 games were processed for the 2006 East of Scotland.

>>>I was also curious as to whether there was any reason for my previous FIDE games not having been processed.

Which games would these be?

DMB · King Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 267

To add to the previous message.

There are only certain events in Scotland are submitted to FIDE. So if you played in events which are not in the following list then that is the easy answer of why your games in Scotland were not FIDE rated.

FIDE rated events in recent seasons. Edinburgh Congress Premier, SNCL div 1, Grangemouth Premier, East of Scotland and Aberdeen Premier.

Entry forms will indicate whether an event is to be FIDE rated. It is up to organisers to choose whether they want an event to be FIDE rated. Providing they meet the relevant FIDE rating requirements they just ask CS to submit the event to FIDE.

The requirements are you meet the minimum time control of 2 hours per player - eg Edinburgh was 30 moves in 90 mins plus 30 mins. However FIDE seem to be thinking up new time controls every other day - but that min 2hrs is our latest understanding of what is required.

You should email CS well in advance to give event dates, location, likely numbers, name of arbiter and time control. That way the event can be registered on the FIDE computer.

The event agrees to pay the additional FIDE rating fee. At the moment this is 1 Euro per player.

CS do not take any profit from events which are FIDE rated - despite the (sometimes significant) additional labour involved.

That additional labour often involves trying to correct errors in the FIDE database. However they have now initiated a new online service which gives some hope of avoiding mistakes in future. CS can add FIDE pin numbers for new players or check the FIDE dbase to see if players already exist.

There has also been the additional labour of programming the CS domestic program to cater for FIDE's recent change in calculation methods. Now all games are processed separately. (Previously it was averages). Thanks to Gordon Rattray for adapting the Alex Bisset program to cater for the new method.

From next season one important requirement is that all FIDE rated events require all participants to be members of a national federation. This follows the ruling indicated by FIDE. CS will not be checking who is a member - that should be done at source by the event organiser. All existing FIDE rated event organisers have been contacted to indicate this will be a requirement for FIDE rating next season.

It also seems reasonable that players make the contribution of membership when CS and the event organiser are providing the labour to get these games FIDE rated.