FIDE Registration

[John McKenna]

Replaced by the post immediately below because someone turned the page!

[John McKenna]

FIDE are changing the rules again with little advance notification.

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... 5-frl.html
http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html? ... ew=article

Also a blackmail attempt to get people to register with their on-line server.

Statistical and historical data on more than 3 months back on Ratings wesbite (https://ratings.fide.com) will require account to be creaed via FIDE Arena website:

I would have thought historic rating information of interest to non-chess players and not something that should be hidden behind a website set up for a different purpose.

So the usual questions. Does the ECF even know about this, let alone approve of the kidnap of historic data in this manner?

NickFaulks>I doubt that more than a handful of people in FIDE knew about it before today.<

Nick, you're often a mine of information, can you mine the seam above any further?

I don't think you can deny that FIDE have captured the data in question and therefore might have some commercial right to think about ransoming views of it.

But, it is the way in which this appears to be being implemented that is more dubious.

It looks suspiciously like trying to gain a captive audience with a looming enrol-to-display wall and turn them into fodder for the online arena where gladiators (GMs, IMs & FMs) and wild beasts (inveterate play-on-internet animals) will make mincemeat out of them - unless they become centaurs - via a play gate with a turnstile booth marked with the initials of their national federations, who will no doubt continue to pass on FIDE's (increasing?) cut.

Does anyone know what that cut currently is and if it is a standard one, or if it varies from federation to federation? (I'm not going to start searching for FIDE's accounts.)

[Roger de Coverly]

Does anyone know what that cut currently is and if it is a standard one, or if it varies from federation to federation? (I'm not going to start searching for FIDE's accounts.)

I'm not aware that National Federations get anything at all from people signing up for FIDE Arena. The ECF have never commented on it as a source of income. Instead it just looks like a grab so that FIDE Arena can claim to be more successful than it actually is. If it isn't free to join FIDE Arena for access to historic rating data, it's the same effect as putting historic data behind a pay-wall.

[John McKenna]

Will people be forced to join their national federation if they wish to join FIDE Arena?

Is it then a sign of a membership pay-wall that will eventually appear before us, or a just a bluff?

[Adam Raoof]

Joining FIDE Arena does not oblige you to join a federation - and it gives you no special privileges when it comes to national membership of a Federation. You get a special FIDE ID code and you are affiliated to FIDE unless you already have a FIDE code and affiliation. The Federations apparently have their own login area where they can approve national requirements such as residence and Gold+ ECF membership - otherwise anyone could sign up for ENG without the ECF having some control over that process.

[NickFaulks]

Is it then a sign of a membership pay-wall that will eventually appear before us, or a just a bluff?

I rather think it isn't a bluff, but we shall find out tomorrow.

[John McKenna]

That and Adam's clarification above are good enough for me, Nick.

[Brian Towers]

Is it then a sign of a membership pay-wall that will eventually appear before us, or a just a bluff?

I rather think it isn't a bluff, but we shall find out tomorrow.

Well, I can still see my historical rating data and that of other players.

[JustinHorton]

I'm not quite sure I follow this and I'd be grateful for some clarification.

a. Is historical rating data - say Fred Bloggs' rating during 2008-2011 - going to cease to be available free online?

b. What is FIDE Arena?

[Roger de Coverly]

a. Is historical rating data - say Fred Bloggs' rating during 2008-2011 - going to cease to be available free online?

That's what they appear to be saying, although it hasn't been implemented.

b. What is FIDE Arena?

FIDE Arena is FIDE's attempt to compete in the market for on line real time chess. So they are up against ICC, chess.com, ChessBases's playchess and numerous others. In my view, they are ten if not twenty years too late.

[JustinHorton]

So access to historic data would depend on signing up to an online chess site?

[Roger de Coverly]

So access to historic data would depend on signing up to an online chess site?

FIDE's website in
http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... 5-frl.html
states

Statistical and historical data on more than 3 months back on Ratings wesbite (https://ratings.fide.com) will require account to be creaed via FIDE Arena website:

The announcement shows a lack of proof reading eg "creaed" and was probably also written by someone from an East European background without being refined, thus "on Ratings website" rather than "on the Ratings website", "require account" rather than "require an account".

They will probably decide they didn't really mean it, but as they haven't implemented it yet, it's difficult for national federations to protest.

[JustinHorton]

That's a really bizarre thing to do, because (among other reasons) people's reasons for wishing to have access to that data has nothing to do with their reasons for wishing to play online.

[NickFaulks]

and was probably also written by someone from an East European background

Greek, of course.

[NickFaulks]

I'm told that the Elista office is working hard to ensure that the batch of changes causes as little inconvenience as possible to federations - they're old-fashioned like that. Expect to see something very soon.