FIDE ratings

[Stephen Westmoreland]

Thanks. Will let him know.

[NickFaulks]

Post-lockdown the ECF variable k factor helps ameliorate things but not enough. FIDE hasn't even got that.

Nor will it have. If it is decided that juniors need a regular rating boost, that will be done directly, not by a randomised process.

[Roger de Coverly]

To play in league matches without the league being charged, he needs to be an ECF member at Bronze level or higher.

Also if a Congress section is FIDE rated, there's no ECF membership requirement. If it isn't the organiser will either require Silver membership or charge an enhanced entry fee.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Good question. Let's look at the forum's most active members and see if a pattern emerges:

Roger de Coverly: ECF 1982, FIDE 1871
Justin Horton: ECF 2173, FIDE 2058
Alex Holowczak: ECF 1855, FIDE 1638
Mick Norris: ECF 1847, FIDE 1826
Chris Kreuzer: ECF 2013, FIDE 1978
Nick Faulks: ECF 1921, FIDE 1833

There's some variability there, but it seems to be on the order of 110 points or so on average.

(Edited to remove an inactive player by request.)

Thank you, Jack, for including me!

(Strangely, my 'desire' to get a FIDE rating over 2000 has subsided somewhat now that I have an ECF rating over 2000!)

I should point out that my ECF rating is its highest ever... Historically, the difference tended to be a bit less, I think. If anyone wants to go crazy on statistical analysis, they could take samples of the variability of the ratings (in both systems) over time for some players who should, in theory, have stable ratings.

[Joseph Conlon]

Post-lockdown the ECF variable k factor helps ameliorate things but not enough. FIDE hasn't even got that.

Nor will it have. If it is decided that juniors need a regular rating boost, that will be done directly, not by a randomised process.

I don't know about 'regular' rating boost, but some way to reset ratings would make a lot of sense, especially in the context of the pandemic,

With old ECF Clarke ratings: all-junior events were fine, as the strongest juniors were in contact with the adult population, and all the grades were then set at the end of the year, so this filtered back.

With the current ECF system, the variable k-factor means that junior grades can creep up through all-junior events, but there are not enough events at the moment for this to work properly. It's a matter of public record that quite a number of juniors have seen ratings that have fallen since March 2020, even though they are objectively clearly stronger than they were (not blaming the grading team, they couldn't foresee the pandemic).

With FIDE ratings: as above but even worse. Ratings gained in 2019 can be way out now.

[Joey Stewart]

Worst case scenario are players who after the outbreak will dlbe past the 'junior' cutoff and get no k factor bonus at all - just an extremely underrated number they now have to gain hundreds of points the hard way to increase.

[Tim Spanton]

I suspect the difference of 217pts between my Fide (1825) and my ECF (2042) may be the current most for an adult - and not long ago my Fide was in the low 1700s!

My rating gap has fallen to 139 (1901 Fide/2040 ECF)