Independence Day

[Alistair Campbell]

I think to get a Scottish rating, Matthew will either have to play in Scotland or send them his English results.

There is already a Matthew Turner with a CS rating of 2500. Maybe I shouldn't be telling non-members that?

Matthew's declaration of independence from Scotland

I thought Matthew was declaring independence from England?

[Roger de Coverly]

There is already a Matthew Turner with a CS rating of 2500. Maybe I shouldn't be telling non-members that?

Probably not, since it doesn't show up on the website, or at least not to the casual visitor. The "live" rating presumably?

[John McKenna]

My apologies to Matthew, and thanks to Alistair - the change of 'flag' is indeed from English to Scottish. I got the wrong end of the caber.

[Andy McCulloch]

Well, to be honest everyone can see their start of season grade whether a CS member or not. This is necessary to establish board order for leagues.

It is only the live grade and the list of all games played that require you to be a member. Various other data are available to members, such as best wins / worst losses for the season, and lifetime of the computerised system. You can also see a breakdown of your performance by colour, info which is available for the vast majority of games. It has recently been upgraded, but there are still one or two problems to be resolved.

This was implemented a few seasons ago as another benefit of membership of CS. To let people see what they are missing there are a couple of short periods per season where anyone can see all the data.

[Alex Holowczak]

This was implemented a few seasons ago as another benefit of membership of CS.

The ECF grading system is soon to have similar features. I'm privileged enough to be using the beta version of this at the moment. It looks good!

(In fact, I already picked up a grading error this way...)

[Roger de Coverly]

You would have to hope it was an omission, rather than a commission, but the relevant Scotsman is not listed as eligible for a place at the British Championships.

The full list is at http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=16358

with the relevant section being

5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above PARKER, Jonathan F 2531g ENG
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above WILLIAMS, Simon K 2528g ENG
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above GORMALLY, Daniel W 2519g ENG
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above SPEELMAN, Jon S 2507g ENG
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above KUMARAN, Dharshan 2505g ENG
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above KOSTEN, Anthony C. 2500g FRA
5 IM or Active Rating 2350 or above STEAN, Michael F 2500g ENG

I've long though that the recording of inactive players in this list was anomalous, since if ENG and not ECF members, the ECF might refuse to allow them to play.