New membership requirements for FIDe rated events

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Ian Jamieson
Posts: 203
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:00 pm

New membership requirements for FIDe rated events

Post by Ian Jamieson » Fri Jul 27, 2012 3:54 pm

I should probably play in a lower section but I am thinking of playing in the FIDE rated Open section of the Leek congress. (Lower sections are not FIDE rated.)

I am SCO registered.

The entry form may have been printed before the final details of the membership scheme were known or just badly worded - it says "Direct Members of the ECF scheme will receive a refund of £6 on production of their membership card at the congress" instead of Silver+ members of the ECF. (Will members still get membership cards in the brave new world?)

It is also impossible for entry forms to cover every possibility.

Finally organisers have the right to organise events however they want to although players then have the right not to play in them.

My understanding is that since the Open section is FIDE rated the ECF does not require me to be an ECF member as I am not ENG registered and the congress will only have to pay a FIDE rating fee of £1.50(?) rather than the £6 current difference between Silver and Bronze.

Am I correct or does this only apply to stand alone FIDE rated events or congresses where all the sections are FIDE rated?

It may be that the organisers have decided for their own reasons to impose stricter requirements than the ECF.

Andrew Collins
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:58 pm

Re: New membership requirements for FIDe rated events

Post by Andrew Collins » Fri Jul 27, 2012 4:22 pm

Ian Jamieson wrote:I should probably play in a lower section but I am thinking of playing in the FIDE rated Open section of the Leek congress. (Lower sections are not FIDE rated.)


My understanding is that since the Open section is FIDE rated the ECF does not require me to be an ECF member as I am not ENG registered and the congress will only have to pay a FIDE rating fee of £1.50(?) rather than the £6 current difference between Silver and Bronze.

It may be that the organisers have decided for their own reasons to impose stricter requirements than the ECF.
I suspect that the Open Section whist FIDE rated will also be included for ECF grading, in fact someone might be able to add if this is in fact mandatory anyway? If this is the case, you being a non ECF member means the congress organizers will have to pay whatever the new fee is to have your games graded, so I doubt you will be able to get the discounted entry

Roger de Coverly
Posts: 21301
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:51 pm

Re: New membership requirements for FIDe rated events

Post by Roger de Coverly » Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:13 pm

Ian Jamieson wrote:I should probably play in a lower section but I am thinking of playing in the FIDE rated Open section of the Leek congress. (Lower sections are not FIDE rated.)

My understanding is that since the Open section is FIDE rated the ECF does not require me to be an ECF member as I am not ENG registered and the congress will only have to pay a FIDE rating fee of £1.50(?) rather than the £6 current difference between Silver and Bronze.

Am I correct or does this only apply to stand alone FIDE rated events or congresses where all the sections are FIDE rated?

It may be that the organisers have decided for their own reasons to impose stricter requirements than the ECF.
You are correct, although the £ 1.50 is a fee to the ECF for submitting the rating report to FIDE. FIDE just charges 1 Euro per head, the difference is a margin for exchange fluctuations and to help defray the expenses of the International Rating Officer.

The charge to the Congress of having the event ECF graded is £ nil.

By contrast, the ECF will charge an event not internationally rated £ 6 for each player not an ECF Silver member or above. This affects Blackpool, Northumberland and Scarborough in particular because of their Scottish visitors. It's always been the case that Congresses were let off the ECF's rating fee charge (Game Fee) for Direct Members. As Game Fee per game ranged between 20p and 58p, the discount for a Member never exceeded around 10% of the entry fee so it never seemed to discriminate against non-members that £ 6 appears to.

What the ECF expects of the organisers if they permit an ENG non Gold member to take part isn't totally clear. It would be one of asking the organiser to refuse the player's entry, asking the organiser for the excess membership cost or refusing to rate the event. Another sanction might be to suspend the offending player on the FIDE rating list.

Andrew Collins
Posts: 66
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2012 3:58 pm

Re: New membership requirements for FIDe rated events

Post by Andrew Collins » Fri Jul 27, 2012 9:32 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Ian Jamieson wrote:I should probably play in a lower section but I am thinking of playing in the FIDE rated Open section of the Leek congress. (Lower sections are not FIDE rated.)

The charge to the Congress of having the event ECF graded is £ nil.
I didn't know that with it being FIDE Rated the ECF grading is done free, that is interesting to know.