English Chess Forum

Every year I get confused about how grading works around the cut-off date for each list and what the cut-off dates are. Am I right that the grading half-seasons now run from 1st July to 30th December, and 1st January to 30th June? I thought this was the case, but couldn't confirm it anywhere official.

Also, looking at the ECF calendar for June:

http://www.englishchess.org.uk/calendar ... june-2013/

Am I right in thinking that congresses in the last weekend of June would have their results submitted for grading for this grading period, with the results appearing in the July 2013 grading list?

THE GRADING SEASON
The grading season runs from 1st July to 30th June.

Publishing schedule
Grading lists are produced twice a year in late January and late July, with playing cutoff dates of 31st December and 30th June. Please do not contact the Grading Administrator to ask exactly when a list will appear. He will not know, with any certainty, until it appears.

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/events1213.htm

Mick Norris wrote:

THE GRADING SEASON
The grading season runs from 1st July to 30th June.

Publishing schedule
Grading lists are produced twice a year in late January and late July, with playing cutoff dates of 31st December and 30th June. Please do not contact the Grading Administrator to ask exactly when a list will appear. He will not know, with any certainty, until it appears.

http://www.sccu.ndo.co.uk/events1213.htm

Doh! Thanks.

PS. The text above is actually from here:

http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/help/

Results reported late
If an event does not send interim results, all its results will go into the July list, calculated using January grades. The January list will not be amended retrospectively to accommodate results reported late. The same principle applies to any event reported too late for its correct grading list. Events that miss a July list will go into the following January list, calculated using July grades.

and

Historical note
Up to and including 2005-6, grading lists were produced once a year in late July, on a playing season running from 1st June to 31st May. Twice-yearly Rapidplay lists were introduced in January 2007, with a halfyear split at the end of November. Twice-yearly Standardplay lists followed in January 2012. This involved moving the grading season on by one month so that the halfyear split occurred at 31st December as a better fit for the “winter” league season. 2011-12 in consequence was a transitional 13-month season.

Although the County Championship rules do specify that the Finals day results will be included in the July grading list, even though the Finals normally take place after 30 June.

Also, Hastings Masters games are included in the Jan 1 list despite some of them being played after that date

It may also be worth pointing out that for any games played after the cut-off date but before publication of the new grades, the new grades will be used for the grading calculation when such games come to be graded 6 months later.

e.g. games played during July 2013 will be graded using July 2013 grades when the calculation for the Jan 2014 grades is done.

This may seem obvious, but is a possible source of confusion, because at the time of any such game the players will only be aware of their Jan 2013 grades.

Reg Clucas wrote: e.g. games played during July 2013 will be graded using July 2013 grades when the calculation for the Jan 2014 grades is done.

The counties finals will be an exception to this. Also where an event such as the Hastings Masters straddles a cutoff, the convention at present is to use the start date to determine which period to use.

If, like FIDE, the ECF aimed to publish the 1st January list on the 1st January, then you have to use an end of event definition.

FIDE seemed to have moved their cutoff point nearer to the publication date. The results for the e2e4 May Bank Holiday Sunningdale event were included in the 1st June FIDE list

Roger de Coverly wrote:If, like FIDE, the ECF aimed to publish the 1st January list on the 1st January, then you have to use an end of event definition.

FIDE seemed to have moved their cutoff point nearer to the publication date. The results for the e2e4 May Bank Holiday Sunningdale event were included in the 1st June FIDE list

This is relatively easy for FIDE to do: FIDE-rated events are usually run by computer, and so you press a few buttons, and send the information off to FIDE, probably on the same day the event finished.

By contrast, the UK is the land of the Pairing Card, meaning the task of grading congresses often takes several weeks.

I do find it a bit strange that for instance a competition such as the Wolverhampton Summer League (which I'm in) will have part of the leagues results sent in for grading in June, and part carried over until December because the competition runs into July.

My club has games in the league on: 15th May, 5th June, 11th June, 25th June, 2nd July, 10th July.

However the county final is on 6th July, which I might take part in counts towards the July grading list.

David Blower wrote: However the county final is on 6th July, which I might take part in counts towards the July grading list.

In past years, the cutoff was end May, so both the Counties sf and final went into the new season. Moving the grading for the final to the July list was pushed through at the tail end of an ECF meeting. I don't think graders were particularly happy.

It would be possible for the grader of the Summer league to not submit any results for the July list. All the matches would then be graded in the December list.

Roger de Coverly wrote:It would be possible for the grader of the Summer league to not submit any results for the July list. All the matches would then be graded in the December list.

Why don't you ask him what he intends to do?

Last year they split the grading in two parts, all games pre 30th June came out in the July 2012 list, and all those taking place in July came out in the January 2013 list! I assume they will do the same this year, it makes no difference really, but obviously we all want a system where all the grades are as accurate as possible, whilst accepting that in reality the grading list can't be continously updated on a rolling basis.

David Blower wrote:Last year they split the grading in two parts, all games pre 30th June came out in the July 2012 list, and all those taking place in July came out in the January 2013 list!

Why don't you ask the Wolverhampton Summer League grader what he intends to do this time?

Alex Holowczak wrote:
This is relatively easy for FIDE to do: FIDE-rated events are usually run by computer, and so you press a few buttons, and send the information off to FIDE, probably on the same day the event finished.

By contrast, the UK is the land of the Pairing Card....

'like'

How can we persuade more events to become FIDE rated?

Is it really difficult to make the switch? The main issue appears to be time controls in Open sections, meaning that events might only be able to fit in two rounds in a day - but would that be such as problem?

https://union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/chess/2012/1 ... ress-2013/