English Chess Forum

I am sorry to say the grading site is rather piss poor.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:

Rob Thompson wrote:Early props would appear to go to Sam Chow, whose 16/18 for his first grade places him well into system-breaking territory.

Four draws and 14 wins. Yet to be defeated! List of scalps includes Chris Beaumont, David Buckley, Robert Eames, Daniel Fernandez. Impressive. Grade of 250 D.

Since his Elo is only 2307 does that suggest that ECF ratings are a bit soft towards the top end?

Why do you server upgrade the forum and then leave the grading site where it is?

Hard to believe...

Carl Hibbard wrote:Why do you server upgrade the forum and then leave the grading site where it is?

Hard to believe...

No competition.

Maybe. Think I'm with Carl in finding it a bit baffling really. It is much their most prominent service to people, so does need funding sensibly.

As for a 2300 student hitting 250 after 18 games? Quite a small sample of course so that sort of performance isn't so surprising. People do also tend to improve at that sort of age

Carl Hibbard wrote:Why do you server upgrade the forum and then leave the grading site where it is?

To avoid wearing out your server?

Carl Hibbard wrote:I am sorry to say the grading site is rather piss poor.

Well it’s not the words I would have used, but I share the sentiment. This morning we reduced the data available so that people should at least be able to check new grades.

The timing of the server transfer was delayed till August for reasons that seemed sensible at the time. There has to be some discussions, but this plan is still on track.

Brian Valentine
Manager ECF Grading

I think there's a few of my games missing from my new grade, but I can't get to the "contact me" page on the ecfgrading site to find out the contact email - please could someone let me know the email address?

Edit: Never mind, found it! For reference, it's [email protected]

Thanks Matt. There are still games missing from last summer that I played!

I believe the normal thing to do is to first make contact with the local organiser of the competition, (perhaps your club captain, local league secretary etc, who will then chase it up.) Having a massive influx of emails to one central email address might mean it gets missed!

Thanks to Richard for the very swift response - the second half of the league hasn't been submitted yet.

The fact that it was a couple of my best (and only) wins of what was a pretty poor season was what drew it to my attention...

David Blower wrote:Having a massive influx of emails to one central email address might mean it gets missed!

Having a massive influx of emails...might mean Richard Haddrell gets pissed (off)

Even then, the response time turn-around is hugely impressive

David Robertson wrote: Even then, the response time turn-around is hugely impressive

Provided that
(a) it's agreed as to the underlying theory and method of calculation and
(b) the calculation and processing routines implement the rules of (a) correctly

then

If it's gone wrong, it's because of missing results. The easiest way to find missing results is to rely on those who meticulously record each and every one of their own games who can tell you if the game count doesn't add up and use the event list to establish what is missing.

Though the situation is complicated at club level by those who don't pay ECF membership, and so don't get grades.......

Matt Mackenzie wrote:Though the situation is complicated at club level by those who don't pay ECF membership, and so don't get grades.......

The ECF has a compulsory grading system, but not compulsory membership outside of FIDE rated events. If a League, Congress or Club is prepared to sign up to £ 2 per head for non-members (to be increased from 1st September) , every game gets graded and every player gets a grade subject to the minimum standards, member or not.

In Yorkshire, it's the evening leagues who refuse to sign up to become "corporate" members of the ECF who are the long-standing problem.

That said, the ECF Directors have an ambition that no-one should be allowed to play graded chess without being an ECF member. What breaks first, the ECF or the grading system remains to be seen.

Roger de Coverly wrote:

David Robertson wrote: Even then, the response time turn-around is hugely impressive

The easiest way to find missing results is to rely on those who meticulously record each and every one of their own games who can tell you if the game count doesn't add up and use the event list to establish what is missing.

Which is why I keep a record of mine, at least until its safely displayed on the ECF grading database website.

Each game has the competition, opponents club, name of opponent, result of match and date of match.

As for Richard Haddrell, and I speak from personal experience, he managed to get our clubs internal club championship matches on the grading database within a month last year when our grader suddenly disappeared without any warning part way through a grading period.