English Chess Forum

Whilst adding girls to the ECF Girls event via Swiss Manager I have been struck by the number of them who were shown as male in the ECF rating database.

So far this morning I have requested five to be corrected from male to female.

Most of them had fairly obvious female forenames.

I wonder how many Ratings Officers don't bother checking the integrity of their data when submitting ratings data to the ECF?

This happened years ago with Hants Junior top board. The trouble was no doubt supposedly entered in, a surname without initials was all they had.
James

For a long time Swiss Manager assumed that all players were male unless specifically stated to be female. Perhaps it still does.

Neill Cooper wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:31 pm

For a long time Swiss Manager assumed that all players were male unless specifically stated to be female. Perhaps it still does.

I have tracked down the event when the girls first played rated game and it was that event that submitted them to the ECF as males even though they had obvious female forenames.

Hence my suggestion that rating officers need to pay more attention in this regard.

SM has a gender default of male indicated by a blank string. You can enter "f" to override. Entering "m" leaves the field blank. Presumably a pragmatic coding decision rather than a politically correct one.

Was worried this was the dreaded t*a*s "debate" rearing its head again.

Neill Cooper wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:31 pm

For a long time Swiss Manager assumed that all players were male unless specifically stated to be female.

It can go both ways. Before the days of Swiss Manager there was a local junior with the first name of Jody. Someone involved with grading was perhaps thinking of the actress when he was put down as female. I think he had a high enough grade to feature in top x girl's lists.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 3:57 pm

Was worried this was the dreaded t*a*s "debate" rearing its head again.

That's actually relatively unlikely to cause data issues of this nature, because trans people will usually request a change in their gender marker to go with their change of name.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 3:57 pm

Was worried this was the dreaded t*a*s "debate" rearing its head again.

I assumed and hoped that various persons would be magnetically drawn to this thread hoping for a heated debate. I'm told this is called "click bate".

Hopefully everyone was disappointed that it was mundane and tedious.Nigel F. was looking forward to throwing his oar in after being acknowledged as being the worlds most admired Prefect at Dulwich College in the 1970s and 1980s.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 10:40 am

SM has a gender default of male indicated by a blank string. You can enter "f" to override. Entering "m" leaves the field blank. Presumably a pragmatic coding decision rather than a politically correct one.

Most of the time when I enter players' data I do not include gender. With the old Excel files and ECF LMS it stays blank. SM imposes an answer.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:58 pm

I assumed and hoped that various persons would be magnetically drawn to this thread hoping for a heated debate.

I would appear that you were the only such person.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 7:43 pm

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 25, 2025 5:58 pm

I assumed and hoped that various persons would be magnetically drawn to this thread hoping for a heated debate.

I would appear that you were the only such person.

and quite right too.

Neill Cooper wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 24, 2025 9:31 pm

For a long time Swiss Manager assumed that all players were male unless specifically stated to be female. Perhaps it still does.

To be fair - this is because it is how it is flagged in the FIDE-rating database. A man has no flag; a woman has a flag. So women are often mislabelled as men because of thoughtlessness in not adding the flag; whereas getting it wrong the other way requires a thoughtful mistake.