Players with standard play ratings of zero or less??

[John Upham]

Perusing the list of players (including inactive ones registered with, for example, the Coulsdon Chess Fellowship (amongst others) prompted a question :

How many players (inactive or otherwise) are injected into the ECF rating database who have a standard play rating of zero or less?

I understand that no player will have a negative rating published even if it comes out that way from the calculation. I assume that this is to avoid demoralising that player. However, I assume (but could be wrong) that they remain in the system at less than zero.

Inspecting the 600 odd CCF players I wonder how many of them have unpublished ratings of zero or less?

Anyone have any firmer knowledge?

[Sean Hewitt]

I believe that players with a grade of less than zero are published as zero or one (cant remember which).

However, their negative grade is disgarded the following year and they are treated as a new player until they achieve a positive grade.