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For some time now on the CFC website (and in the CFC webzine) I have failed to find a FIDE rating for myself, or other players I have looked up, other than "0". Does anyone know why this is so?
Regarding CFC Active ratings, does anyone know why these were not deemed to be deflated by the CFC's ratings committee (or more properly, the CFC Ratings Auditor) when action was taken to correct the admitted deflation to regular CFC ratings a few years back? It seems to me that CFC Active ratings were and still are just as deflated as regular CFC ratings used to be.
Last edited by Kevin Pacey; Saturday, 14th March, 2009, 07:51 PM.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
I decided to check a hunch and looked up Zhe Quan's FIDE rating, which turns out to be greater than zero. So perhaps the CFC is not publishing FIDE ratings of players who have played no/few games recently that were FIDE rated. I have played in a number of Ottawa EOCA weekend events that should have been (or will be?) FIDE rated, but perhaps I didn't play enough games against FIDE rated opponents.
In any case I would prefer that the CFC publish FIDE ratings of players, even those which are old and beside names which have possibly expired (and maybe been completely erased from FIDE's files?) from FIDE's own published list.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
My understanding is that the CFC is no longer updating the FIDE ratings in the CFC website, given that they are readily available from the FIDE site and that the office staff has had other tasks to occupy their time lately.
Thank you Stephen. I trust it would have looked awkward to post an explanation to that effect on the CFC ratings feature, but it still would have provided some comfort.
In any case, I would prefer that I can see Canadian FIDE ratings on the CFC website so that it saves me some search time on the FIDE website, eg. for players within a Canadian event crosstable, or even for a list of top Canadian FIDE ratings (which hasn't been provided since the expired CFC print magazine, ages ago). As well, I would prefer to be able to instantly compare side-by-side all of my FIDE and regular & Active CFC ratings (and those of other Canadian players). Alas, it is not to be.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
In any case, I would prefer that I can see Canadian FIDE ratings on the CFC website so that it saves me some search time on the FIDE website, eg. for players within a Canadian event crosstable, or even for a list of top Canadian FIDE ratings
CFC should post fide rating because CFC is the only one official chess organization who represents Canada to participate world chess activity. CFC should apply the fide title for the Canadian chess players if they are qualified. My daughter Yuanling has been sending emails to ask CFC officers to apply for her WIM title but the last reply email said to her that CFC office was moving and the CFC's employees were busy and then never get reply again. We don't have any idea about the recent CFC policy for the issue relative to fide. We even wonder what is the right way to communicate with CFC?
It would be great if you could prepare that comparison list of CFC and FIDE ratings each quarter and submit it as a feature for the webzine. I am certain there are a few members like Kevin who would appreciate it.
Kevin,
Stephen is correct. We stopped updating the FIDE ratings in the CFC database last summer. It was a time consuming exercise and a waste of valuable time as members can easily get their ratings from the FIDE site. We made that announcement at the time, nothing awkward about it.
Your daughters application is on the "to do" list. I realize it has been a long time, but she hasn't been forgotten. There are others waiting patiently for FIDE related issues.
I have some urgent matters to complete, then I can clear up the FIDE stuff.
Bob,
Coping of an updated FIDE rating list for all Canadian chess players and publishing on CFC website takes a few seconds only? Inserting them to every one separate information card can take much more time, I agree.
:)
The CFC Financial Situation/ Part-time Executive Director
Hi William:
I think we are facing the reality of CFC's financial situation. Bob is only a part-time Executive Director. Though the CFC is trying to streamline operations to reduce labour time, it seems that there may still be more to do than can be accomplished in the time alloted to Bob.
And the only way to increase his time, is to increase his salary. Given that the CFC has not yet verified that it can have a balanced budget for the coming year 2009-10, this would mean there would have to be cuts elsewhere just to maintain the status quo ( whatever that may be ).
That means possibly reducing the time of the other 2 part-time employees, Vincent Chow, Chess Canada Webzine editor, or Paul Beckwith ( but then we may run into the same problem with them, as currently with Bob ). Alternatively, it would mean some cuts to the Chess Canada Webzine non-editor expenses ( not even sure that can be done, without suspending its publication ). Maybe there are other expenses that can be cut, but CFC restructuring has cut expenses pretty much to the bone, as far as I can tell from the financial analysis the Grassroots' Campaign has done.
It may simply be that delays are going to be the order of the day, if Bob quits at his quitting time ( which I believe he is not doing at the moment ).
I think that it is too much to ask for the CFC to manually update each player's FIDE rating on their CFC ID card so that is why I think the CFC should link to that player's FIDE card. I'm not sure how difficult this would be to implement, but I know that this is what the USCF does. To see an example of this, here's Hikaru Nakamura's USCF Member Card. http://main.uschess.org/assets/msa_j...n.php?12641216
Stephen is correct. We stopped updating the FIDE ratings in the CFC database last summer. It was a time consuming exercise and a waste of valuable time as members can easily get their ratings from the FIDE site. We made that announcement at the time, nothing awkward about it.
Bob, it was good that there was an announcement after all, then, but when I or other visitors to the CFC website (CFC members or not) go to look up ratings nowadays, even if we had seen last summer's announcement, we may have forgotten. The process of looking up ratings doesn't usually involve looking at old announcements first (wherever they may be on the website), at least for me. It simply involves clicking on the "Ratings" link on the left hand side of the starting page of the CFC website (after scrolling down a bit), and then one notices the date the ratings had been updated last, some advertised products, and, after scrolling down, a place to type in a surname to obtain the latest ratings of anyone with that surname who is a CFC member. Nowhere within this 'ratings feature' (or link), as I would call it, did I happen to notice a prominent standing announcement that the CFC is no longer updating FIDE ratings, and providing a link to the FIDE website. That is what really should have been done. If that would have been awkward to do for technical reasons, then that is a reason why I think it might have been awkward.
In my reply to Stephen I pointed out why I found it attractive for the CFC to carry FIDE ratings of Canadian players, in case the reasons I did were not obvious. It's possible the CFC is underestimating the value of this service, which they have chosen to discontinue, and also as I get older I am more of a pessimist, perhaps, so I don't expect the CFC to resume this service unless it can find a quick or volunteer way of providing it.
I also think it's worth repeating that I miss seeing the top Canadian's list include the players' FIDE ratings, which the defunct CFC print magazine used to do. I like to know how I compare FIDE rating-wise with all of the other FIDE rated players in the country.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
I think we are facing the reality of CFC's financial situation. Bob is only a part-time Executive Director. Though the CFC is trying to streamline operations to reduce labour time, it seems that there may still be more to do than can be accomplished in the time alloted to Bob.
And the only way to increase his time, is to increase his salary. Given that the CFC has not yet verified that it can have a balanced budget for the coming year 2009-10, this would mean there would have to be cuts elsewhere just to maintain the status quo ( whatever that may be ).
That means possibly reducing the time of the other 2 part-time employees, Vincent Chow, Chess Canada Webzine editor, or Paul Beckwith ( but then we may run into the same problem with them, as currently with Bob ). Alternatively, it would mean some cuts to the Chess Canada Webzine non-editor expenses ( not even sure that can be done, without suspending its publication ). Maybe there are other expenses that can be cut, but CFC restructuring has cut expenses pretty much to the bone, as far as I can tell from the financial analysis the Grassroots' Campaign has done.
It may simply be that delays are going to be the order of the day, if Bob quits at his quitting time ( which I believe he is not doing at the moment ).
My analysis - maybe others differ?
Bob
Bob,
Thanks for your posting. I agree that CFC's financial situation may be a very important reason causes so many "to-do" lists left on the CFC employee's working desk. That's why Yuanling and I are taking a couple of months to wait. But I raise the issue here because CFC's employees don't reply our email again until Bob reply my posting in the ChessTalk Forum. Do we bother CFC employee too much? I am so sorry if that so.
Thanks for your posting. I agree that CFC's financial situation may be a very important reason causes so many "to-do" lists left on the CFC employee's working desk. That's why Yuanling and I are taking a couple of months to wait. But I raise the issue here because CFC's employees don't reply our email again until Bob reply my posting in the ChessTalk Forum. Do we bother CFC employee too much? I am so sorry if that so.
William
William,
I find that chesstalk is usually an effective way to increase the chance of a response from most anyone I want to reach in Canadian chess circles, including CFC Governors and employees. Sadly, the expression that the squeaky wheel gets the grease seems to be true, at least some of the time, as much as I used to not wish it were so.
A number of years ago the CFC faced a grave cash flow crisis. Given that the CFC may have had any sort of payments to make at the time, and that people were complaining that the office was not even answering phone calls for long periods of time, one might be able to put two and two together.
Fortunately, that crisis has passed, and it is not so likely for something similar to happen again soon thanks to the sale of the office. However even before that emails were not always answered, for whatever reason. All I can say is be patient, as you have got the attention and the promise of action from the current Executive Director Bob Gillanders, who does a good job overall giving all that needs to be done at the CFC.
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's law, by Edward A. Murphy Jr., USAF, Aerospace Engineer
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