USCF to CFC ratings conversion

[John Coleman]

Does anyone know if USCF and CFC ratings are about the same? I asked the ratings auditor, but he has not yet replied.

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Does anyone know if USCF and CFC ratings are about the same? I asked the ratings auditor, but he has not yet replied.

Hi John,

I don't know the answer to your question, but will share some observations.
When I've been to the US to play in University tournaments, the TDs added 50 points to our CFC ratings to make it comparable to USCF ratings, for seeding / pairings purposes. They've done this in the past 3 Decembers.
The way I understand it, they did it to compensate for CFC being deflated about 5 years ago. In my opinion CFC ratings now are in no way more inflated than USCF. Note that, in USA they have these rating floors, where players who have achieved a certain class cannot drop to more than 200 or so points (example, if a player reaches 2200 his rating will never drop below 2000 even if he loses to 1500s every time after).

Alex F.

[John Coleman]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

For the CYCC, we have four players registered who have USCF ratings, and I would really like to hear the "official word" from someone about whether to use their ratings as-is. You know how particular some people get about pairings.

www.cycc.ca

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Hi John:

I'm curious - are these Canadian juniors who have USCF ratings, but no CFC nor CMA rating?

Bob

[Dale Haukenfrers]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Does anyone know if USCF and CFC ratings are about the same? I asked the ratings auditor, but he has not yet replied.

Yes about the same.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Are players outside Canada allowed to play in the CYCC? Obviously - if they win - they can't represent Canada at the WYCC. On the other hand - their games with Canadian players could possibly determine whether some Canadian players qualify for (or do not) for the WYCC.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Are players outside Canada allowed to play in the CYCC? Obviously - if they win - they can't represent Canada at the WYCC.

I think if players are Canadian citizens, they can play at the WYCC.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

For the CYCC, we have four players registered who have USCF ratings, and I would really like to hear the "official word" from someone about whether to use their ratings as-is.

The handbook part:

"736. Foreign Events and Ratings. If a foreign player has a rating in his own country or from FIDE, that will be used to determine his first CFC rating. If he is inactive in Canada for a year but has a change in his foreign rating, his changed foreign rating will be used to recalculated his CFC rating.

New residents of Canada without a CFC rating are considered unrated, whether or not they have a foreign rating."

I assume they are Canadian citizens, however living outside Canada, thus they may treated as foreigners with ratings (and I think it would be good for the tournament as well)

[John Coleman]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Hi John:

I'm curious - are these Canadian juniors who have USCF ratings, but no CFC nor CMA rating?

Bob

Three of the players are resident in the US. I know two of them, their Dad moved from Montreal to a job in Michigan. The one who is resident in Canada has no CFC rating.

As far as I recall, William Graif from New York came second in the under-12 open section last year. I can't recall if he represented Canada at WYCC, but he was eligible to. I presume someone checked to ensure he is a Canadian.

[Andrei Botez]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Three of the players are resident in the US. I know two of them, their Dad moved from Montreal to a job in Michigan. The one who is resident in Canada has no CFC rating.

As far as I recall, William Graif from New York came second in the under-12 open section last year. I can't recall if he represented Canada at WYCC, but he was eligible to. I presume someone checked to ensure he is a Canadian.

William is Canadian citizen living in US, he represented Canada twice at WYCC. There are many Canadian citizens who live outside Canada and are representing Canada at the international competitions, including GM Kevin Spraggett and GM Pascal Charbonneau.
________
XXX STREAM

[Robert Song]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

Hi John,

I don't know the answer to your question, but will share some observations.
When I've been to the US to play in University tournaments, the TDs added 50 points to our CFC ratings to make it comparable to USCF ratings, for seeding / pairings purposes. They've done this in the past 3 Decembers.
The way I understand it, they did it to compensate for CFC being deflated about 5 years ago. In my opinion CFC ratings now are in no way more inflated than USCF. Note that, in USA they have these rating floors, where players who have achieved a certain class cannot drop to more than 200 or so points (example, if a player reaches 2200 his rating will never drop below 2000 even if he loses to 1500s every time after).

Alex F.

Hi,

My Son Michael Song participated this May's Chicago open (Organized by Continental Chess Association). They required to use his current CFC rating for pairing and prizing, no any adding or subtracting.

Robert

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

I haven't looked into this in a few years. But Executive Summary: Bill Goichberg and the Continental Chess Association have always kept a close eye on CFC ratings in relation to USCF. His livelihood depends upon it. So you can be pretty sure that CFC ratings are not deflated relative to USCF. If it is the other way around, he probably wouldn't care much.

The last time there was an exhaustive survey (about 10+ years ago AFAIR), the differences were not at all consistent or linear. In other words, at that time, to convert a 1400 or 2500 USCF rating to CFC might add points, while to convert a 2200 USCF might subtract points.

Just guessing, but I'd think, after the CFC retroactive rating gift of a few years back, that CFC ratings were slightly inflated relative to USCF. But, just guessing again, with the ineffective CFC Bonus Point scheme, parity would be closer now. Just MHO, YMMV.

[Erwin Casareno]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

When i registered to play in the 2010 Philadelphia Open in March, my CFC ratings was used as the basis, although i have a USCF rating of 2017? based on 8 games.

So i presume , the USCF and CFC are taken at par value. Something like the US dollar with the Canadian dollar. lol.

[Fred McKim]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

John: I think they are close enough that you can treat them at par. I wouldn't think you'd be having any Under XXXX prizes, anyway.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: USCF to CFC ratings conversion

I haven't looked into this in a few years. But Executive Summary: Bill Goichberg and the Continental Chess Association have always kept a close eye on CFC ratings in relation to USCF. His livelihood depends upon it. So you can be pretty sure that CFC ratings are not deflated relative to USCF. If it is the other way around, he probably wouldn't care much.

The last time there was an exhaustive survey (about 10+ years ago AFAIR), the differences were not at all consistent or linear. In other words, at that time, to convert a 1400 or 2500 USCF rating to CFC might add points, while to convert a 2200 USCF might subtract points.

Just guessing, but I'd think, after the CFC retroactive rating gift of a few years back, that CFC ratings were slightly inflated relative to USCF. But, just guessing again, with the ineffective CFC Bonus Point scheme, parity would be closer now. Just MHO, YMMV.

Hi Jon

A while ago I posted the following on the CFC discussion board (at the time I wasn't sure, but I thought the new CFC bonus point scheme for ratings might actually be causing inflation, if there is any, rather than causing CFC ratings to move closer to parity with USCF ratings by now, as you allude to):

"If there is inflation of regular CFC ratings, participation points may not be the problem. The awarding of these points is (I think) identical to what it was back in the 1990s and long before, until they were eradicated for some time, which brought on deflation (apparently obvious circa 2004-2006, the latter year when anti-deflationary measures instituted by the CFC took effect).

What's different from the CFCs regular rating formula used back in the 1990s and before would include first and foremost an entirely different way of awarding bonus points. It used to be if you played 4 rounds and your rating was going to improve by more than 24 points, each rating point above 24 would be doubled. Similar story for if you played 5 rounds and your rating improved by more than 26 points, etc. Plus in the old days you could not get any bonus points if you were rated over 2300. Now there is no such upper limit.

Now bonus points are awarded on how well you perform in an event, expressed as a percentage of how many points you score out of the number of rounds in an event, if your performance rating exceeds your all time high. If you score 90% or better in even a five round event you possibly can get 15 bonus points. This is not halved even if you are over 2200. It seems to me hard to predict whether this is causing inflation, but I hope the CFCs rating reform committee acted thoughtfully and responsibly when it thought up this seemingly radical change to the awarding of bonus points".