CFC " Active " Ratings to CFC " Speed " Ratings??

[Bob Armstrong]

Posted a week ago on the Members' CFC Chess Chat Forum:

" I was interested in the post in the CFC 2011 Fall Meeting ( it may have been governor Chris Mallon? ) that suggested changing our CFC " Active " ratings ( which I believe cover both Game/15 and Game/30 [ Fred McKim believed this was the minimum for " Active " ]? ) to a " Speed " rating, which would cover all games from Game/1 to Game/59.

I would suggest for discussion that the CFC transform the current " Active " ratings list to a " Speed " Rating list, on the following terms:

1. it will accept " speed " tournaments with time control from Game/1 to Game/59.

2. Players' current " active " rating will become their " speed " rating.

3. Players must be CFC members or pay the " speed tournament playing fee ( Adult - $ 2; Junior - $ 1 )".

4. The " speed tournament " rating fee will be: Adult - $ 2; Junior - $ 1.

There are a number of questions this raises:

A. Would this be acceptable to those who like the current active tournaments?

B. Would clubs already holding " speed tournaments " pay the fees to get their members a national " speed " rating, and abandon their own club system?

C. Would organizers be encouraged by the low fees to start holding such " speed " tournaments, outside of clubs?

D. Would playing in " rated " speed tournaments attract more non-CFC members to " regular-rated " tournaments?

E. Would this attract more full CFC members?

F. This is also being discussed on the confidential CFC Governors' Discussion Board. I would note the Quebec experience with trying to offer a " blitz " rating system to FQE members - post by Quebec Governor Hugh Brodie:

" the FQE offers to rate blitz tournaments free of charge - it's not even necessary to be an FQE member. Only 15 such tournaments have been rated since 2009 - most of them with 8 players or less. "

Would changing the concept to a " speed " rating allow for a more positive experience than that currently being observed in Quebec, both in Quebec, and the rest of the country?

Please offer any comments, supportive or critical.

If there is support for this idea, I'd be willing to try to amalgamate comments here with my proposal, to get an actual motion to discuss further. "

2 clubs that do hold blitz tournaments, and rate them in the club, said they would not start CFC-rating their tournaments under this proposed system. Would your club? Would you organize such a tournament outside a club?

Bob A

[Fred McKim]

Re: CFC " Active " Ratings to CFC " Speed " Ratings??

I have long believed that Active rating fees should be lower than regular rating fees (perhaps by 50%). This would help encourage more events.

One idea would be to rename Active to Rapid ratings. All events from 5-59 minutes could count.

Cut rating fees in half for these events (hoping this would break even in the long run).

An option would be to cut rating gains or losses in half for any events with clock time < 15 minutes.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: CFC &quot; Active &quot; Ratings to CFC &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings??

Hi Fred:

I'd be willing to exclude games under 5 min.

I'd be concerned about using the term " Rapid ", since it is established in Europe as 25 min.. That's why I prefer " Speed " since it covers such a wide variety of time controls.

I have set the fees relatively low I thought.

Bob

[Craig Sadler]

Re: CFC &quot; Active &quot; Ratings to CFC &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings??

...
An option would be to cut rating gains or losses in half for any events with clock time < 15 minutes.

or have a K-based on time control

e.g. a 15 minute game is worth three times what a 5 minute game, and a 30 minute game is worth twice what a 15 minute game is. sucks to calculate by hand, but trivial for a computer

[Bob Armstrong]

&quot; Speed &quot; Ratings - Weighting Rating Change to Time Control??

Questions for CFC Rating Auditor, BC CFC Gov. Paul Leblanc, or proposed motion seconder, CFC Treasurer, PEI CFC Gov. Fred McKim:

1. I am not great on the rating system. Is Craig compicating the system too much, though his proposal as I understand it seems to have merit?

2. If his proposal is an improvement on the system proposed, it would become a sixth term on which the system is implemented. Could someone give us the motion wording for this 6th term, if we were to adopt it?

Bob A, GTCL CFC Gov.

[Fred McKim]

Re: &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings - Weighting Rating Change to Time Control??

Questions for CFC Rating Auditor, BC CFC Gov. Paul Leblanc, or proposed motion seconder, CFC Treasurer, PEI CFC Gov. Fred McKim:

1. I am not great on the rating system. Is Craig compicating the system too much, though his proposal as I understand it seems to have merit?

2. If his proposal is an improvement on the system proposed, it would become a sixth term on which the system is implemented. Could someone give us the motion wording for this 6th term, if we were to adopt it?

Bob A, GTCL CFC Gov.

Well it just means it's going to be really hard to move your rating if you're playing 5 minutes games.

If your performance rating is say 100 points above your rating in a normal 5 rounder, you'll gain approximately 20 points. When the K for a 5 minute game is implemented the gain is only 1/6 what it would have been , ie 3 points.

On the other hand if people are playing blitz tournaments with 15 or 16 games in them......

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings - Weighting Rating Change to Time Control??

Hi Fred:

Does it seem to be a reasonable principle that CFC and players would want the rating change to be least when the time control is the fastest, since this is the time control where the most blunders occur, which may not really indicate a lessening of overall playing strength? So they would want to lose a minimum of points for a " blunder ".

If so, I'll ask again if someone could propose wording for this 6th term of implementing the new system.

Note: Fred and I have added to the motion a 5th term of implementation as follows:

" 5. The current practice of all-junior tournaments of less than 1 hour not requiring any CFC membership or tournament playing fee, and being rated for $ . 50 per player, will continue as an exception in the system. "

Bob A

[Fred McKim]

Re: &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings - Weighting Rating Change to Time Control??

Hi Fred:

Does it seem to be a reasonable principle that CFC and players would want the rating change to be least when the time control is the fastest, since this is the time control where the most blunders occur, which may not really indicate a lessening of overall playing strength? So they would want to lose a minimum of points for a " blunder ".

If so, I'll ask again if someone could propose wording for this 6th term of implementing the new system.

Note: Fred and I have added to the motion a 5th term of implementation as follows:

" 5. The current practice of all-junior tournaments of less than 1 hour not requiring any CFC membership or tournament playing fee, and being rated for $ . 50 per player, will continue as an exception in the system. "

Bob A

It's not so much because of the blundering, but more to do with the fact that you can play so many more games in the run of a tournament.

I would suggest that games 15-59 be the regular K factor, while those 5-14 be double K factor (think of it as a 50 game memory instead of a 25 game memory). This of course will require some reworking to the rating program...

[Roger Patterson]

Re: &quot; Speed &quot; Ratings - Weighting Rating Change to Time Control??

Hi Fred:

Does it seem to be a reasonable principle that CFC and players would want the rating change to be least when the time control is the fastest, since this is the time control where the most blunders occur, which may not really indicate a lessening of overall playing strength? So they would want to lose a minimum of points for a " blunder ".


Bob A

if you are interested in what a reasonable approach to a varying K factor might be, maybe you would enjoy reading this: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=562

You might also look at the Victoria CC rating system: http://victoriachess.com/db/description.html