The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More Info

[Bob Armstrong]

Posted on the CFC Website:

The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List – More Info.

GTCL Governor, Bob Armstrong, was the mover of the “ Quick Chess Rating System “ motion that was adopted by the CFC Governors at the 2012 Winter On-line Meeting in January. PEI CFC Governor, and CFC Treasurer, Fred McKim seconded the motion. The idea and initiative for this reform came from Bob Armstrong. Fred has taken care of the implementation phase, in close consultation with the CFC Rating Auditor, BC CFC Governor, Paul Leblanc.

The new system has great potential, and overall, has been implemented and brought on-stream in a smooth fashion. The first “ Quick Chess “ tournament ever ( in Canada and the World ) was recently held this March in PEI, and is being submitted for rating in the new system.

Quick Chess is a rating list that stands on its own, separate from the Regular Rating List ( the same way the old “ active rating list “ did ). The only thing is that in giving all players a new “ quick chess rating “ , some formula had to be used, to correct the many stale active ratings. It was felt that use of regular ratings in the conversion to quick ratings made them generally more reliable, than the old under-used and outdated active rating list ( and CFC had almost never used the blitz rating list it kept –only 2 tournaments were ever rated ). And in the conversion, it has worked generally excellently, despite some cases where arguably the conversion has resulted in higher Quick Chess ratings, than some players feel they deserve.

The only thing that has lagged perhaps is the CFC communication on the change – but the motion was publicly posted beforehand on both the members’ CFC Chess Chat Forum, and the CMA ChessTalk, for public input. There was a “ Latest News “ item on it on the homepage of the CFC Website. And there were other posts concerning it.

There has been a lot of implementation volunteer hours from Fred on the new system, and he has not had time to do all the updating needed on the website. The priority was to implement the new system as quickly as possible and start marketing it. So “ active “ still exists in places on the website, but these will now in due course be converted to “ quick “, now that we have the new system on-stream. CFC trusts that this should not cause a great deal of consternation, given this more extensive insight into the changeover.

CFC feels you will find the new system a great improvement, and it opens up the possibility of more cheaply and quickly marketing tournament chess to the general public.

[ Games between Game/59 and Game/5 qualify for " quick chess " rating ]

Bob Armstrong, CFC Public Relations Coordinator
CFC Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id...id=10564098798
CFC Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/ChessCanada

[Aman Hambleton]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

I think this is a great idea

[Bob Armstrong]

Quick Chess " Guinea Pig " Tournaments Needed!

Hi Aman:

Pleased to get your support.

We need to start the ball rolling with some organizers getting on board right away.

Any chance you guys at Western might have a " Quick " Tournament, rated, before the end of school? - if you wanted to just have a one day tournament, you can now tailor the time control to any time between Game/59 and Game/5 - whatever works for the number of rounds you want.

I know many university students often don't play that much during the year, and balk a bit at getting a full year CFC Membership. But for quick chess, the rating fee is only $ 1.50 per player, and the CFC portion of a one-time "tournament playing fee " ( the cheap altenative to a full membership ) is cut in half for quick chess ( $8 adult; $4 - junior - provincial portion is not ).

Pretty reasonable to get a rated tournament, especially compared to the cost of the old " active " tournaments!

Bob A

[John Upper]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

Given that the rating fees and "tournament membership" for non-CFC members is now lower for "quick" than the old "active", how about changing the fee for the Olympic Waive events down from $20 to $10-15?

[John Dukic]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

You should read your pms Aman.

[Aman Hambleton]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

You should read your pms Aman.

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

[ Games between Game/59 and Game/5 qualify for " quick chess " rating ]

Just to be clear, 5 minute Speed or Blitz chess (Game/5) qualifies as a Quick chess time control under Motion 2012-P as passed in the January 2012 online meeting:

"Motion 2012-P – CFC Quick Chess Rating System

Moved: Bob Armstrong; Seconded: Fred McKim

That CFC combine the current “ Active “ and “ Blitz “ Rating Systems, and expand them
into one system called a “ Quick Chess “ Rating System, on the following terms:

1. it will accept " quick chess " tournaments with time control from Game/5 ( with
increments Game/3 with 2 sec. increment ) to Game/59. Games 15-59 min. will
be the regular K factor ( 2200+ - 16; U 2200 - 32 ), while those 5-14 min. will be
one-half K factor ( 2200+ - 8; U 2200 – 16 ).
...


In Ottawa, the RA club has run at least some rated Active time control tournaments, during its club year-long season, for years now, so having rated Quick chess events that are longer than speed games isn't a new consideration for the club. What the club executive (which includes one or more CFC Governors, as I recall) has recently been weighing, after I brought up the issue, is whether to have RA club Quick chess rated speed tournaments. All RA club speed tournaments that I can recall have been without any sort of fees charged prior to this point.

As an RA club member I'm looking for a reason to be completely happy to vote for having club speed events rated if it comes up at our club annual meeting, but maybe I don't see it. As a player who would care about his Quick chess rating, I might or might not prefer that the K factor were the same or even double what it is for slower Quick chess time controls, rather than half (as stated in boldface above), depending how much I improve/decline at speed chess as I get older.

I might usually be quite happy to pay to play in rated speed chess events outside the RA club (especially if prizes were given), which is why I don't regret voting for the Motion as stated as a Governor, but at the moment the RA club in Ottawa that I go to offers entry to its speed tournaments for free to club members, and so I repeat, I (as well as club execs) am straining to see a reason why the club should rate speed events, other than it helps out the CFC (and thus Canadian chess, perhaps). Maybe you can help, Bob. :)

[Bob Armstrong]

Rated Quick Tournaments - A Good Addition to the Club Agenda

Hi Kevin:

Why do we all value our regular rating, and love to play in " rated " tournaments? I think one main reason is the human drive to achieve our own " personal best ". In this regard, even small incremental increases to our ratings confirm to us that we are " improving "! There is a sense of satisfaction for a goal set, and then achieved! To a lesser extent ( for some moreso ) a rating enables us to be able to compare our progress to that of our friends and acquaintances.

I believe it will be no different for " quick ratings " once they take hold. And in the beginning phase, a club will be a good place for rated quick tournaments, because not only will they see their personal best progress, but the club members will all be able to compare changes in their quick ratings with each other as a result of quick/speed play.

CCC has tried to assist organizers to make this enticing, by cutting rating fees 50%, and cutting the federal part of the tournament playing fee by 50%. It is much cheaper than the old " active " tournaments. It is felt that as organizers see the attraction value of the lower costs, and the chance to bring in new players with the cheaper entry fees into rated tournament play, they will start organizing quick tournaments on a more regular basis - they will eventually become part of the weekend and club landscape just like regular-rated tournaments are now - at least that has been the hope/intention of the CFC.

Hope this helps you, and others, to feel comfortable taking a chance on one " quick rating " tournament, to try it out ( and you can have any time control between Game/5 to Game/59, whatever works for the no. of rounds you want ).

Bob A

[Bindi Cheng]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

Personally, I don't think going after quick rating otb is a marketable niche. While you are correct Bob, in your reasoning that people loving ratings and that personal bests do show that we are improving, internet chess sites like ICC and PlayChess has made competitive over the board blitz nearly extinct. I've only seen people play blitz when it's a tie at the end of a tournament or for money/hustling matches. Also, halving the fees for quick rating might seem great, but in the end, it looks like a pure money grab operation for the CFC. Why would I pay an organization that doesn't do anything to rate my fees when I can just go pay ICC 60 dollars a year (fee may have increased) and play as much blitz as I want? Furthermore, there's so many free chess sites out there that lower rated players can choose from a variety of sites like chesscube.com, chess.com, and even sites like Yahoo and Pogo could be fun as this is how I first started out.
In the end, I don't see the point of rating time controls from 5 0 to 59 0 all in the same rating format. It doesn't make much logical sense.

Bindi

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

Hi Bob

As far as I know, the recent club 'Active' time control tournament that was finished last thursday will be Quick rated, as will be other events that are (or formerly were?) in future called 'Active'.

FYI,

Here's a link to this year's RA club schedule, as posted on the RA club website:

http://ottawarachessclub.pbworks.com...duled%20Events

As you can see, the RA club held three (rated) 'Active' time control events this (2011-12) season, as we probably will do next season. If the club indeed holds the same 'Active' events next season, the club exec may or may not bother to re-label them as 'Quick'; perhaps that will/should be done automatically by the CFC when it rates such non-speed (but also non-standard) time control events (or Quick rated speed events, for that matter). Perhaps it is best for the club that it continues to call them 'Active', to avoid confusing members or visitors as to whether these are 'speed' or 'Active' time control events, even though the CFC rates either type as 'Quick' time control events.

As you can also see from the RA club schedule, there was just one scheduled speed chess event night for certain, although possibly one more such speed event night will be added in future. Plus, at the moment there is only one (which is at a standard time control) club tournament, per season (in the Fall) that allows CFC tournament members to enter; otherwise regular CFC membership is required for rated games of any time control (excluding club speed events).

[Kevin Pacey]

Re: The CFC Regular Chess Post – March 17/12 – CFC “ Quick Chess “ Rating List –More

I think that in spite of internet chess servers, there is something of a niche for rated (or non-rated) otb Active and/or speed chess (for that matter, otb standard TC or slow chess). There is the club, cafe or tournament hall atmosphere, which the internet doesn't offer.

Then there's the very presence of your opponent at the board, which can bring psychological (dis)advantages, as well as entertainment value in its own right. Somehow a messaged 'LOL' after a blunder or a botched win doesn't bring the same feelings as a guffaw or a groan. :) Then there's the nearby food and drink that's often available near one's club or tournament during one's night or day out.