Combined USCF and FIDE rating databases

Running Chess Tournaments
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This may be of interest to TDs who use SwissSys and who run FIDE rated tournaments. Unfortunately, this will be of no use to TDs who use WinTD.

For some time now, I have been creating a database (in DBF format) every month that combines USCF and FIDE ID numbers and ratings. The database includes USCF regular, quick, and blitz ratings and FIDE standard, rapid, and blitz ratings. It also includes FIDE federations and player titles.

SwissSys allows the user to configure which database fields correspond to fields in the player registration dialog box. When running a FIDE rated event, I suggest putting the FIDE rating in the “rating #2” field, the FIDE ID in the “id #2” field, the FIDE federation in the “club” field, and the FIDE title in the “title” field. When you submit the rating report, you can save the office (Walter Brown) a lot of time by sending the final file for any FIDE rated section. (For instance, if the open section of a five round tournament is FIDE rated, send the office the open.s5c file.) With the FIDE information provided as described above, SwissSys can generate the Krause format rating report for FIDE with minimal effort on the office’s part. (Along with the final SwissSys file, you should also report the schedule of rounds. FIDE needs to know when each round was played.)

The October 2014 version of this database is available at http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/uscf-fide_2014-10.zip. No bonus points will be awarded for guessing how the files for other months are named. :smiley:

If you would like to receive an e-mail reminder when new databases are available, please feel free to send me a PM. I can also provide a “database configuration file” that you can load into SwissSys to set up the mapping of database fields to registration dialog fields. Alternatively, you can use the database setup dialog to do this mapping yourself. (It is not overly complicated, but it’s probably something most users have never needed to do, as the “USCF golden database” defaults work perfectly fine out of the box.)

Unfortunately, this won’t help WinTD users. WinTD gets very upset if the rating database format differs from the USCF golden database. :frowning:

2

I don’t worry about it because I don’t do much back room entry for FIDE rated events, and if I ever do I may need to SwissSys anyway.

That said, WinTD does support imports from a master file, and does allow updating USCF ratings. So a WinTD master file with the USCF IDs and FIDE ratings (in the local rating field) could still be used to pull those ratings in easily to the tournament.

3

Wow this is a fantastic resource that I will definitely use! Please include me in your email list!

lefthandsketch@gmail.com

I’ve heard through the grapevine that Thad, who writes swisssys, is in the process of getting the new version approved by FIDE, which would be great as I am more comfortable with swisssys than swiss manager or WinTD(also not approved by FIDE.)

4

I’d like to recommend Mr. Ballou’s database for those who are running FIDE rated events with SwissSys. It will save you a lot of time.

One cautionary note. If you are running an event (or section) that offers FIDE title norms, you’ll still need to use Swiss Master or Swiss Manager, at least until SwissSys obtains FIDE certification. (I recommend Swiss Manager, but Swiss Master works pretty well too.)

5

I hope Thad has better luck with FIDE that I did. I sent a couple of e-mails a few years ago about the certification process and didn’t hear back.

6

Tom,

I’ve heard that when it comes to approaching FIDE, it’s good to know someone.

Of course, the same could be said of our own national federation :slight_smile:

Tom, what language is WinTD written in? I’m curious how easy it would be to turn it into a web-based application and host it on a server and charge users based on annual access with an MVC framework as opposed to a desktop application. There are a lot of reasons why this would be preferable that I would like to discuss with a programmer at some point who has both the team and the $ to make it a reality.

7

I would not be surprised.

[/quote]
C++, same as the software package that actually pays the bills, so it’s not particularly conducive to web installation.

8

Is SwissSys not allowed to be used in FIDE norm tournaments per FIDE Laws?

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Based on my reading of paragraph A of this section of the Handbook, I wouldn’t chance it. (In particular, clauses 4 and 5 of paragraph A warrant consideration.)

I already knew (and confirmed again in Vegas) that SwissSys, even with FIDE rules options checked in its dialogs, does not currently produce the same pairings as either Swiss Manager or Swiss Master. Truthfully, except for the top few boards of the Open section each round, the pairings were pretty discrete.

As long as FIDE doesn’t raise any objections to the results sent in for rating, I think one could use SwissSys in norm events now. We know that FIDE often puts US events under a microscope, however. Therefore, I think that is an unacceptable level of risk, which is why I bought Swiss Manager. YMMV.

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The above is Section 4 from the Handbook. The following Section 5 has nothing to do really with the choice of software packages as it deals with manipulation of pairings in favor of one person.

Even section 4 can be interpreted in multiple ways. We’ve discussed this at QC meetings and FIDE is not putting a requirement at this time for a specific pairing program to be used. What they actually do when there is a question is validate what pairing software was used (specific down to version and features used) to recreate the pairings (and this is more to look for manual manipulation than anything else).

Now if we look at the following:

fide.com/fide/handbook.html? … ew=article

we will see that there is mention to the FIDE LoC and the FIDE Tournament Rules. Nothing in the LoC mentions the Swiss Pairing program to use however in the FIDE Tournament Rules we have this:

fide.com/fide/handbook.html? … w=category

And here we have the endorsed program list of which all are currently set to expire at the end of this year (and I know they are all in a rush to get the changes made and re-approved):

fide.com/fide/handbook.html? … ew=article

Again, it’s a recommendation, not a requirement.

Now the comment that FIDE often puts US events under a microscope. First, let’s dispel the myth that we’re more scrutinized that others (as that’s where this comment leads to). There are multiple other federations that are analyzed and scrutinized as much as we are and this is first hand knowledge of working within the FIDE commissions.

As a whole, we’ve brought down much of the scrutiny upon us with having a history of tournaments turned in with manipulated pairings (this by far as been the biggest reason for scrutiny), entire rounds flipped to provide a norm, arbiters not onsite or the ones that are do not have the required level for the event, etc.

We’ve improved much in the past 4 years over where we were, that’s for sure but the microscopic analysis isn’t without cause.

But getting back to the matter at hand, it is a gray area what is ‘recommended’ vs ‘required’. Be able to back up with objective evidence what you did with pairings.

I know Thad @ Swiss Sys is going through the process.

Now if Tom @ WinTD wants to get endorsed - contact the SPP Commission at FIDE - either the secretary or the chair.

fide.com/fide/directory/fide … =committee

Right now only the chair is listed on the link above but by some time the week of the 10th of Nov the full commission will be listed.

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First, let’s deal with the comment I actually made. I have no way of knowing what FIDE does with rating reports from norm events in other countries, so I made no such comparative statement. I’m frankly mystified as to how Mr. Muradian was able to extrapolate as he did.

I completely agree with both paragraphs above. Absolutely none of that is contrary to what I wrote in my prior post. I would actually posit that this passage provides support for going entirely by the (Hand)book, including following recommendations for pairing software in norm events.

That “gray area” is exactly why it was suggested - both domestically and internationally - that I have on hand a FIDE approved pairing program. I happen to fully agree with those suggestions, and would strongly recommend other US arbiters follow that advice as well. Again, though, YMMV.

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The November 2014 combined database is available at http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/uscf-fide_2014-11.zip.

(Note for the moderator(s): No, I don’t plan to update this topic every month. Just for a few months, I’ll post the update announcement in case there are readers who ignored the initial announcement and who subsequently find this useful.)

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All the more reason, as if plenty of reasons are not already evident to not run FIDE events in this nation. The greater distance USCF has
from FIDE the better for our federation.

Rob Jones

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Please kindly show the courtesy not to hijack this thread. Thank you.

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Other than a top 100 list, is there any way to get a complete list of all US players with a FIDE rating from FIDE??

Larry S. Cohen

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Download the FRL txt file, import it into Excel, sort by federation, delete those that are not USA.

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To make it easier to use the combined USCF and FIDE rating database, I have provided a SwissSys database settings file here.

To use this file, start SwissSys and choose “Database setup …” from the “Database” menu. In the resulting dialog box, click the “Load settings …” button and load the uscf-fide.dbp file you downloaded. Change the path in the “Database file:” field (which will be C:\CHANGE\ME\PATH\TO\uscf-fide.dbf) to the correct location of the uscf-fide.dbf file on your system. Click “OK” and you are good to go.

The provided uscf-fide.dbp file configures SwissSys to use USCF regular ratings as the “rating #1” field and FIDE standard ratings for “rating #2.” The FIDE federation and title fields are also configured correctly to produce a FIDE rating report using the “Ratings report for FIDE (Krause format) …” item under “Utilities.” After the tournament ends, the TD can send the SwissSys file from the last round (for instance, Open.s5c if the tournament’s open section is five rounds and FIDE rated) to the office for preparation of the FIDE rating report. This will save the office considerable time.

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The August 2015 combined rating database is available at http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/uscf-fide_2015-08.zip.

If you are using SwissSys version 9, you might be interested in this database even if you are not running FIDE rated events. SwissSys 9 has expanded the player registration dialog to include three rating fields instead of two, and the section setup dialog now allows the user to specify the event will use regular, quick, or blitz ratings (corresponding to what is in the “rating”, “rating #2”, or “rating #3” field for that player). The combined database includes all USCF over-the-board ratings (regular, quick, and blitz). So, if you use the combined database, you can go to the “database setup…” entry of the “database” menu and enter B_LPB_RAT in the “Rating #3” field.

Kudos to SwissSys for the flexibility it offers with respect to rating database configuration.

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The one forum topic that deserves to be “bumped” monthly.

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Yeah, I know, it’s not the beginning of the month, so why am I bumping this topic?

I have what might be good news to the users of this database. I got off my lazy butt and coded a simple PHP script that will always redirect to the latest database. The link is: http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/latest.php. You might want to bookmark that link, although I will continue to provide links to the most recent database in this topic each month.