How much does it cost to FIDE rate an event?
That depends.
Alex Relyea
Thanks, you’ve been a tremendous help
This is the closest I can find on the subject: fide.com/component/handbook … w=category. Reference article 9 on that page.
It depends kind of sums it up.
Right now the US Chess charge is a flat $60. That covers the US Chess registration of the event, dealing with the player registrations, and the FIDE rating fees.
There is going to be a proposal to change that fee to a $20 admin fee and then a per player fee. That fee will vary depending on the type of event (FIDE is presently not charging a rating fee for rapid and blitz so those events may be cheaper) and depending on the way that the event is submitted to US Chess. Events that are not submitted to US Chess is the proper file format to be sent on FIDE are probably going to be charged more as US Chess staff have to take the submitted info and basically rekey it into a FIDE accepted format.
Hopefully authors of all the common US pairing software programs will get on board and produce a acceptable FIDE file - otherwise those whose events ratings reports are submitted using those programs which do not produce the accepted FIDE file structure are going to be charged more and perhaps significantly more for the FIDE rating.
Events cannot be submitted directly to FIDE for rating - they have to go through the national federation which is responsible for the proper registration of both the event and all of the players in the event.
No not really.
Rating reports have to flow through the national federation.
Another issue is that we pay rating fees in Euros. The exchange rate floats but we fix a fee in USD and then deal with exchange rate fluctuations internally. The existing fee was set based on a weaker dollar than currently exists. So part of the fee change contemplated would reflect the stronger dollar against the Euro. Of course if the dollar weakens then we may have to adjust the rates US chess is charging.
This is not true, at least not unless things have changed very recently. $60 is a minimum, but I have paid far more.
Alex Relyea
I apologize - you are correct. The $60 is indeed the minimum. My error - I was focused on the changes that are pending.
From our website
The USCF affiliate charges for the FIDE rating of events will be raised effective March 1, 2010 for Swisses and Jan 1, 2010 for round robins. The new fee for Swisses shall be $2 per FIDE ratable performance, with a minimum fee of $60 per section. The new fee for round robins or matches shall be, in dollars, an amount similar to the fee charged in Euros by FIDE to USCF. The exact amount will be determined by the Executive Director after consideration of the likely value of the Euro. This fee may be reviewed quarterly, with changes taking effect three months after that review.
Hmmm…this sounds like an opportunity for some enterprising individual to create a third party program to do that job.
I apologize in advance for utterly shameless self-promotion.
SwissSys currently has excellent support for FIDE rated events. I would also suggest that directors take advantage of SwissSys’s flexibility in handling rating database format and use the monthly combined USCF-FIDE rating database I publish monthly at http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/latest.php. There is also a SwissSys database configuration file at http://www.sudburyriverchess.com/ratings/uscf-fide.dbp that makes the task of configuring SwissSys to use the database very simple. All the director needs to do is download that file, load the settings from the “database configuration” dialog, and change the directory where the rating database is located.
SwissSys can generate the Krause format rating report FIDE uses very simply, especially if the director uses the combined database mentioned above. Simply send the office the SwissSys file for the last round of the FIDE rated section (for instance, open.s5c for a five-round event).
To see what a Krause format rating report looks like, just use the “FIDE rating report (Krause format)” option under the “Utilities” menu. (That may not be the exact name of the menu option, but it should be close. I don’t have SwissSys available at the moment to check.)
SwissSys is being submitted for approval by the FIDE Swiss pairing programs commission, and (as of version 9.20) SwissSys can also be configured to use the JaVaFo pairing engine for FIDE pairings (the exact same engine FIDE uses to validate Swiss pairing programs for compliance). In my never-terribly-humble opinion, SwissSys is the clear leader of the popular pairing programs in the United States for FIDE tournaments.
It would indeed be nice for WinTD to provide a comparable level of support for FIDE events, and I do hope we will see this soon (considering the number of TDs who are comfortable using WinTD).
At the risk of piling on, it should be noted that the office, if it doesn’t receive the file described above, must recreate the tournament in SwissSys.
Alex Relyea
Needed: Software to convert a crosstable in MSA format back to SwisSys. 
Bill Smythe
What about the use of one of the European programs, such as Swiss Manager? I know that would be OK for FIDE, but can US Chess handle any of those programs if they were used to submit a tournament in the US?
Larry S. Cohen
Actually, I’d bet it wouldn’t be hard to write some code to create a Krause format report from an MSA crosstable, provided the MSA crosstable includes color information. There would still need to be some manipulation to include FIDE IDs for players, but even that could be automated. (I do this every month when I create the combined database, using the data from http://www.uschess.org/datapage/FIDE-players.php.)
I for one would welcome volunteer help for that.
Rough guess appreciated: how much would it cost to FIDE-rate one section of the 2016 IL Open?
Both sections?
Assume 75 to 90 players in each section (150 to 180 total).
Ballpark one Euro per player, minimum $60 per section. It may be less, but that is a safe estimate.
Alex Relyea
Thank you!
This just in via email from US Chess