Our club uses a ladder as a way to introduce friendly competition and get everyone to bring his A-game even though nearly all our play is unrated. However, we’ve hit a snag.
The way our ladder works is pretty conventional: You can challenge anyone who’s higher than you on the ladder; you can’t refuse a challenge from anyone lower unless you’ve already played him that evening; if a lower player beats a higher player, he takes the spot above the higher player if they’re three or fewer spaces apart, while if they’re more than three spaces apart, the lower player moves up three.
It works great . . . for the people who show up regularly. However, there are people on the ladder who’ve played only once or twice, or who played for a while and then went away for a long time. The issue we’re facing right now, and the reason why this is on our minds, is that one guy came to our club a few times and immediately shot to the top of the ladder. He earned it; he was stronger than we are. However, it’s been several weeks since he’s been back. We can’t force him to defend his title if he doesn’t show up! We’re also wondering where newcomers should join the ladder when the bottom rungs are full of oncers and twicers.
Those of you who run ladders, how do you deal with players who don’t play? Do they simply vanish from the ladder after a certain number of weeks? Do they stay on the ladder but gradually lose rank? And how many bottom-rung players can a newcomer leapfrog?
Another thing I’ve seen is a person has to play at least once a month. For every month he doesn’t show up he loses a culmative rank in the ladder.
In other words, after a single month, he drops 1 rung, after 2 months, he drops an additional 2 rungs, after 3 months he drops 3 more rungs, ect.
It actually works out pretty good, after a few months he’s at the bottom of the ladder, but if he shows up and starts winning pretty regular, it won’t take him long to climb the ladder again.
Thanks for the suggestions. Since we have a regular business meeting on the first Tuesday of every month (except January), we opted for the following rule: On the night of each regular meeting, every player who hasn’t played since the previous regular meeting drops one rung, and new players enter just below the lowest-ranked person who’s played within the past month.
“even though nearly all our play is unrated. However, we’ve hit a snag.”
If you want players to “bring their A Game” RATE THE EVENT!!!
Otherwise, by definition, the game is merely a “club” event, or secondary.
Kind of like an exhibition, or simul. Fun, but not the real thing.
My experience is that clubs, affiliates, and organizations, whether scholastic, regular, or
whatever that have true and sustained growth and provide a continuing stream of advancing
players, emphasize USCF and rated events. The fantastic USCF rating system should be
a major selling point for our organization.
The point is, not-rated, or other-rated events are simply “not the real thing, baby”
Rating a ladder is certainly possible. (I searched for ‘ladder’ in the event name on MSA, there are several clubs submitting events that appear to be ladders.)
However, I’m not convinced that rating a ladder is always the best thing for a club to do, each club needs to make that determination for itself based on what the members want.
Thank you for bringing to my attention the fact that we’ve been playing fake chess all this time. How do you propose that I break this disturbing news to my members?
As much as I like having and playing rated games, rating is not the only way to measure seriousness.
Club ladders are traditional, preceding ELO ratings. Nice and old-school. Part of a game’s intensity is determined by something being on the line – prestige, for example. Fighting to rise up a club ladder against your local rivals can be just as intense, just as REAL, as a rated weekend swiss.
Slightly off topic on ladders, but another reason to play non-rated games is to play thematic nights. Although I was merely passing through (many years ago), one club I stopped in was having a “Thematic Night”. I think they said they do that once a month. Generally the theme is some offhand opening that wouldn’t normally see play in a tournament. I don’t remmber offhand what line was the theme, other than a gambit line.
Many thematic tournaments are ratable, though there aren’t any clear guidelines on them. (I would suggest that all games must start at the same position.)