Is this a match?

[wzim]

First off the rules from 2006

New Rules for USCF Rated Matches

The USCF has revised its rules for USCF rated matches. A match is defined as any games from events organized as matches (or a series of matches) of two or more games or any games between two players in which the players choose to play each other. (That’s to exclude any games from Swiss events that arise as a result of various pairing situations during a tournament, such as extra games involving a house player, poor turnout in a section, etc. Since the players didn’t enter the Swiss tournament with the intention of playing each other in a match, the match rules should not apply.)

Matches can be as short as one game or as long as 20 games. They can be rated under the regular USCF rating system, quick rated, or rated under both systems, depending upon the time control.

Both players in a match must have established and published ratings, and those ratings must be no more than 400 points apart as of the most recent published ratings for those players when the match is held. A player may gain or lose no more than 50 rating points in a match. Also, a player may only gain or lose up to 100 rating points through match play during any 180 day period, and may only gain or lose up to 200 rating points through match play during any three year period.

Matches must be identified as a match when they are submitted to the USCF for rating, either by noting it on the rating report form and crosstable when sending the rating report to the USCF via the mail, or by selecting ‘Match’ as the section type when submitting the event online using the USCF’s TD/Affiliate Support Area.

If a certified TD is not submitting the match results, both players must sign a notarized statement that the match conformed to USCF match rules and other conditions for USCF rated play.

During validation of an event, any section involving just two players that is two or more games long will be considered an error if it is not coded as a match. TDs are asked to identify as matches any one-game sections they submit that were intended as matches between those two players (i.e., the two players chose to play each other.)

In the event that some sections in a tournament appear to be matches but are not, the TD will have to contact the USCF to explain the circumstances before the USCF will rate the event.

The USCF may, at its discretion, apply the match rules to any section in which two players face each other more than twice. TDs may be asked to identify any such sections and explain why they should not be treated as matches.

Under the USCF ratings system, matches are not eligible for bonus points.

Match results do not count towards qualification for invitational events.

Finally, any player whose rating is at that player’s floor and plays in a match will be considered to have submitted a request to have that floor lowered by 100 points. The USCF ratings department will review the player’s tournament history to decide if the floor should be lowered.

Any events which are intended to flaunt or circumvent the match rules may result in sanctions against the submitting TD, the sponsoring affiliate or the players involved.

I don’t know if these have been updated or not but it was what I could find.

In October I have scheduled a 4 round event over 4 Monday Nights USCF Rated - Dual Game 30

The idea is that the players get to play both colors against each other, thus making it a fairer contest.

My question is does this fall under the definition of Match play? If so then I probably can’t do it as a rated event due to A: rating differences, especially in the first round. B:

Finally, any player whose rating is at that player’s floor and plays in a match will be considered to have submitted a request to have that floor lowered by 100 points. The USCF ratings department will review the player’s tournament history to decide if the floor should be lowered.

My thinking is that it shouldn’t be considered a Match because the players aren’t choosing their opponents.

If it is a considered a Match I would probably just run it as unrated.

Thanks in advance.

[Smythe_Dakota]

I see no reason why USCF would consider a 4-round double Swiss (each player plays 8 games) to be subject to match rules.

When you submit your crosstable, you can submit as an 8-round regular Swiss.

I don’t know whether WinTD or SwisSys can automatically convert a double-round Swiss to the single-round format expected by USCF. If not, then you’ll have some manual data entry to do.

But as far as the tournament format itself, rules-wise, I’m sure there is no problem.

Bill Smythe

[jwiewel]

@Smythe Dakota

I see no reason why USCF would consider a 4-round double Swiss (each player plays 8 games) to be subject to match rules.

When you submit your crosstable, you can submit as an 8-round regular Swiss.

I don’t know whether WinTD or SwisSys can automatically convert a double-round Swiss to the single-round format expected by USCF. If not, then you’ll have some manual data entry to do.

But as far as the tournament format itself, rules-wise, I’m sure there is no problem.

Bill Smythe

I know WinTD can do the conversion (used for the national scholastic G/5 quick-rated events). If you use WinTD make sure you set it for two games per round (absolutely MUST be done before pairing round one) and have the interchange for colors set to zero points.

One thing to remember is that playing a person twice eliminates rating bonus points.

System Administrator’s Note: [i]According to the technical description of the USCF rating system, available at glicko.net/ratings/rating.system.pdf, you must play someone MORE that two times in order for the event to be ineligible for bonus points. Also, players who have fewer than 3 rated games cannot earn bonus points in that section.

The event as described would not cause an error, as double Swiss and double RR events are not considered matches. It would get a comment about players facing the same opponent more than once, though.

A more precise way of identifying a match might be to define it as any section in which each player plays the same opponent more than once and plays no other opponent. An enhanced version of the match rules intended to catch some obviously abusive situations has been sent to the Executive Board more than once, but no action has been taken on it. [/i]

[ericmark]

@wzim

First off the rules from 2006

New Rules for USCF Rated Matches

The USCF has revised its rules for USCF rated matches. A match is defined as any games from events organized as matches (or a series of matches) of two or more games or any games between two players in which the players choose to play each other. (That’s to exclude any games from Swiss events that arise as a result of various pairing situations during a tournament, such as extra games involving a house player, poor turnout in a section, etc. Since the players didn’t enter the Swiss tournament with the intention of playing each other in a match, the match rules should not apply.)

Matches can be as short as one game or as long as 20 games. They can be rated under the regular USCF rating system, quick rated, or rated under both systems, depending upon the time control.

Both players in a match must have established and published ratings, and those ratings must be no more than 400 points apart as of the most recent published ratings for those players when the match is held. A player may gain or lose no more than 50 rating points in a match. Also, a player may only gain or lose up to 100 rating points through match play during any 180 day period, and may only gain or lose up to 200 rating points through match play during any three year period.

Matches must be identified as a match when they are submitted to the USCF for rating, either by noting it on the rating report form and crosstable when sending the rating report to the USCF via the mail, or by selecting ‘Match’ as the section type when submitting the event online using the USCF’s TD/Affiliate Support Area.

If a certified TD is not submitting the match results, both players must sign a notarized statement that the match conformed to USCF match rules and other conditions for USCF rated play.

During validation of an event, any section involving just two players that is two or more games long will be considered an error if it is not coded as a match. TDs are asked to identify as matches any one-game sections they submit that were intended as matches between those two players (i.e., the two players chose to play each other.)

In the event that some sections in a tournament appear to be matches but are not, the TD will have to contact the USCF to explain the circumstances before the USCF will rate the event.

The USCF may, at its discretion, apply the match rules to any section in which two players face each other more than twice. TDs may be asked to identify any such sections and explain why they should not be treated as matches.

Under the USCF ratings system, matches are not eligible for bonus points.

Match results do not count towards qualification for invitational events.

Finally, any player whose rating is at that player’s floor and plays in a match will be considered to have submitted a request to have that floor lowered by 100 points. The USCF ratings department will review the player’s tournament history to decide if the floor should be lowered.

Any events which are intended to flaunt or circumvent the match rules may result in sanctions against the submitting TD, the sponsoring affiliate or the players involved.

I don’t know if these have been updated or not but it was what I could find.

In October I have scheduled a 4 round event over 4 Monday Nights USCF Rated - Dual Game 30

The idea is that the players get to play both colors against each other, thus making it a fairer contest.

My question is does this fall under the definition of Match play? If so then I probably can’t do it as a rated event due to A: rating differences, especially in the first round. B:

Finally, any player whose rating is at that player’s floor and plays in a match will be considered to have submitted a request to have that floor lowered by 100 points. The USCF ratings department will review the player’s tournament history to decide if the floor should be lowered.

My thinking is that it shouldn’t be considered a Match because the players aren’t choosing their opponents.

If it is a considered a Match I would probably just run it as unrated.

Thanks in advance.

In my experience, pairing the same players twice in a Swiss generates a caution in the validation report, but does not make the event un-ratable.

I once paired the two lowest-rated (by far) players for a second time in the last round of a Quick Chess Swiss at our club. Otherwise, the by-the-book pairings would have been way-weird mismatches, due to a small turnout for a five-round event. No one objected; the validation report issued a caution but the event was still rated.

Three games between the same opponents will cause the report to fail validation, from what I have read. I thought of testing that once; at another club we had guys play a bunch of semi-organized rated games, no real tournament structure, apart from one set time control: just ‘find an opponent and play.’ This was a vain attempt on my part to generate interest in rated chess in the club, apart from the 3-4 guys who already played in tournaments.

I and another player wound up playing three games against each other, due to lack of interest from the others. I submitted those games as a match, since I did not want to go through the hassle of explaining the format. (or lack thereof)

If for some reason your tournament report fails validation, you can contact USCF to explain things—but I do not think that is likely.

Good luck.

[ILfish]

At least 1 year [maybe 2] the Illinois Class was run with ‘double-play’ [my term for it: DP as shorthand] in the first 2 rounds on Saturday, then just single play in the last 2 rounds. So just from past history I would say that what you are asking about is not a match. What you did should be much easier to do than that old tournament [held at the University of Illinois in Chicago] from back in the 80s/90s. Also, isn’t there a setting on both pairing programs where you could set the number of games in a round to 2? That would be simpler than submitting an 8 round swiss, and it may be that the USCF program will recognize that without any problems or warnings. As usual you are probably best in checking with the USCF office about it.

-Larry S. Cohen

[wzim]

@ILfish

At least 1 year [maybe 2] the Illinois Class was run with ‘double-play’ [my term for it: DP as shorthand] in the first 2 rounds on Saturday, then just single play in the last 2 rounds. So just from past history I would say that what you are asking about is not a match. What you did should be much easier to do than that old tournament [held at the University of Illinois in Chicago] from back in the 80s/90s. Also, isn’t there a setting on both pairing programs where you could set the number of games in a round to 2? That would be simpler than submitting an 8 round swiss, and it may be that the USCF program will recognize that without any problems or warnings. As usual you are probably best in checking with the USCF office about it.

-Larry S. Cohen

Yes there is a setting. We have done this a lot with our local Ladder rated games. And it seems that at least once I must have done this in a fashion that was USCF rated because I remember using the SwissSys Option to turn the results into a format that the USCF would accept. But it has been a while.

Now that I think about it years ago when we still did League each player would play each other twice, except it was divided into two halfs and the First half was submitted as one tournament and then the Second half was submitted when it was finished.

[eastside]

@Smythe Dakota

I don’t know whether WinTD or SwisSys can automatically convert a double-round Swiss to the single-round format expected by USCF. If not, then you’ll have some manual data entry to do.

SwissSys handles double-round swiss events fine. The only thing you have to remember is to use the appropriate pull-down menu in the section setup window to specify a double-round format, rather than single-round. That option is only editable during initial section setup. The rating report SwissSys generates automatically parses the double-rounds properly.

I haven’t used WinTD in about seven years, and never ran double-round events when I did, so I can’t speak to that.

[wzim]

Just submitted the Game 30 Duel tournament last night and everything went smoothly. I should have know it would because we did a Double your Fun tournament about this time last year and there weren’t any problems.
Although last year I think I kept track of the color and win/loss order that was played and manually created the 8 round event. This year I just used the Swiss-Sys conversion and wins and losses just fell out where they did. I did get cautions on the submission of the event of players playing multiple players, but they were only cautions and didn’t prevent the tournament from being submitted.

[SysAdmin]

As noted last August, any time two players face each other more than twice in an event, those players are not eligible for bonus points, per the USCF ratings formula.

That is independent of the definition of a match. In a match, other restrictions apply, as documented in the match rules document referenced above.

In general, a match is an arranged set of games between two players. Events in which two players meet more than once but also play other players, possibly more than once, such as a double Swiss or double Round Robin, are not matches. Even a quadruple Round Robin would not be considered a match, though entering it into a program like WinTD or SwisSys and then into the USCF pending events system could pose challenges.

The new version of the rating report validation program has a slightly expanded test for matches, the result of over a year of discussions with staff and the EB.

It will flag any event in which all players faced only one other opponent and at least one player pair had more than one game against each other as needing to be coded as a match.

That is to prevent someone from combining two matches into one section in an attempt to get around the match rule restrictions, both on the ratings of the players and limits on ratings gains or losses from matches.

The new validation suite will also look for certain common abusive situations, such as a match between two players in which there is an extra round with another player thrown in to circumvent the match rules tests. Not all abusive situations may be easily detected, so the ratings department has the ability to classify events as treated under the match rules for ratings purposes after the fact, subject to review by the ED.

An updated version of the match rules document is being worked on and should be sent to the EB for their review later this week.

Until the updated match rules document is posted, see BINFO 201100561 for more details.

[martinak]

@SysAdmin

It will flag any event in which all players faced only one other opponent and at least one player pair had more than one game against each other as needing to be coded as a match.

This may cause problems for the Pittsburgh Chess League. This is a one game per month team event. It is rated monthly so in general most players play exactly one game (and therefore one opponent). there are also extra alternate games for players on a team who are not playing in their team’s match. These generally play one game, but if they finish early (especially the kids) they can be paired again - sometimes with the same opponent. In addition there are quick chess quads (and sometimes a bottom 6-player swiss) included.

System Administrator Note: Exceptions to the match rules can be requested from the USCF office, with proper explanation for how the event occurred. Each section of an event is considered independently of the others for match determination purposes, although the office may look for patterns of abuse over multiple sections or multiple events.