A friend of mine earned his Original Life Master floor recently, and received a certificate in the mail. He was perplexed and asked me what he did. After I told him about the 300 games and 2200 floor, he quickly pointed out that his own MSA file still shows a 2100 floor. I suggested that the floor might only be applied when a new supplement appears, but he hasn’t played any rated games since July.
My friend also pointed out that the reigning US Champion also has a 2100 floor after more than 1000 games recorded by MSA. What gives?
My guess is that OLM floors are difficult to automate, and would require lots of extra programming, so they must be done by hand instead, and usually nobody notices.
Sometimes an updated floor doesn’t show up on MSA until the player competes in another USCF rated event. But the best way to double-check that is for the player to write the ratings department. (ratingsmgr@uschess.org)
There is a periodic report that lists newly achieved National Master or Original Life Master status, but we haven’t always maintained good records of NMs or OLMs, so someone who might have achieved OLM status 10-15 years ago might not have gotten either the OLM notation or the 2200 floor, while those who made National Master before late 1991 might not have gotten that notation. We also know we have unreliable at best counts of games played as a master from before late 1991 (and thus not on MSA.) We also did not maintain detailed records of when or why floors were updated prior to 2005. Again the best way to handle questions is for the player to write the ratings department.
If someone sends a certificate to someone who has achieved OLM status then obviously someone worked that out and at the moment the certificate is created and sent seems like a perfect time to adjust the floor on MSA too.
It looks like the ratings department may have missed putting in some 2200 floors, I just sent them a list of OLMs without 2200 floors to review and update them. There are also a few players with OLMs who appear to have requested lowed floors.
How dare they! One of the features of the OLM was that the player would receive and keep a 2200 floor as recognition of his/her accomplishment and service to chess. To request a lower floor is demeaning to the concept of the OLM. They should lose their status as an OLM or be boiled in oil, whichever is easier to program.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Of course, Gata Kamsky won’t need the 2200 floor anytime soon. Neither will my friend, who recently submitted paperwork for the IM title and thought this certificate was somehow related (answer: no).
There may have been a time in the past when having the IM or GM title brought with it a floor, but that is not current policy. Someone who earns the GM title, and possibly the IM title, probably isn’t in need of a 2200 floor (at least not yet) and may not care about the OLM designation, either.
That’s not to say that the OLM isn’t a worthwhile goal for strong players, it represents a sustained level of performance that many players who make Master never achieve.
