I am considering submitting the following ADM at the 2011 Annual Delegates Meeting. Comments are welcome.
Bob Messenger
Massachusetts Delegate
In Chapter 8, section 1 of the 5th edition rulebook, replace the last four sentences with the following:
A player’s Quick rating is calculated if he or she participates in events with time controls of G/5-G/29. A player’s Regular rating is computed if he or she enters a tournament with time controls of G/30 or slower. Events with time controls faster than G/5 are not rated. Games with time controls of G/30-G/60 are used to calculate both Regular and Quick ratings at the same time.
For comparison, the current text of these four sentences is:
A player’s Quick rating is calculated if he or she participates in events with time controls of G/10-G/29. A player’s Regular rating is computed if he or she enters a tournament with time controls of G/30 or slower. Events with time controls of G/9 or faster are not rated. Games with time controls of G/30-G/60 are used to calculate both Regular and Quick ratings at the same time.
I believe that my proposed new wording reflects the current practice of rating games played with a time control of between G/5 and G/9. I realize that it may conflict with other ADMs that may be submitted, e.g. to create a separate rating system for blitz games, or to allow G/25 d5 games to be dual rated. Ideally, if I submit this ADM, I’d like it to be considered after the conflicting ADMs are voted on. That way, if the other ADMs pass and they allow G/5 to G/9 to be quick rated I can withdraw my ADM, but if the other ADMs fail my ADM can still be considered.
Thanks for reminding me - I forgot that games played with an increment of more than 15 seconds per move are regular rated only. This is another potential source of conflict, because there might be ADMs that I don’t know about yet that could change this. For now I’ll just propose an ADM which amends Chapter 8 Section 1 to conform to the current rules, without trying to change anything.
Here is my revised ADM proposal, which reflects the current rule that games played with an increment or delay greater than 15 seconds per move are regular rated only.
In Chapter 8, Section 1 of the 5th edition rulebook, replace the last four sentences with the following:
A player’s Quick rating is calculated if he or she participates in events with time controls of G/5-G/29 and an increment or delay less than or equal to 15 seconds per move. A player’s Regular rating is computed if he or she enters a tournament with time controls of G/30 or slower or an increment or delay greater than 15 seconds per move. Events with time controls faster than G/5 are not rated. Games with time controls of G/30-G/60 and an increment or delay less than or equal to 15 seconds per move are used to calculate both Regular and Quick ratings at the same time.
I had suggested on a different subject here several months ago (quoted above) that tournaments with increment use a formula based on the time and the increment used because basing which rating system was used only on increment would lead to some slower events being quick rated while faster ones weren’t. The main argument against my suggestion was that my formula would require doing math.
I would suggest that any ADM dealing with quick rated events also correct the inconsistency of the above example for increment.
I agree with you, Harold, but I’ve already proposed a lot of ADMs and I don’t want to keep piling on more changes to the rules.
The change I had in mind was that you would add the time control in minutes to the increment or delay in seconds to determine what rating system to use. Thus, G/5+16 inc. would be quick rated (equivalent to G/21). G/25 d5 would be dual rated (equivalent to G/30). I eliminated this in the final edit of my proposed ADM and limited it to changing Chapter 8 Section 1 to conform to the changes previously passed by the delegates, but I might reconsider this depending on what ADMs are being submitted by other people.
Come to think of it, this change would also mean that G/60 d5, currently dual rated, would become regular rated only (equivalent to G/65).
Maybe the rule could say this, although it would add to its complexity: the delay time is not added if it’s the standard delay for that time control. Thus, since 5 seconds is the default delay for games played at G/30 and slower, G/60 d5 would be dual rated. Since 3 seconds is the default delay for quick chess (will be G/6 to G/29 if my proposed ADMs are adopted), G/25 d5 would be dual rated (equivalent to G/30), while G/25 d3 would be quick rated only.
As Bill Goichberg explained in another topic the delegates have already affirmed that Blitz Chess games are ratable under the Quick Chess rating system, and authorized the rules committee to update the rulebook accordingly. Other than that, the information in my proposed ADM already appears in the rules update to Rule 5C. It appears that there is no need for this ADM, so I won’t be submitting it.