I heard that some clubs use their own or an alternative rating system for club events, CXR and, IIRC, SwissSys amongst several. We are considering using an alternative rating system for some events like club tournaments and possible some informal matches with other clubs, either over the board or online. Anyone have an experience to relate in using alternative ratings to attract a) non-US Chess players and b) to attract US Chess players by not putting their US Chess rating at any risk? Thanks in advance.
There are two types of rating systems. One puts a great weight on activity, the other doesn’t. For example, bridge master points are the former while FIDE ratings are the latter. Which are you more interested in?
Alex Relyea
Something approaching US Chess Ratings. This would allow us in an informal club tournament or ladder to have a member get a rating for our use without having to join US Chess right away. If the tournament bug bites, then they can join US Chess and they’ll have some idea what level they’re playing at.
It’s always possible to adapt the (very) old rating system. For example, add 16 points for a win, subtract 16 for a loss, then add (or subtract) one point for every 25 points difference up to 400. Since you’re in the Northeast Kingdom, not New York City, you’re likely to have a pretty closed pool, so you don’t have to be as careful initializing ratings, but I’d caution against US Chess ratings for those that have them as I suspect it would be difficult to initialize new players adequately. Since the club is an affiliate, I don’t see any IP problems. Instead, it might be encouraging to start all players at the same level, say 1600, possibly with a reset once a year. I think this would reduce discouragement.
Alex Relyea
Or, you can go to http://www.uschess.org/content/view/13146/836/ and use the rating estimator there.
Of course if you do that you run the risk of people confusing their NE Kingdom ratings with their US Chess ratings. It also depends how many unrateds you have.
Alex Relyea
With the online rating estimator why develop or use a different system? Just use the one online to get an unofficial rating. If anyone afterwards gets into US Chess rated tournaments, just ignore the unofficial rating.
Of course, any tournament one goes to as an official unrated would expect that the TD would request to use the unofficial rating for pairing and prize purposes, but the point is I don’t see a reason to try and develop or use a different system, unless, of course, one believes that the US Chess system is inferior.
Why even use a different system? I remember years ago [before quick chess ratings] when the USCF offered to rate club games in a different system. Why couldn’t that be done now? Then the unofficial rating would have some basis with the current rating system. It would just be a question of setting a price to rate these “unofficial” games in a separate system. Surely with a system for Blitz, Quick, & Regular ratings another entirely separate system could be set up.
Larry S. Cohen
ps: the idea would not be to compete with the USCF official ratings, but rather to compete against the other “unofficial” rating systems.