Where does one go to find rules regarding a Rated Match?
Thank you
See the Rulebook Changes updated .pdf document, from the right side of the USCF home page. (Scroll down under Announcements.) I copied the revised match rules from the doc below. I think it might have been tweaked again at the last EB meeting, last month, but am not sure about that.
- Matches. 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.)
a. 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.
b. 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.
c. 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.
d. 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.
e. 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.)
f. 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.
g. 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.
h. Under the USCF ratings system, matches are not eligible for bonus points.
i. Match results do not count towards qualification for invitational events.
j. 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.
The Board approved an updated set of rules regarding matches last month. A copy of the updated rules was sent to the USCF Secretary and the webmaster after the meeting, but it may not be posted on the website yet, though an earlier copy of it should be in the BINFO system from last November. (There was one minor change made to it by the Board in February.)
Here’s a link to the previous version:
main.uschess.org/docs/gov/report … atches.php
The latest update expanded the definition of a match to deal with events where substantially all of the games are those between two players, including such things as four player events where all players face only one opponent or ones with a few games with other players. Certain TDs were submitting events like that to get around the match rule limits.
Are Playoffs between the winners of two seperate round robin sections considered matches? Even if the play off involves best 2 out of 3?
I think that’s covered in the first paragraph of Mr. Nolan’s match rules document. (No, but you may have to explain to the office.)
Alex Relyea
How can we tell it is a playoff?
Should it violate the match rule limitations on players (ie, established ratings within 400 points of each other), you can request an exception from the ratings department. (BTW, this was the case in 2011 for a section with just two players and two or more games, that DID NOT CHANGE in 2012.)
The match rules regarding ratings gain/loss limitations should probably apply anyway, because they’re there to protect the rating system.
What if one of the players is at his floor? Would the TD be able to request with the office not to code it as a match so as not to request a floor drop? I understand that this is a very unlikely hypothetical as a player who has just won a RR is not likely to be at his floor anyway.
Alex Relyea
The decision as to whether or not to rate an event that looks like a match but where the players violate the match rules limitations as well as whether the match rules limitations on ratings gains and losses should apply are independent from the decision as to whether someone who is on or near his or her floor and plays in a match should be considered to have submitted a request to have that floor lowered by 100 points. Both would be handled by the USCF ratings department, though.
(FWIW, that particular rule came about because of a player, now deceased, who had a 1600 floor but whose actual playing strength was between 1300 and 1400. However, he was highly sought after for matches by scholastic players looking to score a bunch of points.)
I’ve just did a quick check and apparently I always go with the forced thing of rating it as a Match, at least for the last three years. I think I just figured what the heck does it matter.
Examples
uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201108167191
uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201006140911.2 bottom section
uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?200908244701
In some sense these really are matches due the fact that is two players playing a playoff match to decide the City Champion. But going into the tournament they don’t know who they are going to play. We qualify 12 individuals, seperate them into two groups and the winners of each group (round robin) then play each other.
It never really has been a problem but the potential is there. In fact in 2009 one of the players was close to their floor and could have been subject to the automatic lowering etc. if he had actually been on his floor.
We had another potential problem last year because one of the players was rated 2350 + and so if in the other section a 1900 had won there would have been more than a 400 point difference. Fortunately or unfortunately the 2350 had to withdraw after round 1.
and for how to you tell if it is a Playoff, well the event name of City Playoffs should give a bit of a clue 
but if you don’t trust the Td’s submitting the report then that is a different story.
It is NOT repeat NOT an ‘automatic lowering’.
Here’s the actual rule from the latest EB motion:
The ratings department reviews all requests for a lowered floor (most of them are requested by the player), and a player’s floor is lowered ONLY IF that player has been at or near his floor for quite a while (in terms of events played in.)
BTW, the paragraph quoted above contains the only change made to the motion during the February EB meeting from the draft version that was sent to the Board in November. (The change was to include players who were above their floor at the start of the event but on their floor after the event was rated.)
There really haven’t been that many lowered floors, only 5 of them in 2009 and fewer than that in more recent years.
sorry, Automatic request for floor lowering 
I’m not too concerned about it. I was just really raising some hypotheticals.
I would think that the answer would be yes, because it is basically organized as a PlayOff Match. The problem could arise if the winners of the PlayOff don’t qualify to play a match, which then is when one would need to contact the Office etc.
Here’s the revised section describing what a match is:
However, the problem is still figuring out how to differentiate between an intentional match and a something like a two-players section because of poor turnout based just on what is in the crosstable. That’s why the office has the authority to override the match rules limitations, given a reasonable explanation. This will usually cause a one-working-day delay in getting the event submitted, but if TDs are aware of that up front they can advise players in their event appropriately.
(But a TD who writes the office and says something like “I didn’t realize these players were rated 600 points apart” has probably not offered a reasonable explanation.)
BTW, the most egregious examples of attempts to bypass the match rules policy we’ve seen involved players under 1900 playing in an extended series of QR events.
The easiest solution in the Play Off senario if there were issues would be simply to do the Play Off’s as unrated. The prestige of winning the City Championship should be enough to insure a serious contest.
During the February EB meeting, the issue of the US Championships came up.
The finals were a series of matches, culmination in a match with Allegro time controls, which are
not UCF ratable. But the matches ahead of those were USCF ratable.