During our Internet-based Arbiter Seminar this week we were going over the rating regulations (minimum think times, number of hours of play per day, how players get ratings etc).
A common question in all three seminars this week was how to grow a base of FIDE rated players in an area.
Ken Ballou graciously pulled up some information for me during the lecture on the growth we had in IL (primarily the Chicago area) using a combination of mechanisms.
Year - Total Number of FIDE rated players in IL - U2200 - U2100
2010 - 157 - 89 - 67
2011 - 179 - 112 - 88
2012 - 202 - 135 - 107
2013 - 210 - 148 - 117
2014 - 229 - 161 - 133
2015 - 280 - 215 - 184
2010 was the base year prior to myself and fellow local organizers to do a concerted effort to grow the base.
The lists analyzed were either May or April of their respective years as in the early years the lists were every other month while later monthly.
Between a combination of 9R-RR’s to help create the seed players in the community and then having local events such as the IL Open, IL Class, TJWO and other events FIDE rated along with weekend Swiss events at my club we were able to increase the pool of U2100 rated players by 117 for the total of 184 (nearly 3x growth from 2010!)
Great team effort by the local organizers!
