There are limits set to how many rating points can be gained through match play. However, what if an unrated player played a 20 game match in order to get a rating. How would you treat such a “provisional” player if they then entered a tournament you were running?
Of course this is just theoretical. It is easier for an unrated to find weekend and/or week night events to play at in order to work towards getting an established rating. I sincerely doubt there has ever been an unrated that played their first 6-20 games via match play. Still it is always possible that someone may view this as a quicker, and maybe cheaper, way to establish a rating for a new player.
It might be quicker, but it would almost certainly be a less reliable rating, which is why unrated and provisionally rated players are prohibited from playing matches.
And although this has been a USCF rule for a long time, it amazes me how many TDs don’t know about it.
Perhaps TD/A should have a periodic ‘rules quiz’ question as part of the login prompt, and a TD doesn’t get in unless he selects the correct answer?
I have seen matches get rated that have included unrated and provisionally rated players plus events that have included unrated and provisionally rated players and have been forced to be coded as a match.
Also, Mike Nolan made a proposal to not have provisionally rated players restricted by the match rules (50 point gain/loss limit, etc.). Any update on this?
What happens if an unrated player plays in an event that is coded as a match? A player is suppose to gain/lose no more than 50 points in a match so would an unrated player who has a 1300P0 age based rating only get an initial post event rating somewhere between 1250 to 1350? I know there was a programming issue in the past where an unrated player who had a 1300P0 rating got a 1300P2 post event rating despite going 0-2 against an 800 and a 900.
Then its not reallya proposal in the sense that Micah is using it above, right? Proposals within the forum are suggestions, that may or may not be picked up more formally. Its a suggestion, that probably hasn’t been studied or perhaps even considered. I’m not criticizing, just pointing out that there are proposals and then there are proposals. Micah tends to act as though the forums are a direct line to the USCF office/committees/delegates/EB when its actually a discussion group, in the case of the Issues forum, a member only discussion group - so I just wanted to clarify that there should be no expectation of a suggestion here going anywhere unless someone has formally raised it to the attention of someone at/on the/a office/committee/EB.
Last March 14 Mike Nolan said that he sent a question to the ratings committee the day before on whether or not a programming change should be made to handle when an unrated (or provisionally rated) player ends up in something like a tournament’s play-off match. At that time he noted that 42 events since 2004 would be affected (that averages to around 5 events per year). viewtopic.php?f=5&t=18234&p=252624&hilit=+Unrated+Match#p252624
Considering the infrequency with which it would be used, I can understand if it did not hit anywhere near the top of the list in priorities.
