is there anyone out there who has played a friendly match with a chess-buddy for rating points? i am seeking the protocol for such an event which would be uscf sanctioned. i have done this about 40 years ago, won a 10 game match, the loser having to pay a “rating fee” of $10.00 to uscf. is this still in effect, and if so, how does one get the info or is it a state secret? please to enlighten me. thanx.
lumberjack
The best way to do it is to find an affiliate and TD willing to sign off on the match and submit it for you, but you can submit it yourself.
See the ‘Match Rules’ section of the update to the rulebook at uschess.org/docs/gov/reports … hanges.pdf for procedures.
My understanding is that standard per-game rating fees (including the minimum fee) apply. For events submitted by mail, the current fee is 60 cents per game with a minimum fee of $8.00.
Pay attention to the ratings limitations. Both players must have established ratings (in the applicable ratings system) and those ratings must be no more than 400 points apart. These limitations have been in effect for many years, but we still get TDs who aren’t aware of them.
I did this last year. I played a six-game match with someone who was rated very close to my level. We both paid $6 to the affiliate, and $10 was paid to the winner (or $5 to each player if it was a 3-3 draw). The club kept the other $2 for rating fees and other expenses.
Rated games cost $0.25 each, so a ten-game match would cost only $2.50 to rate.
There’s a $3 minimum fee for events submitted online.
Unless it’s attached to another rated event as a different section, in which case the rating cost would be the marginal cost of the games. With a 10 game match, it would probably have to be split up among two or three “monthlys”
That raises an interesting policy question. Should TDs be willing to include matches that aren’t part of their events as sections in those events? That could affect things like how an event qualifies for TD certification purposes. If the TD didn’t really do any actual directing of the match, should he be able to get credit for it towards his next TD level?
Matches are not part of the qualification requirements. Most of the requirements are for category A, B, C or D events, all of which are explicitly defined as Swisses, and a match is not a Swiss. There have been TDs who tried to include round robins (quads) or extra games in tournaments to reach the 50-player and 100-player levels, but for those tournaments only the players in the Swiss sections were actually counted (generally making those tournament claims ineligible for the claimed requirements).
For ANTD and NTD there is a round robin requirement (8 players, 1800+ average rating) and a category N requirement.
For NTD there is a category T requirement.
None of categories N, R or T can be met by a match.
For SrTD and higher there is also are requirement that a certain number of tournaments be submitted on line. A match is not a tournament.
As long as the claimed tournament qualifications are reviewed, I can’t think of a way that adding a match section would improve a TD’s qualifications for a higher TD certification level.
There may be other procedural reasons to require matches to submitted separately from tournaments. Personally I think it would make things clearer when doing an MSA search.
Current Chair of the TD Certification Committee
Personally, I think labeling a section “MATCH” is clear enough. In my match, our games were the same date, time, and location as the other club rated games, and were directed by the same TD.
I definitely don’t think each match needs its own event. Say instead of a tournament, a club decides to hold four-game matches (#1 seed plays #2, #3 plays #4, etc). Each match doesn’t need to be submitted as its own tournament (I know nobody is suggesting this).
I’m not talking about club events that are structured as matches. I’m talking about this:
You direct a tournament. Players X and Y come to you and say, “We just finished playing a match, will you rate it for us?” You agree, and include it as an additional section of your recently completed event. But it wasn’t REALLY part of that event, was it?
No, I would not consider that match to be part of the same event, but then I don’t consider extra rated games to be a part of an event either, they have no effect on prizes or standings.
So I guess I would say:
Matches played at the same time and location as the tournament proper are ok as they are similar to an “extra games” section.
Matches that are played independently as the tournament proper (different time and location) should probably have their own event.