This is not exactly correct. Our policy, as set by the Executive Board, is to adjust the ratings of USA-flag players for their play in foreign FIDE rated events after those events are included on an official FIDE Rating List.
Non-USA-flag players who are current USCF members can also pay in advance of an event to have that FIDE event included, I think Fabiano Caruana is the only player to have done that.
The 2010 World Youth was not included by FIDE on a FIDE Rating List until the January 2011 list, which was not released by FIDE until around the 31st of December. The adjustments from that list were processed by the USCF on January 2nd.
I am still waiting for an answer from ED Bill Hall on this issue. 3 phone messages and one long email later—and I still have no response. Keep in mind it has now been over a week’s time. Do other people experience similar waiting times?
Clearly, this is an issue he doesn’t want to talk about since he is quoted as certifying someone as a master who has no record of breaking 2200 on the USCF MSA site. I just would like to some clarification from the USCF on the issues described in my original post.
We don’t generate the National Master milestone records until after an event has been through at least one rerate. That’s consistent with what we do for Junior Grand Prix events and what we will do with Victory Points when those start getting posted, which should be in the next few weeks.
I suspect if you check that player’s milestones page, you will see that he still has the National Master milestone record, because we don’t currently take those away even if the player’s rating for that event subsequently drops below 2200 in a later rerate.
A confounding issue here is that there is an Executive Board policy requiring updates of USCF ratings for foreign FIDE rated events that may have been held some time ago, possibly several months ago as was the case here with the 2010 World Youth Championships. Because of rerating, those adjustments could have ripple effects on the ratings of those players and on their opponents in subsequent events.
I’m fairly sure the Executive Board never took into account the possible impact on National Master designations when they formulated their policy on adjusting USCF ratings for foreign FIDE rated events, because we weren’t posting those on the website prominently at the time.