English Chess Forum

Please can we consider starting a Senior Over 75 Section now. The Over 65s covers too wide an age range now that people are in better health and playing competitive chess well into their 80s.

Because that's exactly what ratings should be about! Measurement of performance!

No one has a constant playing strength - our performance changes regularly. No one should be given grading points for free - we need to earn them by our performance.

That's because the K factor is set too low! It needs to be much more responsive on the FIDE type systems. Again for this illusive reason of manufactured stability a low K factor has the effect of not changing this rapidly enough. If we blunder more often and lose games as a result, it means we are l...

Those who think that the monthly grading idea is only supported by younger players are mistaken. I (a 67 year old) have advocated this for a long time. The concept of a rating which deals rapidly with results and is much more of a reflection of the competitive nature of chess is very long overdue in...

Martin, I agree with much of what you say in respect of the exponential system. And I particularly agree with your 20-30 weighting and maximum 30. This is what I think we need - it's just the right balance, and it tells us interesting and useful performance information. But I don't believe it would ...

Roger, Thanks for the clarification. I understand your point. My suggestion would be that the A category becomes the base number for the next period grading calculations. There are two reasons. Firstly, I can see that there would be complete uproar from those who favour stability over performance if...

Roger, "But which do you use as the starting grade for the next period?" No problem - they can continue to be independently calculated. Both are averages of a set of games, so neither technically requires a starting point. "The deliberate intention of switching back from the X grade to the A grade i...

Hello Michael and Brian, Thanks for the comments. I apologise for lack of clarity in what I am saying. Perhaps I have been making too many peripheral points in order to try to get my thoughts across. Firstly, let me say I am not proposing additional complexity such as standard deviations etc. We are...

Mike, you make the point that the 30 game window was effectively replacing the current game, whilst dropping off one game from 30 games previous. But the 12 month system is massively worse - As soon as you move past the most recent grading date a whole six months of games drops out of your records, ...

Chris, that's a very good question to reflect on. I believe the answer is, in a sense that they are all relevant. But in any one game I set out trying to win and that is my primary motivation for that game. As the games develops I will either continue looking for ways to improve the position so as t...

Stewart has made some excellent points! The reminder about the fact that k=20 is around 38 games again shows why going to an annual simple average (where the number of games for an active player might be 60-100) is such an excessive move. Of course the vast majority of players are not 2400+ or even ...

Your reaction is a very British old school one, and what I expected of course! But it doesn't change the fact. You simply don't like to acknowledge the reality. Chess players try to win their games for their own benefit - it just so happens that this naturally almost always coincides with the team's...

Going back over a whole 'year' will absolutely endure for the July grades because it makes so much sense. The vast bulk of UK chess is played from mid-late September through to April/early May. So the July grade works to summarise a whole seasons performance/to accurately predict performance in the...

Apologies, I had just mistakenly posted this on to the previous page, by editing a post. So just making the point here.... However, it is inevitable that in time, with further integration and development, we will indeed end up with greater frequency of publication. It would be rather luddite to thin...