English Chess Forum

'Myanmar Open won by Short and Belous'

http://en.chessbase.com/post/myanmar-op ... belous-1-2

A second article and interview to follow, according to the initial report.

Results not submitted for rating yet. I'm looking forward to this one.

NickFaulks wrote:Results not submitted for rating yet. I'm looking forward to this one.

Why should there be any difficulties? The publicity suggests a completely legitimate tournament. It's already registered as required.

https://ratings.fide.com/tournament_lis ... ountry=MYA

Obviously I know all of that.

The results are now reported, and I am very happy with what I see. Very few of the old generation of grossly overrated Myanmar players took part. I have nothing against these people - indeed, I think they were victims of a misguided experiment carried out by a previous administration in their federation - but the fact remains that they distort any competition in which they play. After twenty-five years, I think we are getting to the point where the ratings of active Myanmar players may be taken at face value.

Nick, is this forum really the right place to be discussing this? I started the thread to highlight Nigel winning the tournament, not to have a discussion of the history of rating in Myanmar.

Maybe not, but you started it! In any case, whenever a tournament takes place in which Myanmar players are involved, the first thought is that bushels of rating points are available to their opponents. There have been some spectacular cases. I'm sure that was not the motivation of the foreign players this time, including England's Nigel Short, and nor was it the outcome.

Indeed. Anyway, to move on from that, the full name of the tournament was the Zaw Win Lay Myanmar International tournament, held in memory of GM Zaw Win Lay who passed away on 3rd of October 2014. FIDE obituary here:

http://www.fide.com/component/content/a ... n-lay.html

NickFaulks wrote: After twenty-five years, I think we are getting to the point where the ratings of active Myanmar players may be taken at face value.

It was fifteen years ago as documented by Mark Crowther.

http://www.theweekinchess.com/html/twic226.html

http://www.theweekinchess.com/html/twic272.html

Did FIDE eventually adjust some or all of the inflated ratings?

Looking at one of the top players shows a rating dropping by 200 points in the first quarter of 2009 without any games being played.
http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=13001361

The topic surfaced on this forum a few years ago

http://ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2 ... e6123fb2eb

Please can we get some of them to play in Division 3 of 4NCL?

Indeed, FIDE has twice docked 200 points from Myanmar players. Any unethical gains that may have been had by playing in this particular closed pool have long gone.

The second part of the report, with an interview with Nigel:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/myanmar-op ... belous-2-2