Tradewise Gibraltar Masters 2017

[David Sedgwick]

I didn't say that you didn't try, I said you were too late making the point. This is exactly what you just said, to some extent.

It was only in 1994 that the BCF came to the conclusion that bottom to top floats might not be best. The FIDE Swiss Pairing Rules, then and now, are very similar to the rules used in England up to 1994.

Having gained some experience of the new BCF rules, we put our arguments to FIDE less than 18 months later.

I'm sorry that you think that we were unduly tardy. History will judge.

[Chris Rice]

Amgalanbaatar Ravdanlkhumbuu from Mongolia had an interesting tournament with an Elo of 1988 he won the U-2250 rating prize with a performance rating of 2322 and gained 71.2 Elo in the process. He's 28 so not even a junior. Well played sir! Surprising then that in August 2016 he had a rating of 2178 and between then and the start of Gibraltar he managed to lose 190 Elo points enabling him to get into the grading band. Fortunately he managed to stop the rot from drawing with a 1637 and losing to two 1800s in Ulanbaatar in December and then 4 weeks later producing this fine run of form. http://www.chess-results.com/tnr257693. ... 21&snr=217

Guess it paid for the trip.

[Mike Truran]

Indeed. After my round 4 draw with him in the Challengers when he was quite clearly of 2250-2300 strength compared with his official rating of 1988, I asked the arbiters to investigate.

Entirely predictably, I have heard nothing since from them.

[NickFaulks]

Is there a list of prizewinners anywhere?

[Mike Truran]

Cheers Nick - to the point as always.

[David Sedgwick]

Indeed. After my round 4 draw with him in the Challengers when he was quite clearly of 2250-2300 strength compared with his official rating of 1988, I asked the arbiters to investigate.

Entirely predictably, I have heard nothing since from them.

Mike, it's a matter of degree, but as you (rating 2183) drew with him, why do you say that he was clearly of 2250-2300 strength rather than 2150-2200?

In such cases, you really have to identify the problem and refuse the entry beforehand. It's difficult to take action during the tournament. It's not the same as when an ungraded player gives a false estimate of his strength.

By alerting the arbiters, you may well have ensured that Mr Amgalanbaatar doesn't appear again next year.

[Mike Truran]

David, he has a 207 ECF grade. You didn't play him. I did. My estimate of his playing strength from our game is 2250-2300.

[Ian Thompson]

In such cases, you really have to identify the problem and refuse the entry beforehand.

How do you define what constitutes a problem'? It seems very difficult to me to differentiate between players who really are very erratic in their play, those who happen to have gone through a bad patch and are now recovering, and those who are manipulating their ratings (or, for that matter, those who have suffered a permanent decline from which they will never recover).

Am I right in thinking that it is only English/British tournaments that award prizes based on relative rating performance, and doesn't that tell you something about its merits if no-one else has followed suit after almost 20 years of English tournaments doing it?

[Alex Holowczak]

Am I right in thinking that it is only English/British tournaments that award prizes based on relative rating performance, and doesn't that tell you something about its merits if no-one else has followed suit after almost 20 years of English tournaments doing it?

British tournaments hardly ever use tie-breaks in its tournaments, but the rest of the world - and particularly continental Europe - does. Does that tell you something about the merits of us not using tie-breaks?

If it were instead awarded to the highest-scoring player beneath a certain rating limit, would the winner have been different?

[Roger de Coverly]

How do you define what constitutes a problem'? It seems very difficult to me to differentiate between players who really are very erratic in their play, those who happen to have gone through a bad patch and are now recovering, and those who are manipulating their ratings (or, for that matter, those who have suffered a permanent decline from which they will never recover).

You can have more stringent rules. Unlike Hastings weekend and e2e4, the rating restricted 4NCL tournaments require not only that the FIDE rating is below a cut off, but also the ECF grade, assuming you have one.

Gibraltar could restrict access to rating restricted prizes, not only to current rating, but also to rating over previous periods. Tilted players could also be excluded, possibly with exceptions for those over a particular age.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Indeed. After my round 4 draw with him in the Challengers when he was quite clearly of 2250-2300 strength compared with his official rating of 1988, I asked the arbiters to investigate.

Entirely predictably, I have heard nothing since from them.

Mike, it's a matter of degree, but as you (rating 2183) drew with him, why do you say that he was clearly of 2250-2300 strength rather than 2150-2200?

In such cases, you really have to identify the problem and refuse the entry beforehand. It's difficult to take action during the tournament. It's not the same as when an ungraded player gives a false estimate of his strength.

By alerting the arbiters, you may well have ensured that Mr Amgalanbaatar doesn't appear again next year.

I imagine that Mike would have more confidence in this possibility if the arbiters had actually got back in touch with him, eg to ask him the questions that you did. No reply much more obviously signifies "don't want to know".

Besides which, I believe there is a history of non-investigation into allegations of this nature at Gibraltar. It is a shame that the arbiters seem to get flak for things which are not their fault (Hou Yifan) but relatively little attention is paid to things which really could be improved.

[Jonathan Rogers]

....

Am I right in thinking that it is only English/British tournaments that award prizes based on relative rating performance, and doesn't that tell you something about its merits if no-one else has followed suit after almost 20 years of English tournaments doing it?

It does indeed, to me. Mind you, in other countries you might find other special prizes, eg for local players.

Oh, if only Gibraltar had a prize for best English player under 2600!

[IM Jack Rudd]

Some of the worst offenders in this category (Oleg Kozlov, for one) no longer come to Gibraltar.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Some of the worst offenders in this category (Oleg Kozlov, for one) no longer come to Gibraltar.

But they did, and more than once; and we don't know whether they were ever banned or have just been deterred from entering due to the publicity from other outraged players.

[Alan Walton]

Some of the worst offenders in this category (Oleg Kozlov, for one) no longer come to Gibraltar.

Another who has popped up in Gibraltar in the past, and normally plays the amatuer tournament in Calvia (October) is Sergey Gromovs; his fluctuations have been remarkable

The Mongolians are notable rate sharks in my view, every year they at Gibraltar their ratings are normally at the low point

One possible rule which could be applied, if your high rating in the past 12 months is over 100 points higher (variable depending on K factor) than the limit the calculation for the prize takes the higher rating into account, though this will not stop committed rate dumpers it does become another simple deterent