It has not happened - but it might happen on March 1.
Fide reckoned the increases were needed to correct deflation in the ratings of most players.
Part of the plan involved removing ratings from every player rated U1400, and this will definitely go ahead on March 1.
The argument from statisticians is that increasing the rating floor, ie the minimum required to join the rating list, is anti-deflationary.
So far so unclear, and it is still not clear whether the main 'correction', ie increasing U2000 players' ratings, will go ahead on March 1.
For the moment the new year is the same as the old year, at least as far as Fide ratings are concerned.
Joe Skielnik points out another rather interesting measure that Fide has approved, and that will presumably also come into effect on March 1.
The Spanish chess federation has proposed scrapping its rating list, and instead only using Fide ratings.
Fide will obviously gain more fees from this, and has in return agreed to recognise all current Spanish ratings as though they were Fide ratings (when the players concerned do not already have a Fide rating).
Could this be the future for ratings in the British Isles?
Spain currently has 16107 active standard FIDE rated players as against only 1942 for ENG. Presumably because most of their tournaments are already FIDE rated. For England to catch up they would have to scrap bronze and silver membership.
ReplyDeleteOne reason for the disparity in numbers may be that the Spanish tend to stay up much later than the British, giving more time to fit in evening games with slow-enough time controls to qualify for being Fide rated.
ReplyDeleteI thought this too but actually 75+15 is OK for FIDE so long as you are not above 2400 when perhaps it just counts as rapidplay.
Deletehttps://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022022
But the London League has lots of players rated over 2400, and I am sure many leagues have one or two such players.
DeleteThere are almost 13,000 ECF members who are either bronze or silver but less than 4000 who are gold.
DeleteEngland (and Britain) has much less Fide-rated chess than countries like Spain and Germany, so I guess many players think gold membership is unnecessary.
DeleteOne odd disparity pointed out by Paul S some time ago. It seems a bronze or silver member can play in a FIDE tournament outside England without any problem but they would have to pay extra or upgrade to Gold to play in a FIDE tournament in England??
ReplyDeleteEngland is possibly unusual in having such a tiered membership system, but all the Spanish federation, for example, is interested in is whether players in Spanish tournaments have a Fide ID.
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