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British Chess Federation

Grading List 2000/2001 - August 2000

What follows are the first six introductory pages from the BCF Grading List 2000-2001. The full grading list is available, price £12, from the BCF, The Watch Oak, Chain Lane, Battle, East Sussex TN33 0YD.

Copyright © 2000 British Chess Federation
This list may not be reproduced in whole or in part without express permission

About the 2000/2001 Grading List | Top 100 Players | Top Twenty Females | Top Twenty Seniors
Top Twenty Rapidplay | Top Twenty Juniors | Top Twenty Junior Rapidplay

Return to the Grading Index Page

Introduction

This is the latest grading list to be produced by the BCF. It provides a measure of a player's ability. This season sees the continuation of the 'Game Fee' scheme. Apart from junior tournaments, only games from registered 'Game Fee' events have been included in this year's Grading List. This was the first year that club games had to be registered. So if you wish your games to be graded in future make sure the Leagues and Congresses that you play are registered.

Roger Edwards Director of Grading

I would like to thank all the local Grading Officers who have contributed to the production of this and other lists through the year. Without their voluntary efforts, these, lists would not exist. Special thanks are due to the Union Grading Officers who have put in such an enormous amount of effort on our behalf and also Richard Furness for his assistance. Finally, I would like to thank the office at Battle, for their support during the year and their extra-special efforts in ensuring that this list appeared on time despite some serious last-minute hitches, not all of which have been resolved. The most obvious one is that we have only been able to print one club name for players with multiple clubs. Corrections will be an ongoing job.

This list was produced partly with the New National Grading System. The next publication of the National Grading List, scheduled for February 2001 will be produced for juniors with Rapidplay grades alongside the Standard Play grades.

The method of calculating grades has not changed in essence, but now some calculations are made by the central system with a complete record of a player's games with which to work.

The major problem is that the system does not eliminate is the identification of players. It would help enormously if organisers ask for dates-of-birth on entry forms and league registration forms to help update the existing data. These will be published with the list where given in future. Please let the BCF office know if you wish your DOB to be withheld, and we will withhold it. Dates of birth shown as 1/1/nn are only to show year of birth, not actual date. Dates shown as 1/1/50 are for those people who have asked for their dates to be withheld.

Roger Edwards
Director of Grading and Game Fee
July 2000

GENERAL NOTES

Coverage

Eligibility of Games for Grading Games can only be graded if they are played under acceptable conditions, with clocks. Rapidplay, Lightning and Correspondence games are excluded, although a separate grading list for Rapidplay is in operation. The conditions for eligibility are:

• The FIDE Laws of Chess are used.
• At least a thirty-move session is played at a speed no faster than an average of 2 minutes a move.
• When an accelerated finish is applied, it is played at a speed no faster than an average of 1 minute per move.
• When quickplay (allegro) finish is applied, at least 10 minutes extra are allowed to each player after a session of 40 moves or more and at least 15 minutes extra are allowed to each player after a session of 30 moves or more.
• Where each player has to complete all his moves in a fixed time, the fixed time is not less than 1¼ hours. This can be reduced for tournaments that consist solely of younger players.
• Where Fischer (cumulative) mode is used, at least 30 seconds is added for each move.

Errors, Queries and Comments

If a name is shown incorrectly, or the wrong clubs listed, a note of this would be welcomed, especially dates of birth for all juniors marked as '99' in the list as this affects their enhancement. Information on these, or queries of a specific nature, should be addressed to:

The BCF Grading Officer, BCF, The Watch Oak, Chain Lane, Battle, East Sussex TN33 OYD.

How you can help?

A major problem experienced by grading officers is in identifying players. Tournament organisers can help by ensuring that players' full initials are quoted, their clubs (not home address) given, their date of birth given and, where possible, show their grading code reference from the Grading List. It would help if players make sure tournament organisers have their correct name and club.

To ensure that more data gets on the system and makes the grades more accurate, players should ask organisers to ensure that the results are sent in for grading.

If moving to a different area, or playing in a different league, give the local grader your grading code reference number (6 numbers followed by a letter).

Players, who have common names, where confusion with others is likely, may prefer to use forenames rather than just initials. Club Secretaries can help by checking that their Club is shown against their members in the BCF Grading List. A list of events that have been included this year follows these notes.

Where the club name shown against a player is followed by an asterisk (*), it denotes a location rather than a club.

BCF Grades

A player's BCF grade is an indication of his/her strength. With each grade is a category, which indicates the extent to which games from earlier years have been incorporated into the grade. The categories are as follows:

1. BCF grade based on 30 games in 1999/2000
2. BCF grade based on 30 games in 1999/2000 and 1998/1999, of which at least 20 were played in the current year
3. BCF grade based on 30 games in 1999/2000. 1998/1999 and 1997/1998, of which at least 10 were played in the current year
4. BCF grade based on 15 or more games in 1999/2000, 1998/1999 and 1997/1998, of which at least 5 were in the current year
5. BCF grade based on 10 or more games in 1999/2000, 1998/1999 and 1997/1998, of which at least 1 was played in the current year

Junior Players

Junior players are indicated in the Grading List by an entry in the column headed 'Jnr'. A figure there indicates the junior's age on 1st September 2000. As the junior 'enhancement' is based on age, I would appreciate the correct information for juniors of unknown age.

How BCF Grades are calculated

Points are allocated in respect of each game recorded. For a win the points are the opponent's grade plus 50, for a draw the points are the opponent's grade and for a loss the points are the opponent's grade minus 50. The opponent's grade is taken from the appropriate current grading list subject to the proviso that if a difference in grade is greater than 40 it is assumed to be exactly 40. This is to prevent a player increasing his grade by losing to a much stronger, player, or decreasing his grade by beating a much weaker player. If the opponent is ungraded, his grade is estimated, using all available information. Finally, the grade is calculated by dividing the total number of points gained by the number of games played.

If there are less than 30 games in the current period, a proportion of earlier results are brought forward to make the total up to 30. For juniors under the age of 18, an enhancement is added to their grade to take into account their expected improvement over the year. This enhancement varies from four (for juniors of unknown age) to ten (for juniors under the age of 11) points depending on the age of the player and is included in the published grade. A full description of the BCF grading system may be obtained from the BCF office by sending a stamped addressed envelope to the Grading Administrator.

Top 100 Players

Top Twenty Females

Top Twenty Seniors

Top Twenty Rapidplay

Top Twenty Juniors

Top Twenty Junior Rapidplay

Return to the Grading Index Page