Fide

What have I to do in order to get official FIDE rating ? Is being in a chess club a must ? Or I somehow register and then I am free to go on the tournaments. Just researching FIDE official page but I suppose answer may come here on my beloved site 🙂

play 9 games in ELO rated tournaments against ELO rated opponents and earn more than 1 point...

Enter a FIDE tournament - you get a 2200 provo rating.
I think you have to play at least 8 games in a FIDE tournament
before you lose the provo rating.

You then end up on this world ranking list - my 2065 makes me 32,167
in the world (or something like that -I've not checked it for about a year).

Edit - so it's 9 and not 8 - OK.

It is 9 - 8 in Chess Scotland for a Scottish grade.
The 2200 provo grade appears to be nonsense - I was told this
by a guy who should have known better.

Thanks for helping. So obviously I heard some false informations. What you are saying means that I can just subscribe to FIDE tournament as a hobby player without club history or membership and after bunch of games I get my official rating ? But shouldn't I pay FIDE membership or something ?

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Enter a FIDE tournament - you get a 2200 provo rating.
I think you have to play at least 8 games in a FIDE tournament
before you lose the provo rating.

You then end up on this world ranking list - my 2065 makes me 32,167
in the world (or something like that -I've not checked it for about a year).

Edit - so it's 9 and not 8 - OK.

And I suspect a little something about FIDE dues might be a part of the equation? 😉

1. you pay nothing
2. there is no 220 provo rating...they just calculate your performance...as in FIDE elo performance calculator

when I look conditions of participating in various open tournaments in Croatia it's written that right of participating have all REGISTERED players. So that means that I have to already be member of some chess organization in order to subscribe ? (Croatian chess federation or FIDE)

Originally posted by ivan2908
when I look conditions of participating in various open tournaments in Croatia it's written that right of participating have all REGISTERED players. So that means that I have to already be member of some chess organization in order to subscribe ? (Croatian chess federation or FIDE)

Yes, you'd have to be a member of your national federation. Here's the link for more info: http://www.crochess.com/

Originally posted by ivan2908
when I look conditions of participating in various open tournaments in Croatia it's written that right of participating have all REGISTERED players. So that means that I have to already be member of some chess organization in order to subscribe ? (Croatian chess federation or FIDE)

maybe...why not call them and ask them ? maybe they can register you on the spot...

There are quite a few quirks.

You need to have a minimum number of rated games before your rating can be published (I believe it is 11 total). These can be spread across multiple events.

You must score at least one point (1.0) vs. all of your FIDE-rated opponents in a given tournament for any of those games to count. If you don't, they are all ignored.

Games must be FIDE-ratable. This is a stricter set of conditions than some tournaments provide. For one example, many of the "busyman special" faster time controls in early rounds mean that those games are not ratable.

The initial rating calculations are also strange. If you score 50% against your FIDE opponents, you'll receive credit for their average rating. If you score less than 50% (but at least 1.0), your initial rating credit is substantially smaller than the 50% average rating. If you score *more* than 50% however, you receive only a tiny bonus over the average rating. This is counter-intuitive.

Also as I recall, the initial rating isn't a straight average of the results of all of your rated games. It's a weighted average of each tournament. This produces some unusual effects:

Player A:

Tourney 1: 3.0 / 6.0 vs. 2100 avg
Tourney 2: 3.0 / 6.0 vs. 2100 avg

Player B:

Tourney 1: 2.5 / 6.0 vs. 2100 avg
Tourney 2: 3.5 / 6.0 vs. 2100 avg

Player A will have a higher initial rating than Player B.


I'm well aware that some of the terminology I'm using isn't perfect. I'm not trying to write a treatise here, just some basic pointers.

And how often is the FIDE rating published? Four times a year?

Originally posted by DawgHaus
There are quite a few quirks.

You need to have a minimum number of rated games before your rating can be published (I believe it is 11 total). These can be spread across multiple events.

You must score at least one point (1.0) vs. all of your FIDE-rated opponents in a given tournament for any of those games to count. If you don't, they are all ignor ...[text shortened]... ing isn't perfect. I'm not trying to write a treatise here, just some basic pointers.

Wow that was extensive and helpful, thanks.

My pleasure, ivan.

Further points:

There can be large gaps in between your qualifying events. They're all recorded, but you won't get a rating until the 11 games are complete.

The K-factor for subsequent games (after the 11) starts out high (25 I think) and drops over time. So expect your rating to be quite variable at the beginning.

It generally takes a long time (many months) between the completion of an event and the publication of the resulting rating.

The lower-level titles (CM, FM, some W-titles) are generally achievable by published rating alone (FM is 2300, I don't recall the others). This is a recent change. If you have your heart set on a title and your rating goes above the threshold, you may want to stop playing for some time until the rating gets published.

The requirements for IM and GM are considerably stricter. You need to achieve Norms (performance targets of 2500 and 2600, respectively) in qualifying tournaments. You must face 50% titled players, including a minimum number of IMs and/or GMs, and you must face at least 3 players from outside your home federation. You also can run into trouble if you face any unrated players. Hopefully you'll have to worry about these things before too long. 😀

Playing in the OPEN section of your country's national open tournament (standard time controls) is generally the best way to get exposure to FIDE rated players since there is usually no shortage of these players in the OPEN section. Also, there are generally alot of rounds, usually 9 or even more.

Many large regional and city tournaments are also FIDE rated (OPEN section). The only thing here is that there is seldom enough rounds to get the 11 or whatever FIDE rated games, so you have to play a few of these tourney's.

In some cases, if you let the tournament director know before hand that you are trying to get a FIDE rating norm, they may even help accomodate your request by pairing you against FIDE rated opposition assuming that it does not end up violating any preceding pairing requirement.

Of course, you still need to score at least 1.0 against these FIDE rated players.

Lastly, I think if your national chess federation is a member of the FIDE then they would pay all fees for you getting a rating. Obviously this means you must register with your national chess federation and pay its membership fee.

Originally posted by jnguyen
Lastly, I think if your national chess federation is a member of the FIDE then they would pay all fees for you getting a rating. Obviously this means you must register with your national chess federation and pay its membership fee.

That reminds me - there is a hefty fee to receive a title (50 Euros I believe). In the US, this is paid by the player. Not sure if federations pay this in other countries.