Deemed rating for a player with no recent ratings

1. What is now the best estimate of their rating, considering the fact that there may have been a drift in ratings overall since they last played?
2. How will a poor estimate of current rating affect the ratings of their opponents?
3. When there are issues of contention for events with qualification criteria based on ratings, what is the fairest way to treat these players, and their rivals in contention?
4. Before a tournament, how can a tournament organiser be advised of this person's rating in order to place them appropriately within a section, determine initial pairings, and produce appropriate interim ratings straight after the event?

As of February 10, 2006, subject to approval by CASPA. the following procedure will be used to deal with items (1), (2) and (3):

When a player presents for a rated tournament having an old rating (i.e one longer than two years previously) they will be assigned a rating in the following manner.

Determine what ranking they had after the last tournament they played ( e.g. 34th in Australia) and then assign them a current rating equal to the person placed at that ranking position in current Australian ratings (e.g. the person currently ranked 34th has a rating of 1596).

Information about other things such as recent playing history, future intentions to play in Australia, familiarity with lexica will not normally be taken into account, since it is difficult to assess or quantify such effects. However the Ratings Advisory Committee will monitor all cases where the rerating is being applied and will suggest a different rating if there is compelling prior evidence that the rank-based rerating may be significantly wrong.

Players whose rating has been considered in this manner will not be reconsidered after the tournament has run, unless there is compelling evidence to do so.

Example 1: Luise Shafritz returned to Australia to play in the February 2006 Camberwell tournament. She last played in the Victorian Championships, 1997, achieving a rating of 1793 after 81 games, being ranked 34th within Australia. However in February 2006, a rating of 1793 would place her 5th in Australia, and would not be appropriate. The person ranked 34th in Australia in February 2006 has a rating of 1603. So Luise Shafritz is put back into the rating file with a rating of 1603.

Example 2: Ron Baginski last played in the Queensland Championships in 2002, achieving a rating of 1716, placing him at a rank of 43rd within Australia. If Ron were to present for a tournament in Australia in February 2006, he would be assigned a rating of 1563, equal to the person who is placed 43rd in February 2006.

In the longer term, the Ratings Advisory Committee anticipates an automated system which computes the rank-adjusted rating automatically so that it is always available on the ASPA Web site. A tournament organiser who sees an unknown player in their list of entrants can quickly check on the Web. However as always, the tournament organiser should contact the National Ratings Officer before the event.

The Ratings Advisory Committee will make available on the CASPA web site an audit trail of players who have been reintroduced with a rank-based rerating.

The Ratings Advisory Committee will continue investigating other related issues such as incorporating information about overseas ratings history, e.g. marked improvement in the interim.

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