Rating online games

[Bob Gillanders]

A member has enquired about having online games CFC rated, specifically matches.

I don't see how our handbook specifically deals with this question. I think it has the potential to harm the integrity of the system, so I have tentatively said NO. However, if we develop some guidelines and maintain discretionary power to deny questionable matches, why not ?

I would bet this question has been asked before. Would anyone like to enlighten us all as to previous discussions or decisions taken on this matter.

[Kerry Liles]

A member has enquired about having online games CFC rated, specifically matches.

I don't see how our handbook specifically deals with this question. I think it has the potential to harm the integrity of the system, so I have tentatively said NO. However, if we develop some guidelines and maintain discretionary power to deny questionable matches, why not ?

I would bet this question has been asked before. Would anyone like to enlighten us all as to previous discussions or decisions taken on this matter.

I don't know whether the fact that the games are online would increase the potential for faked results - any more than was always possible with fabricated matches or round robins with a small number of players... perhaps.

I personally think that there is a good reason that regular games are rated separately from active - they are apples and oranges... online games would introduce another significant difference from regular tournament games. I hate to put too much emphasis on "tradition" but there already are lots of online servers/systems that calculate ratings etc that ought to be the right place for such games. [this is just my opinion of course]

I like your current answer ("NO"). The handbook doesn't deal with all possible variants, so I think the CFC would have to adopt a measure to explicitly include any variants that are acceptable (not many in my view).

[Pierre Dénommée]

You do not want to rate that because it would be too easy for sandbaggers to lower their ratings prior to a big competition.

[Christopher Mallon]

You could probably make a good case for matches.. after all if the two people are cheating in some way or at least being unethical (sandbagging, selling rating points, etc) it doesn't matter if they are "playing" online or in someone's house with no witnesses either way... As for whether or not one of them might cheat by consulting books etc, well that's up to the players whether or not they want to trust the other person.

On the other hand, if they came to a "gentleman's" agreement that books are allowed, now it's more like correspondence chess and it shouldn't be affecting OTB ratings...

So yeah, points either way.

[Garland Best]

Actually, I was interested myself in attempting a club team tournament where we ran the event in each club's site, transferring the moves on-line, with a TD on either end to ensure all was legal. Is this doable/ratable?

[Bob Gillanders]

Excellent idea, Garland. You are essentially creating tournament conditions between 2 locations. I think we could rate such a match.

I believe we have rated something similiar in the past. I was hoping someone would recall that tournament and tell us what was the post mortem conclusion on rating.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

"Online" games never (1-5 y.) match the OTB, due to hanging flags, seeing the opponent, etc. Thus, it would be better not to mix with the standard rating.

Bob, may you tell, how much efforts are needed to make an additional rating system for "online" games? For me, it's just an additional database :rolleyes:

[Erik Malmsten]

Actually, I was interested myself in attempting a club team tournament where we ran the event in each club's site, transferring the moves on-line, with a TD on either end to ensure all was legal. Is this doable/ratable?

Some of the first inter-city matches were by telegraph.

I would love to see national competitions with matches between teams repesenting clubs/schools/cities. As long as each location has a TD. As well as the social benefits, the interaction between ratings would help the accuracry of the rating system.

Instead of having 50 players fly into one place for a national championship, could have tournaments/knockout matches online, again with a TD present. Time zone differences may not be to everyone's liking.

As play should be on real boards, some time loss will be from delivering the moves. There should be some kind of time increment to prevent lost by time in blitz finishes.

[Valer Eugen Demian]

... to overcome for official online play to become reality are traditional thinking and time zone differences.

Back in 2005 World Chess Network held a junior North American event with preliminary rounds played online; more details here:
http://www.64funsolutions.ca/news/2005/06/21/internet-scholastic-chess-championship
The final for the top 8 players was held live in Las Vegas.

This just proves that it is possible! ;)

[roger patterson]

Garland, you may want to refer to Governers' Letter #4 from 2003-2004 which discusses the topic although I don't know that the topic was ever acted upon. And seeing that you are probably at the Fieldhouse on Thursdays, you could also talk to Haldor - it was something he proposed.