ChessBanter - View Single Post

Mike Nolan

(Sam Sloan) writes:

Right now, the question is: The Executive Board has ordered Mike Nolan
to rate the forthcoming Olympiad. Since he already knows the names of
1300 players who will be playing there, why is not he hard at work
putting their names and birthdates into the USCF database? Why has the
Woman World Championship which has been over for a few days not been
rated yet?

Actually, they haven't ordered me to rate it, nor would they, as that's a
task that would be done by the staff in Tennessee. There may be some
areas in which I would be able to assist them, once we have the data.

Further, the last I knew the USCF had not yet decided on the composition
of its own teams, I doubt if even FIDE has the names of all the players
likely to be in Torino in May-June yet.

Since the EB policy was enacted, I think there have been only two events
that would qualify for rating under this policy, the World Team event last
October-November and now the Woman's World Championship. I do not know
if the USCF office has a full crosstable for either event yet.

My concern on this issue is two-fold:

1. At least one of the events (the World Youth) is not likely to be
ratable as if it was a USCF rated event because of insufficient
data. USCF Scholastic Director Jerry Nash has not been able to
get a full crosstable for last year's World Youth event, which ended
around 8 months ago. Without a crosstable, including full names and
other data on all the participants, we cannot rate it. If we don't
have birthdates on those players, and if most of them aren't FIDE rated
yet, what initial estimate should we use for the over 1000 players
who would be unrated as far as the USCF rating system is concerned?

2. As a Delegate and a member of the Finance Committee, I am concerned that
the USCF will spend a great deal of staff time rating these few events.
If we had a complete crosstable for the 2005 World Youth event, it
would probably take two staff members at least three weeks of work
to get it ready to rate. Combined with the other events, this means
that this policy could take something like a half year's worth (or more)
of USCF employee time to perform. Is this task worth devoting $10-15,000
worth of payroll and other expenses to?
--
Mike Nolan