Parents: Understanding Chess Ratings
September 6, 2010
Tags: Learning Chess Articles, Teaching Chess Articles
This is the third posting in a series of 4 articles comprising A Parent’s Guide to Tournament Chess:
1. Preparing for a Chess Tournament
2. During a Chess Tournament
3. Understanding Chess Ratings
4. The Swiss System for Chess Tournaments
Written by Robert N. Bernard for Wholesale Chess
Inevitably, your child will be asked “What’s your rating?” and the child will then ask you about ratings. Chess ratings are a statistical measure of a player’s approximate skill level, and in the USA, chess ratings range from a low of 100 to 2800 or more. (Note that it is improper to use the term “chess ranking” when you mean a chess rating instead. When you rank something, a low number (i.e. 1) indicates that it is the best. Higher numbers are better in a rating scale.) A player receives a rating if they play in a rated tournament.
For the first 25 games or so, ratings are determined by averaging each opponent’s rating plus 400 if you beat that opponent, each opponent’s rating if you drew that opponent, and each opponent’s rating minus 400 if you lost to that opponent. For example, in your first tournament you beat opponents of ratings 800 and 900, draw an opponent rated 600, and lose to an opponent rated 700; your first rating would be (800+400) plus (900+400) plus (600+-0), plus (700-400), or 1200+1300+600+300 all divided by 4, which is 850.
There are some complications if your opponent’s ratings are very low, or if you win or lose all your games, but this is a rough estimate. Once your rating becomes established (i.e., you have played more than 25 games), the general guideline is that you will gain many rating points if you beat someone higher rated than you, lose many rating points if you lose to someone lower rated than you, gain only a few rating points if you beat someone lower rated than you, and lose only a few rating points if you lose to someone higher rated than you. If you are curious about the math behind all of this, the United States Chess Federation’s rating system is explained here.
Finally, after the tournament is over, be prepared for some sort of catharsis in the car, no matter the age of the child. Your child may talk excitedly for the next hour and not be able to sleep at night. Your child may weep inconsolably because every game was a loss. Both outpourings of emotion are healthy, and indicate that the tournament really meant something to the child. After the emotions are drained out of the child, joy or despair, keep your ears open, as you may very well hear “When’s the next chess tournament?”
Robert N. Bernard is the manager of the New Jersey Knockouts of the United States Chess League, where he started three years ago as the Knockouts’ blogger. For the USCL, he also compiles an unofficial rating list and weekly power rankings. Frequently, he can be found on the Internet Chess Club, where he has a weird tendency to win a lot of their trivia contests. He is also a member of the United State Chess Federation’s Ratings Committee and coaches his son’s chess team. He has a very nice plaque from the 1982 US Amateur Team Championship, where he captained the team that won the Under 1400 prize.
