RATING OF INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENTS:
If USCF begins once again rating foreign FIDE-rated tournaments for USCF members you will find it posted on our website at www.uschess.org.

Crosstables Online: The membership services area located at http://msa.USChess.org allows you to look up a tournament, a USCF member, or a USCF affiliate. The information on the membership services area is updated multiple times throughout the day.  You will see your tournament cross tables from 1991 to the present.  You can also get the latest information on USCF membership renewals.

Organizers and directors of FIDE rated tournaments should be aware of the new FIDE regulations posted at http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp.  These new regulations will be of particular interest to anyone organizing a tournament in which norms are possible.

Rating Supplement Downloads: USCF rating supplements are available as a free download from the members only area of the USCF website (www.uschess.org.) Any member or affiliate can download the rating supplement by visiting the members only area and following the posted instructions.

Dual Rating Events with Time Controls of G/30 to G/60: The USCF is improving the accuracy of quick ratings by increasing the number of games that are rated under the quick rating system.  Any tournament with a time control between G/30 and G/60 inclusive will be rated under both the regular rating system and the quick rating system.  Tournaments with time controls of G/5 to G/29 will continue to be rated using only the quick rating system.  Tournaments with time controls of G/61 or slower will continue to be rated using only the regular rating system.  If no time control is indicated on the rating report, the tournament will be rated using only the rating system indicated on the rating report.

Expiration Dates: Please note that on the Regular and Quick rating lists we are now putting XX in the expiration date field for anyone who is not a valid member. If there is an XX in the expiration date it means that no membership money was received for that person.  We created the x-member record in order to rate a tournament in which the person participated.

Individual Rating Site:
On December 15, 2004 the Individual Ratings portion of the US Chess Federation website was discontinued.  The Member Services Area (MSA) is the area that you should access for all member information.

TLA Advertising Rates:
Chess Life
Lines 1-6:      $2.00 per line for one insertion (one issue), subsequent insertions half price.
Lines 7-24:    $3.00 per line for one insertion (one issue), subsequent insertions half price.
Lines 25 and above:  $4.00 per line for one insertion (one issue), subsequent insertions half price.

NOTE:  Chess Life TLA Deadlines

If you do not indicate how many TLA insertions you wish, you will be billed for the maximum possible number of insertions.  For example, a May 1 event submitted January 10 will obtain two insertions.

If you obtain the number of insertions desired, and there is time for more insertions than you request, you will obtain only the latest insertion(s). For example, a May 1 event submitted January 10 and requesting one insertion will appear in the May issue coming out in late April, but not in the April issue coming out in late March.

Rating fees:
Minimum rating fee for any event submitted on paper: $8.00
Minimum rating fee for any event submitted on disk: $5.00
Minimum rating fee for any event submitted online: $3.00
Rating reports submitted on paper: $0.40 per game
Rating reports submitted on disk:  $0.20 per game
Rating reports submitted online:  $0.18 per game

FIDE rating fees:
In order to cover some of the USCF office expense devoted to FIDE reports, effective with tournaments ending June 30, 2004 or later, there will be a fee for processing reports of FIDE-rated tournaments and submitting them to FIDE to be rated.  The fee is $35 per event, if only one section is to be FIDE-rated.  If more than one section is FIDE-rated, the fee is $35 per section.  The rating report must be postmarked by 10 days after the conclusion of the event, or there is an additional late charge of $70.

Rating fees and PHBF fees and FIDE rating fees are to be remitted together with the rating report.

Requirements for submission of Match play:
Both players must have established ratings, and their differential has to be less than 400 points (the latest published rating prior to the match will be used for calculating the rating difference).

Each match report must be submitted with the appropriate rating fee.

Reports need to be validated by a certified tournament director or by a notarized statement signed by both players.

The maximum rating change allowed from a match is 50 points.  No player’s rating may go up or down more than one rating class within a three-year period solely through match play.  Match results will not be taken into account for invitational events unless they are subsequently confirmed in tournament play.

Rating Floors
Rating floors exist at 100, 1400, 1500, 1600,…, 2100. No player’s rating can drop below 100. A player’s rating floor is calculated by subtracting 200 points from the highest attained established rating, and then using the floor just below.  For example, if a player’s highest rating was 1941, then subtracting 200 yields 1741, and the floor just below is 1700.  Thus the player’s rating cannot go below 1700.  If a player’s highest rating was 1588, then subtracting 200 yields 1388, and the next lowest floor is 100, which is this player’s floor.

Under current USCF policy, a person’s rating floor can also change if the individual wins a large section or class prize.  For example, if a player wins an Under 2000 prize of at least $1,000, the individual floor is 2000.  Such floors cannot raise ratings to above 2000.  The maximum such floor is 2000.

Tournament Directors Update Lists: A complete list of our tournament directors appeared in the December 2004 Annual Rating List.  The following is a list (updated March 21, 2005) of the new, renewed and upgraded TD’s, Local or above, since the February 2005 Supplement.

RECURRING ITEMS

Share the Rating Supplement: The Bits & Pieces and TD Corner columns have much important information for both TDs and players. Make a copy of the columns and make them available at your club. When you get a new director at your club, encourage him or her to review the back issues, especially the TD Corner.

USCF Membership Requirements: USCF membership is required to play in USCF rated events. It is not permitted to include both members and non-members in a section and only report the results of games between members. It is permissible to have a non-rated section for non-members. Participants in the Junior Tournament Player program are an exception to the membership requirement and are allowed to participate in rated play in tournaments run at their school which are limited to only players from that school. See the JTP form for complete information as there is an exception for JTP participants in grades K - 3.

Foreign GMs, WGMs, IMs, and WIMs (those living outside the US and whose FIDE federation is not USA) are an exception to the membership requirement. These players are allowed to participate in USCF events without becoming a USCF member. If you have a player in this category play in your event, please collect and send the office their birthdate and mailing address information. This is important so we can identify them when they play in subsequent events. Include a note stapled to the front of the report for first time players with FIDE or foreign ratings so we can properly start their rating. It is very important to let these players know that they are not eligible to win Grand Prix points if they do not purchase a membership.

Late Submission Of Memberships And Rating Reports:  It is very important to our members that new and renewing memberships be submitted promptly. Please make every effort to send them to the office within 1-2 days of being received.  If you are running a tournament that will last for 2 or more weeks, don’t hold the memberships until the rating report is ready for submission.

Labels for Chess Life are normally created in the first week of every month. If a new or lapsed renewal is received after the date the labels are created, they will not receive their magazine until a supplemental mailing is done approximately 6 weeks later. For someone whose membership ends in March, if we don’t receive a renewal by about March 1st, there is a very strong possibility that they will not receive the April issue of Chess Life until 6 – 8 weeks after the membership is received.

Phone numbers of Special Referees (Last Updated May 15, 2004):

A special referee is a director with substantial experience who is available to provide advice or make a ruling by phone.  See rule  21J. "The Special Referee" (pages 70 - 71) in the 4th Edition of the U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess.  If you are interested in volunteering, contact the Rules Committee, c/o the USCF Office.

Looking up players ratings and ID numbers:  Each rating supplement, both paper and disk,  covers a different period of time. The December annual supplement will have the ID numbers and ratings for a player who participated in an event rated anytime during the entire previous year. The June semi-annual list will cover the preceding six months. The February, April, August, and October lists only cover a two- month period. If you are just starting an affiliate this month, you should request the December 2003 issue so you cover anyone who has played in the past 24 months.

SUBMITTING TOURNAMENT REPORTS

Please make sure your disk information and the paper backup are in the same order: It is very difficult to match up player information when one copy is in pairing order and the other is in scoring order.

Rating reports on disk: Please note that the USCF office will not rate tournaments reported on disk unless the following criteria are satisfied.

The disk must be accompanied by a printout of the complete tournament wallchart, which lists all the players in their original pairing order, along with all the results for all the players for every section of the tournament.  We cannot accept printouts which list the players in the post-tournament standings order, because they are incompatible with the rating report files on the disk. The correct USCF ID number must also be listed for each player.

The disk must contain the three rating report files created by your pairing software: TDEXPORT.DBF, THEXPORT.DBF, and TSEXPORT.DBF.  Our computer does not accept any other files (e.g.,”.DAT,.TXT,.XLS,” or any other file types).  Before sending the USCF your rating report, please check your disk to make sure it is in good working order, and that these three files are present.

Please avoid the defects listed above, or your report will be returned to you for re-submission.

Mailing Rating Reports on Disk:  Due to the methods the Post Office is using to process the mail, we are receiving a number of disks which have been radiated. Before you put your rating reports in the mail, if you could please write on the outside envelope that there is a disk enclosed, maybe this will help avoid this problem.

General Comment: Please include both your name and ID number with your report. NOTE: USCF-rated tournaments must be sponsored by a current member affiliate and directed by a TD whose certificate is current.

Also, when submitting your tournament on disk, please enter "USA", not "US" or "United States", in the "country" field for events played in the United States.  This does not affect processing. However, when producing the Rated Events list, the computer will list the events that do not contain "USA" in the "country" field under "ArmyPO, FleetPO, FOREIGN."  The list then has to be manually corrected.  Also remember to include the cover page from the OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT REPORT FORM. It is required even when submitting a rating report on disk. Please request and use the most recent form.

Stapled Checks: Many organizers submit memberships with a check stapled to each membership form. This is not necessary and does not help our staff. It takes us additional time to unstaple the checks before we can process the memberships. Please just enclose the loose membership forms and checks in an envelope. Please group the checks together, not interspersed in the membership forms.

Birthdates Needed: Please include the birthdates of ALL members when sending in New or Renewal memberships. This information is needed to insure that all qualified members receive their ballots. It also helps us to identify correct ID numbers. Please do not guess birthdates and be careful that you don't make an error. When we are looking up ID numbers to see if a player had a previous ID, if the birthdates are different, we normally do not consider them the same person. If you only know the month and year, leave the day blank if you are unable to get that information from the player.

FIDE-rated Events: When submitting FIDE-rated tournament reports, include a list of participants who played games with an accelerated time control (example, games with time controls of G/75).  These games are not FIDE-ratable; thus the office has to remove the results from the crosstable prior to submitting the rating report to FIDE. The best way to list the non- ratable games is to include a statement such as, "Rounds 1-2 for players # 1,3,4,6,9 were played at G75."

Please include an extra copy of the crosstable with your report. Title the extra copy FIDE information, Attn:Technical Specialist.  Indicate on the extra copy which players have FIDE ratings. FIDE ID numbers and ratings are not necessary but do help.

All FIDE-rated USCF events must be FIDE-registered one month prior to the start of an event. Contact the Technical Specialist for details.

Blank norm certificates are now available on the USCF website.  If you are running an international tournament, please fill out a norm certificate for any player or TD who satisfies the criteria for a GM, IM or IA norm.  The original certificate should be sent to the USCF office at the address listed below and copies should be given to the person who earns the norm.

U.S. Chess
ATTN: Walter Brown, Technical Specialist
P.O. Box 3967
Crossville, TN3855

Please send a copy to USCF President, Beatriz Marinello (beatchess@aol.com).
For information about the rules for earning a norm, please visit the FIDE website or contact Walter Brown at the USCF office.

In order to cover some of the USCF office expense devoted to FIDE reports, effective with tournaments ending June 30, 2004 or later, there will be a fee for processing reports of FIDE-rated tournaments and submitting them to FIDE to be rated.  The fee is$35 per event, if only one section is to be FIDE-rated.  If more than one section is FIDE-rated, the fee is $35 per section.  The rating report must be postmarked by 10 days after the conclusion of the event, or there is an additional late charge of $70.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

THE ON-LINE TD

FIDE Rules: There are a very interesting set of articles titled An Arbiter's Notebook by Geurt Gijssen. Mr. Gijssen is the chairman of the FIDE rules commission. The site also has many of the previous articles archived.  These articles give the TD insight into the rules issues being faced by other federations as well as useful background information that may help to build your knowledge base as a TD.

FIDE Web-site: FIDE now provides the quarterly rating lists as a free download. They have recently changed their URL and the new address is www.fide.com.

For the TD:  Setting a Digital Clock – Check out http://members.cox.net/arlingtonchessclub/clocks/clocks.htm for a very valuable and interesting web page.  Carol Jarecki's article describing the digital clock functions is on the site.  Thanks also go to Mike Atkins for creating the web page.

Using  ratings from the USCF ratings web-page:  Using OTB ratings on the website for pairing and prize purposes is a permitted variation from the standard rule of using the current rating supplement. This is an important change and should be published in all advance publicity. If a player does not have a published rating, you can use the website rating as this is permitted by rule 28C. Remember to post this procedure so players are aware of what you are doing.