HOW TO GET INTERNATIONAL FIDE RATING

FIDE is the acronym for The International chess federation headquartered in Lausanne which is the governing body of the sports of Chess and regulates all international chess competitions.

FIDE chess rating is a system used in Chess to estimate the strength of a player based on his/her performance compared to other players. The minimum rating that gets published for any player is 1000 which can be tracked through ratings.fide.com. As the player gets stronger his FIDE rating goes higher. The current world champion Magnus Carlsen has the FIDE rating of 2856 in classical format. Once a player gets FIDE rating, he will be placed in a typical position among all the chess players in the world and recognized as an international rated player.

Many parents of young chess players who begin their journey in Chess always have a query on what FIDE rating is and how to get the international FIDE rating. In fact, I have been approached by many parents separately whom I tried to explain the complete system. I am writing this article to help all the parents who may have a similar question.

Here are the simple steps to follow in case you are looking to get an International FIDE rating for you or your child.

• You must be registered with fide.com and should have FIDE ID. (www.fide.com)
• Once you get FIDE ID, a player needs to participate FIDE rated tournaments in any format (classical, rapid or blitz) to get the rating in the respective format.
• The FIDE Rating system is a numerical system in which fractional scores are converted to rating differences and vice versa. Its function is to produce measurement information of the best statistical quality.

Determining the initial rating ‘Ru’ of a player.

• If an unrated player scores zero in their first event this score is disregarded. Otherwise, their rating is calculated using all their results as below.
• Ra is the average rating of the player’s rated opponents.
• If the player scores 50%, then Ru = Ra.
• If they score more than 50%, then Ru = Ra + 20 for each half point scored over 50%.
• If they score less than 50%, then Ru = Ra + dp

        dp is the rating difference between two players

• Ru is rounded to the nearest whole number.
• If an unrated player receives a published rating before a particular tournament in which they have played is rated, then they are rated as a rated player with their current rating, but in the rating of their opponents, they are counted as an unrated player.

Determining the rating change for a rated player

• For each game played against a rated player, determine the difference in rating between the player and their opponent, D.
• A difference in rating of more than 400 points shall be counted for rating purposes as though it were a difference of 400 points.  In any tournament, a player may benefit from only one upgrade under this rule, for the game in which the rating difference is greatest.
• Use table 8.1.2 to determine the player’s score probability PD for each game.
• Delta R = score – PD.  For each game, the score is 1, 0.5 or 0.
• Sigma Delta R = the sum of Delta Rs for a tournament or Rating Period.
• Sigma Delta R x K = the Rating Change for a tournament or Rating Period.
  • K is the development coefficient.
  • K = 40 for a player new to the rating list until they have completed events with at least 30 games.
  • K = 20 as long as a player’s rating remains under 2400.
  • K = 10 once a player’s published rating has reached 2400 and remains at that level subsequently, even if the rating drops below 2400.
  • K = 40 for all players until the end of the year of their 18th birthday, as long as their rating remains under 2300.
• If the number of games (n) for a player on any list for a rating period multiplied by K (as defined above) exceeds 700, then K shall be the largest whole number such that K x n does not exceed 700.
• The Rating Change for a Rating Period is rounded to the nearest whole number. 0.5 is rounded away from zero.

Hope this article helps you to know what FIDE rating system is and how an aspiring chess player can work towards getting his international rating and thereon work on increasing it systematically to reach the top.   

source: FIDE handbook