During the Michigan Junior, I was questioned about a couple of chess related items from several different parents that were obviously new to the chess scene. So, I thought it would be helpful to give a brief overview here in the magazine.

First, I will talk about ratings. The way a player gets a rating is to play in a USCF rated event. Most events are rated by the USCF within 1-2 months of the tournament, depending on when the tournament director sends the rating report to USCF. The player’s rating is then used for pairings (or seeding) in future tournaments. The USCF publishes rating supplements bi-monthly (they come out on the even months). These are the “official” ratings used for tournaments. The December supplement is a cumulative list of everyone that had a rated game within the last year.

The USCF also publishes rating on their website. You can go to www.uschess.org and click through the links to the Individual Ratings section or just enter http://www.64.com/uscf/ratings/. Here, you will see a place to enter the player’s name or USCF ID number. You can also enter a state or rating range to filter the selection further. The ratings are usually posted weekly, but if you see an “Unofficial” next to the rating that means that the rating has been updated since the last rating supplement. The USCF has also been working on posting tournament results on their website. This is currently scheduled to happen at the end of April, so it may already be in place by the time you read this.

A player must play four games to receive an official rating (byes and forfeit do not count). When a player has played between 4 and 25 games, the player is considered provisional, which means that rating is less reliable for determining the actual playing strength of the player. In the rating supplement or website, a provisional player’s rating will have a “/” with the number of games rated next to it. Once the player has 25 rated games, the “/” goes away and the player in now established.

For tournament purposes, the provisional rating of a player is not treated any differently than the rating of an established player. The main difference between provisional and established is the rating is the formula that is used to calculate ratings after a tournament result. A provisional player’s rating with fluctuate much more than someone who is established. A detailed explanation of the rating system and formulas can be found on the USCF website. The MCA also waits until players are established before they are eligible to be on the Top Rating Gain list.

This now brings us to the crosstable. Below is a portion of a crosstable similar to what you would see at a tournament. It is a little different than what you see in this magazine, because using the crosstable below is too big for the magazine.

A. This is the pairing number of the player. Players are listed in rating order with unrated players listed randomly at the end. Note that the crosstables in the magazine are listed in score order after the results of the tournament are known.

B. This the USCF ID number of the player. Always make sure that this is correct. The USCF uses this number when the tournament is rated. If the number is wrong, someone else may get rated as if they are the player. Believe me; this happens more often than you think.

C. This is the player’s name. Pretty obvious.

D. The color that the player for the round. This is important so players can make sure they are getting proper color allocation during the tournament. The colors should even out over the course of the tournament and a player cannot more than two games in a row of the same color.

E. This is the rating of the player. This comes from the latest rating supplement or the last supplement that a player shows up in.

F. The player’s grouping. In this case, this shows the grade that the player is in, because there are grade prizes. In adult tournament, this is usually based on the player’s rating for class prizes.

G. This is the opponent for the round. In this case, you could go down to player number 37 to get their name and rating.

H. The cumulative score of the player. The player gets one point for a win, half for a draw, and zero for a loss. Add this to the score from the previous round. Subtract the previous round score from this round score to see the player’s result for this round.