Decisions at Fide's rating conferences directly impact professional income. Titles, invites and appearance fees are based on ratings. One concern is inflation In the first 1971 list, Bobby Fischer was the only player rated above 2700. By 2000, there were 11 players above 2700 and now, there are 37.
Ratings change as players beat each other but the rises exceed falls. So ratings rise on average. (Skip the next paras if you know how ratings work or find maths boring). A difference of 100 rating points means an expected score of 64 per cent by the stronger player; 200-point difference = 75 per cent expected, 300 difference= 85 per cent and 400 = 92 per cent.
An assigned multiplier called “K-factor” converts differences between result and expectation into points. K is set at 25 for players (regardless of rating) who have not yet played 30 rated games. It is 15 for players rated below 2400, who have played 30 games. It is 10 for players rated above 2400, who have played 30 rated games.
Say a 2400-player with less than 30 games (expected score 0.36; K=25) beats an experienced 2500 player (Expected score 0.64; K=10). The new ratings are 2416 (25 *0.64=16) and 2493.6 (10*-0.64= -6.4). An extra 9.6 points has entered the combined rating pool.
GM Bartlomiej Macieja pointed out something interesting at the latest conference. Ratings are very stable over time. In 2000, there were 34,000 rated players versus 112,000 now. The normalised frequency distributions are stable. Across 1997-2010, about 43-44 per cent of rated players lie between 2200-2300 and less than 1 per cent are above 2600.
The conference decided not to make any radical changes. So off-board action at the upcoming Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk will centre on elections. That will be murky with sitting president Kirsan and his challenger Karpov both claiming the support of some of the same federations.
There’s local support for the 12th World Champion. The Khanty-Mansi region of Russia sponsors an annual tournament, supported by Karpov, at the oil-mining town of Poikovsky. In the current 12 player round-robin, Jakovenko leads with 5.5 from 8 games (+4,-1,=3) followed by Karjakin (5).
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Riazantsev Vs Karjakin, Poikovsky-Kaprov 2010) is a crazy king-walk. White chose 35. Rc7+!? Kb4! 36. bxc3+ Kb3 and now 37. Qg6!! Nxc7 38. Qb1+ or 37. Rxe6! Qxe6 38. Qf1 seem to win.
Instead 37. c4!? Qd6 38. Rb7 d3 39.a5 Qd4+ 40.Kf1 Qe4 41.Kg1 Kc2 42.Rxb6 Kxd2! It’s difficult to believe but black is now winning — white must have missed something between 37-42. The game ended 43.Rbxe6 Rxe6 44.Qxe6 Kc2 45.c5 Qd5 46.Qg4 Qd4+ 47.Rf2+ d2 48.Qf3 e4 49.Qf7 Kc3 (0-1) Black will soon queen.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player
