"How To Get A FIDE Rating"?

GiLoCatur was asked How To Get A FIDE Rating several days ago by a local college chess player. GiLoCatur believes there are still many chess players as well as parents especially among the Malaysian chess fraternity do not know how to get a FIDE rating. 

First, what is a FIDE rating?

FIDE rating is a rating given to a chess player by FIDE, the World Chess Organization. 

How to get the rating?

First, you have to take part in a FIDE-rated chess tournament. In other words, you have to play in a chess tournament recognized (ie registered with) by FIDE like the recently concluded 19th GACC.

Is it sure that I will get a FIDE rating after taking part in a FIDE-rated chess tournament? 

Not yet buddy. You have to play against opponents who have ELO ratings. Playing against unrated opponent will not count. 

Is there any minimum number of FIDE-rated opponents that I have to play?

YES. You need to play against NINE (9) rated players. 

Hopefully, the above explanation will answer the above question.

If you want to find out further about FIDE rating or some call it Elo rating, please read this article.

Or you can read and try to understand about it from FIDE itself at this link.

If you still cannot understand after reading it from the official FIDE handbook, the explanation by chesselo.com is quite simple and easy.

Hey GiLoCatur, do you have an Elo/FIDE rating?

GiLoCatur has yet to have one. But GiLoCatur already has the FIDE ID. GiLoCatur gets the ID after taking part in the 35th Royal Selangor Internation Chess Open in 2008.

GiLoCatur's FIDE Chess Profile

Let's get the FIDE (Elo) rating!

Statistics On MAS Junior Chess Players FIDE Ratings

(Note: MAS = the code country for Malaysia in world chess)

As part of the Malaysian chess community, do you know how many our junior chess players have FIDE ratings?  Who are the top in respective age groups - U10, U12, U14, U16, U18 and U20? What have been done to increase the number? What is the progress of their ratings? Increase? Decrease? Where Malaysia stands among the ASEAN countries?

So many questions, eh? Let's check the first two questions first.

Under 10

Under 12

Under 14

Under 16

Under 18

Under 20

It is so unbelievable that Malaysia has less than ten players aged 19 and 20 years old who have FIDE ratings.

Two names seen missing from the list. They are Goh Xin Yen and Latifah Kaiyisah. The reason being is their birth years are missing in the FIDE ratings. Both of them should be in the U16 list.

So, the total number of FIDE-rated Malaysian chess juniors?

7 + 12 + 20 +19 + 14 + 7 =  79 + 2 = 81

How Malaysia is compared to other ASEAN countries? Check out below table.

Surprisingly, Malaysia has higher numbers of FIDE rated players for juniors compared to Indonesia (INA), Philippines (PHI) and Singapore (SIN). From GiLoCatur's observation, there are many missing birth years for both Indonesian and Filipino players. Vietnam, on the other hand, has complete profile for its players. We should follow Vietnam in keeping good database info for its players in the FIDE ratings database.

source : here

A Look At MAS Fide Ratings (Women) List

The July FIDE ratings was just released several days ago. GiLoCatur is happy because another 2011 Chess Ratings Mission has been achieved. GiLoCatur's daughter, Anis, managed to get her FIDE ratings. She has joined 26 other Malaysian women chess players in the active (women only) FIDE ratings list as per below. GiLoCatur believes 27 is a very good number and the highest so far since it was only 9 in January 2010 release.

Alia who earned her Women Fide Master (WFM) in the last Women Chess Olympiads is the top Malaysian woman chess player with 1975 Elo ratings. Nur Najiha Azman is another Malaysian woman chess player who has a WFM title. For the record, Malaysia does not have both WGM and WIM titled players in its active players list. How many there are the Malaysian women chess players in the inactive list or have not played a single FIDE rated game in the last one year?  The answer is 13. It means, in total Malaysia has 40 women players who have FIDE ratings.The Elo ratings can be improved further since, if you notice, the majority in the above list are still in their teens. BUT it is very important for them to participate in more FIDE-rated chess tournaments. 

It is amazing to note that Malaysia comes second behind Vietnam in the number of active women players who have FIDE ratings in the ASEAN region. Eighty (80) Vietnamese ladies are listed in the active list where 27 of them are titled players - 3 WGMs,  11 WIMs and 13 WFMs. How about other ASEAN countries especially Philippines and Indonesia? There are 19 Pinoy ladies who have FIDE ratings and active while the number is only 13 in Indonesia.  But both countries have more titled players. Indonesia has one WGM and 4 WFMs. Meanwhile, Phillipines has 4 WIMs and 2 WFMs. Singapore has less two players than Indonesia for its active women chess players with FIDE ratings. Seven (7) of them are titled players led by Chinese-born IM Li Ruofan who  is the top player with 2400+ Elo ratings. The other six are WFMs.

The above statistics shows that the Malaysian women chess has future. The number of the list can be increased. The quality of the Elo ratings can be improved. Attractive prizes and remuneration need to be available for the Malaysian women chess players. More chess tournaments for women or girls like MCF Selection (Women) For Sea Games which appeared in the Commission For Women's Chess (WOM) website here and Susan Polgar Girls' Invitational (SPGI)  need to be organized in our beloved country (Maybe Haslindah of BCWM and WNM Khairunnisa of http://setiachess.blogspot.com/ can take the challenge :)- ). More parents need to encourage and motivate their daughters to play chess seriously. MALAYSIA BOLEH?

[note: what an amazing coincidence! GiLoCatur just noticed that the above list is also published today in both BCWM and Sifu.mycatur blogs. 3.45am]

source : FIDE July 2011 release