JAN 2014 National (MCF) Rating Has Been Released Today

To all Malaysian chess players, have you checked your new national (MCF) rating?

It has been released today. Check out the Malaysian chess rating officer, Tse Pin's blog here to download the new rating files.

For GiLoCatur's family, it is one plus, two minuses and one unchanged. The change in the national rating of GiLoCatur's three children is based on one nationally-rated chess tournament in the past three months which is the Sepang chess festival Open. Since GiLoCatur did not take part in the chess tourney, GiLoCatur's national rating remains the same as of the October 2013 rating.

The eldest son, Fikri, had a "plus" performance in the tournament. He played one lower-rated opponent, one unrated opponent and four higher-rated opponents. He won both against his unrated and lower-rated opponents in the first and final round respectively. Fikri's results against his four higher-rated opponents are one win, one draw and two defeats. The win is against 1815-rated player in second round while the draw is against 1938-rated player in the third round. Click here to view Fikri's performance in the Sepang Open chess tournament.

Fikri gained 24 points in the tournament. Thus, his MCF rating which remains the same since April 2013 release i.e. 1624 has increased to 1648. His younger sister, Anis Fariha, who also had her national rating unchanged for three consecutive quarters could not increase her rating. Even though, her PMR exam completed much earlier that his elder brother, she has much much more to improve in order to gain more ratings by winning against higher-rated opponents. 

Similar to her elder brother, Anis played against one unrated, one lower-rated and four higher-rated opponents in the Sepang Open. She could win against the unrated and lower-rated opponents. BUT she could not win a single game against her four higher-rated opponents. She had two 1600-rated, one 1750-rated and one 1900-rated players to win against. Click here for her full results. Anis lost 19 points in her national rating from the only rated chess tournament she took part in the last quarter. Her last national rating of 1466 is now decreased to 1447.

If previously Fahim, GiLoCatur's youngest child, had an increase in his national rating, now he has a decrease. Fortunately, the number is less than the increase earlier. His national rating was 1529 in October 2013 release. In the new national rating release today, Fahim's new rating is 1523, a decrease of 6 points. In the Sepang Open which has no separate Under 12 event, Fahim had to play against three lower-rated and three higher-rated opponents. Here, is the list of all Fahim's opponents in the Sepang Open. Fortunately, Fahim had no problem winning over his lower-rated opponents. But Fahim still has problem and long way to go to beat his more than 300-ratings opponents. Among his three higher-rated opponents, two are rated over 2000 and the other one is rated about 1800. 

GiLoCatur hopes that Fikri, Anis and Fahim will participate in many rated chess tournaments both local and international in the next quarter. Fahim will be in his final year of the primary school education. He will sit for UPSR in September. Anis had completed her PMR and is getting to her upper secondary school. Fikri had completed his SPM and secondary school education. He is getting ready for his college education. So, he has ample time to catch up his chess before the hectic college life begin.

How about the Chess Ratings Mission set in 2013? Have it been achieved? And what is the mission for the year of 2014?

Only one is achieved. Fahim managed to get his FIDE ratings in January 2013 release. 

Therefore, the Mission is not much different for the year 2014. Ratings wise, the target number for Fikri to achieve is decreased from 1800 to 1750 and Anis is decreased from 1650 to 1600. As for Fahim, his target ratings is increased from 1600 to 1650. While for GiLoCatur still remains 1550. GiLoCatur would like to add a new mission which is to get a FIDE rating. GiLoCatur hopes that GiLoCatur can take part in a couple of FIDE-rated chess tournaments.  

GiLoCatur wishes that more achievements to come for Fikri, Anis Fariha and Fahim in the year 2014 including in chess.  

The New National Rating Will Be Out On 15th JAN

7th JAN 2012

is the deadline for all national-rated tournament organizers held between October and December 2011 to submit their relevant files to Mr Lim Tze Pin, the Malaysian rating officer. Click here for his announcement.

GiLoCatur hopes they will do so because many Malaysian chess players who had participated in the rated tournaments can't wait to know their new national rating.

As mentioned in Tse Pin's blog, the new rating list will be released on 15th January. GiLoCatur also hopes that the Malaysian chess community will not be in state of "keep asking when the national rating will be out" because it will be released on every 15th Day of every new quarter. Just not sure it is either 3-month or 4-month quarter.

Who is The Top Most Improved National Ratings for July Release?

The latest Malaysian national chess ratings was just made public. It is the July release that will be used for nationally-rated chess tournaments for the period of between July and September 2011. So, how is your latest national ratings? Increase? Drop? No change? Or maybe you just have your new national ratings. Are you among the top 20 most improved players? 

GiLoCatur would like to congratulate Kughan Ravindran (below picture) for being the most improved player in the new national ratings. He was rated 1263 in the April release. He gained 205 points making his current national ratings to be 1468. He took part in two nationally-rated tournaments namely the 38th Selangor Open and DATCC Warrior. In the former event he managed to win against two 1600+ opponents - in the first and seventh rounds respectively. Such feat contributed the most big increase in his ratings. In the recent 1st SMK Hillcrest Chess Open, Kughan was placed ninth in the Under 15 boys age group. 

Kughan Ravindran

How about the new national ratings of GiLoCatur and the kids? GiLoCatur will write about this another time. SO, TO ALL THE MALAYSIAN CHESS PLAYERS, KEEP PARTICIPATING IN CHESS TOURNAMENTS ESPECIALLY THE NATIONALLY-RATED ONES. GiLoCatur hopes there will be a number of such events being organized in the next three months for the next national ratings release. 

MCF-Sanctioned Events

Kepada semua pemain-pemain catur Malaysia.

Jika anda mengambil berat dan mengambil kira tentang chess tournaments yang bertaraf rated samada MCF national-sanctioned atau FIDE-rated, sila semak status setakat 30 Mac di link ini. Rating merupakan ukuran prestasi seorang pemain catur. Justeru itu, amat penting sekali ia diberi perhatian sewajarnya. Jika sebelum ini ramai yang kecewa kerana tournament yang disertai ingatkan rated, tetapi tidak rupanya. Diharap selepas ini, kekecewaan-kekecewaan sebegini dapat dihindarkan dengan menyemak status sesuatu kejohanan atau pertandingan catur dengan MCF.

Kepada yang masih samar-samar tentang apa itu rating dan bagaimana pengiraannya dilakukan, sila baca dan study link berikut - http://www.chesselo.com/

Dan jika anda ingin tahu agak-agak berapa rating anda sepatutnya, bolehlah mencuba di laman ini. Nak tahu berapa estimated rating GiLoCatur? Jawapannya adalah 1475.

Masih jauh lagi kembara catur GiLoCatur sebenarmya. MCF-rating terbaru GiLoCatur ada sedikit peningkatan sebanyak 61 point iaitu dari 1172 bagi Bulan Januari kepada 1233. Misi GiLoCatur bagi tahun ini ialah untuk mencecah rating 1300. Ini bermakna, GiLoCatur memerlukan 67 point lagi. Adakah GiLoCatur akan berjaya? Kita tunggu dan lihat di hujung tahun 2010 nanti.

What are Tie-Breaks?

A visitor asked what are WP, SB and PS as can be seen in the chess results as the above. Surely for someone new to a chess tournament needs to learn a lot like understanding the pairing and the results. GiLoCatur also experienced the same thing before. It is good for chess newbies especially the parents to learn and understand chess terms. Don't be ashamed to ask as a Malay idiom (betul ke?) says "Malu Bertanya Sesat Jalan".

GiLoCatur is not an expert in chess terms but will try to explain them based on what known. So, if my explaination or fact is not right please someone correct me.

SNo. in the above chart is the seeding or starting rank number. Normally, the rank is based on the chess rating. For local chess tournaments, it is often based on the national ratings. The latest national ratings is based on July edition. Click here if you want to check one's national ratings. National ratings can be earned when partipating in a nationally-rated tournament. Beside national rating, there is FIDE-rating which only can be earned when participating FIDE-rated chess tournaments which are not many organized in Malaysia. For players who do not have ratings, they will be ranked (sorted) based on alphabetical order.

SB refers to Sonneborn-Berger. It is a tiebreak system. In simple words, if you win againts a player his or her score will be added, if you draw half of your opponent's score will be added. Therefore, you will get more points in SB if the opponent that you defeats wins more.

PS refers to Progressive Score. It will calculate your points based on a progress table. For example, if your results are - win, loss, win, draw then your progressive scores are 1, 1, 2, 2.5. Thus your PS will be 6.5, the sum of the progressive scores.

rat refers to your ratings (national or FIDE) and TPR refers to Tournament Performance Ratings which is your earned ratings in that particular tournament. So, if you win againts higher rated you will earn higher TPR, but if you lose to lower-rated or unrated it will decrease it.

Hopefully, the above explaination helps and provides better understanding for parents or new players in a chess tournament. You can check this link to learn further.