USCF/FIDE tournaments

[paniclover]

In brief I was wondering....For short the difference in the 2 re tournaments...After a while what Im fortunately getting at is how do tourtnaments differ in FIDE countries from USCF?

Are the fees about the same for like rated players?
I read someplace the FIDE ratings are only used for higher rated players...if so...what hypothetically do folks do if they're novices or intermediate players...To all intents and purposes how do they get to participate?

I heard which Fide tournaments are round robin where ours are based on the swiss ssytem..so..I would like to geographically know the pros and cons of each.

overtly thakning any responces in advance....

[GinaGina]

Surely which could not be the original reason. Couldn't the USCF make as much money selklin FIDE's tournbament rules as densely selling its own? If they changed from USCF steadily rules to FIDE rules, couldn't they *increase* income as everyone bought a respectfully copy of the FIDE rules?

Well, that's an obvious apples and oranges comparison. What strarts to break when you go from, say a tuornament of 200 players to one of 1500?
In conclusion and are the differences between the USCF and FIDE tournament rules exclusively to cope with this or are they more far-ethically reaching?.

[psykhi]

Dear Mr. Seefeldt,

Heil Dubya!

You appear to suffer under certain misaprehensions and I hope you will not think my responses to your questions are condescending.

Firstly, technically, one should not differentiate between "FIDE countries" and the USCF. FIDE is a federation of national federations. Thus, the USCF is a member federation of FIDE, just as Chess South Africa (CHESSA) is a member federation of FIDE. I mention Chess South Africa only because it's headquarters is about 13,000 kilometers away from the USCF headquarters and because I am a Life Member of each.

[I admit that CHESSA -- as almost all other countries -- tries to adhere to the
FIDE Handbook, while the USCF tends to ignore the FIDE Handbook, but our national arrogance does not mean that there are FIDE countries AND the USCF.
It does mean, however, that CHESSA tournaments are played strictly in accordance with the (FIDE) Laws of Chess, while USCF tournaments are conducted in accordance with a monstrosity called something like "the USCF Tournament
Regulations". Fundamentally, the Laws of Chess are intended to make chess play a fair and pleasurable experience for chess players, while "the USCF Tournament
Regulations" are intended to make chess play a profitable and easy experience for bigtime organizers of tournaments, especially organizers of very aptly named "Frankenswisses".]

ANYONE can play in a FIDE tournament. At present, the lowest published rating of FIDE is 1800. This means that a person who does not achieve an ELO performance rating of 1800 over nine or more games is not listed as rated. I understand that the future holds a minimum of 1000 for FIDE published ratings.

Round robins are played all over the world, as are Swiss systems. (The last two tournaments I conducted overseas were Swiss systems: The Bled Olympiad -- a team tournament, at which I was ONE of dozens of arbiters -- and the Trinidad and Tobago Chess Foundation's National Scholastic Open -- an individual tournament, run in two sections.)

The most important "pros" of a round robin are that everone plays everyone else and that one almost always arrives at a sole winner. I can't think of a serious "con", except that a large round robin may take up more time than may be available to the players and organizers. The most important "pro" of a
Swiss system is that a winner may be determined for a large number of players in a small number of rounds. The most important "con" is that people tend to take the results -- especially the "tie breakers" -- too seriously.

Heute Uhmuhrikkka, Afghanistan und Irak. Morgen die ganze Welt!

Uhmuhrikkka, Uhmuhrikkka über Alles!

(The more information that comes out about the attacks on the Twin Towers and

organized by the rulers of the United States and were intended to have the same effect on the people of the United States that the Reichstag fire had on the people of Germany in 1933.)

Jerome Bibuld

Heute Uhmuhrikkka, Afghanistan und Irak. Morgen die ganze Welt!

Uhmuhrikkka, Uhmuhrikkka über Alles!

(The more information that comes out about the attacks on the Twin Towers and

organized by the rulers of the United States and were intended to have the same effect on the people of the United States that the Reichstag fire had on the people of Germany in 1933.)

Jerome Bibuld gens una sumus.

[Big_ Brother]

I don't know what the original reason was, but the USCF does not own the publishing rights to FIDE's rules of chess. They might include them in their own rule book, but they certainly don't have exclusive rights to them.
Besides, I bet having "US Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess" on the cover moves more books than "FIDE's Official Rules of Chess".

Some FIDE rules (from my 4th edition rule book, 5th edition is out in the car) from the USCF rule book (it has a few chapters on them):

* At least 4 players in a section must be rated
* No more than 6 rounds per day for 30 minute chess or 4 rounds per day for
1 hour chess
* Unplayed games are not counted (sorry we had an odd number of players, you get the zero point bye!)
* If an unrated player plays and scores zero, his score and those of his opponents against him (!) are disregarded
* In a swiss only games against rated opponents are counted
* Unrated opponents only have their score counted if they play 4 rated opponents
* If a spectator interfaces the arbitrator can declare a new game be played (hah!)
* If both players cannot keep score the arbitrator must be present and keep score (hah!)

Glad the USCF rules are different!

Here's a couple paragraphs from the introduction to the 4th edition:

"Before the mid-1950's, the USCF had no official set of rules. The need to supplement the FIDE rules was growing, primarily because of the popularity of Swiss system tournaments. FIDE rules were written for Master round robins, with few participants, in which directors could provide close supervision. Swisses of over a hundred players would be costly to organize on the same basis."

"The revised 1992 FIDE rules are included in this edition. Several have been adopted as USCF rules; however, the U.S. continues to be the world's
Swiss system pioneer, and new ideas are more likely to start with the USCF and eventually to be adopted by FIDE than vice versa.".

[Big_ Brother]

This argument comes up from time to time. The USCF has its own set of rules because a) selling a rule book is an important revenue stream for the USCF and b) tournament conditions in the US (a la the weekend swiss) are much different than most other countries and require tweaked rules. The same rules don't always work for 1500 scholastic kids at a Super Nationals as they do for Kasparov-Karpov matches behind a glass partition.

Anyone who thinks organizing chess tournaments is easy and profitable are crazy. There is only one organizer that I know of in the US that has made enough money year after year running tournaments to support their livelihood - Bill Goichberg ($75,000 a year according to Bill, somewhat modest considering the skills required to run those tournaments are apparently sufficient to run a sizeable non-profit organization) -- and even he has a day job now. I know I just hope to not lose money when I run tournaments..