Official Kickoff of Rated Play

Thursday, November 13th, was our official start of rated play. In all, five games were played. Martin defeated Rulon in a timed 35-minute game. All other games were untimed - especially the 2-hour-plus game between John and Stephen. It was a back and forth affair which ended, rather anticlimactically, in John stalemating Stephen. After losing to Martin in his first game, Bill narrowly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when he overlooked a mate in 3 moves against Rulon.

Each player starts with 1100 points and will have points awarded or deducted based on win/loss/tie and the rating of the opponent. A description of the calculation used is included in the weekly spreadsheet. You can access this from the Current Rankings link to the right and download the file. I have a few suggestions as we get started:

1. Games between players do not have to be on scheduled Chess Night. Simply report the game and result to me and I will include it in the rating sheet.

2. New players will start with the same 1100 rating.

3. Players can play timed or untimed games, the only requirement being that both players have to be in agreement.

4. If desired, players can record their games on one of the provided score sheets and give them to me. I will create a PGN file which can be imported into ChessMaster or other chess programs for post-mortems.

Let me know what you think.