We have a player who expressed interest in coming to our February 21 Quad tournament at the Portland Chess Club. He said he has no USCF rating but use to be an active player in his some country. We looked him up on FIDE but couldn’t find him. However, he showed us this. ratings.fide.com/tournament_repo … 05&t=Array. It appears his FIDE profile has been deleted. What would be the reasons a player would be deleted?
Which of the players on that list are you referring to, Micah. It will help to know his name. 
Santiago Tenesaca
I would recommend sending an email with this information to Franc and Susan (Houston). They can inquire with FIDE as to what happened with this individual.
Ecuador is in arrears with FIDE. If Mr. Tenesaca’s flag is still ECU, this might explain why he does not appear in the current FRL.
Nah that’s not it…When a country is in arrears the players’ rating just disappears.
ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtml?ina=1&country=ECU
All of Ecuador shows up still. So they must have fixed that issue.
This person seems to be complete erased. But also his ID seems odd as only 4 digits.
Why would an unrated player show up on the FRL? I assume what happened is that, after a certain point (no idea what the rules were in 2003) his part rating expired, and at some point FIDE scrubbed its computers for all players who didn’t have ratings or part ratings, just the same as USCF did with its deceased players once upon a time.
Alex Relyea
It took me about 45 seconds to find a previously unknown (to me, anyway) unrated player whose post-2000 playing history is even more scarce than Mr. Tenesaca’s.
(As a result of the ratings research I did before last year’s Millionaire, I learned this was not uncommon.)
Is this the player you are looking for? Maybe not…
3602621
Tenesaca Argudo, Juan
Ecuador
2047
ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?event=3602621
No, that’s his brother.
We used this players old FIDE rating for section and pairing purposes at the Quad tournament we ran. It turns out he is a pretty good player but not as good as his old FIDE rating suggests. He is planning on coming to another tournament we have this weekend, pdxchess.org/rsvpmaker/9th-annua … 2015-4-11/. What rating should we use for this player?
Have him play as an unrated since he has no official USCF regular rating or FIDE rating
Use his USCF regular rating of 1861 based on 3 games from one tournament back in February.
Use his FIDE rating of 2243 based on 8 games from one tournament back in 2003.
Use his USCF blitz rating of 2055 based on 10 games from one tournament back in February.
I wouldn’t use an expired FIDE part-rating for anyone. There is a reason that FIDE doesn’t use or publish them.
I would use the Blitz rating. Three games is simply too few to base anything on. USCF initializes ratings based on Blitz ratings rather than age.
Alex Relyea
OTB Blitz ratings are only used to initialize online Blitz and Quick ratings. OTB Blitz ratings are not used to initialize OTB Regular or Quick ratings. glicko.net/ratings/rating.system.pdf
Is this true? It seems to me that a Blitz rating would be more accurate than age determining someone’s strength.
Alex Relyea
It does appear to be true. But the initialization of a player’s entry into the rating system is distinct, in my mind, to the assignment of a rating for pairing and prize purposes. For the latter, I’d use the blitz rating, and I read Rule 28D as giving enough leeway to permit this approach (although I would be the first to admit Rule 28D needs to be updated).
I’m not sure what “play as an unrated” would mean when you’re running quads. If the TLA said unrateds would play in the bottom section, then I’d vote Definitely Not on this option.
If this rating is based on all wins, or on mixed results, I’d say Quite Possibly. If it’s based on all losses, Definitely Not.
This gets a Well, Maybe. 2003 isn’t all that long ago, and 8 games isn’t that small a sample, but still …
This gets another Quite Possibly – unless, of course, this rating is based on all losses.
As I’ve said before, when you’re running quads you should use every piece of evidence you can lay your hands on when deciding which section to put unrateds in. Don’t just put them in the bottom quad. The rating (estimate) you come up with doesn’t even have to be any of the three you’ve mentioned. I’d say no less than 1800 and no more than 2100. Perhaps 1950 would be about right.
Use judgment on the morning of the tournament. Who knows, it might be an easy call. If you have 4 Experts and 3 A players, put him with the A players. If you have 3 Experts and 4 A players, put him with the Experts. And have fun!
Bill Smythe
The tournament he is playing in this weekend is a one section Swiss, pdxchess.org/rsvpmaker/9th-annua … 2015-4-11/. His USCF regular rating is based on one win and two losses.
The organizer (or TD) has the right to assign ratings to unrated players for pairing purposes. You could list him on the wall chart as unrated, but pair him according to an estimated rating.
Other posters have said that, if you’re using SwisSys, this is easy – just put a minus sign in front of his (estimated) rating when data-entering his information.
I still think 1900 or 1950 would be a good estimate.
Bill Smythe