Running your basic double-round blitz tournament: Either pairing program I use will give me a results sheet with a single-line result for each pairing (i.e., a single line for the two games), and players enter 1-1, 2-0, 1/2 - 1-1/2, or any result that adds up to two.
The thing is, 1-1 could either be 1-0 / 0-1 for two games, or it could be 1/2-1/2 / 1/2-1/2 for two games. Does it make a difference for either USCF or FIDE rating purposes? Would those two different results yield different ratings?
No, the player’s rating change is only determined by his overall score and the difference in ratings between the player and the opponent. A player who wins against a 1500 rated opponent and loses against a 1900 rated opponent would have exactly the same rating change as one who lost to the 1500 rated opponent and won against the 1900 rated opponent or who drew against both, for example.
FIDE does have issues with WL vs DD vs LW, as well as the order in which the colors were played, as well as which result corresponds to which color, etc. So, even though USCF does not have these issues (at least not yet), IMHO it would be valuable historically for such information to be explicit on the pairing sheet and on the MSA crosstable.
In addition, what if the first game was played, then the loser forfeited the second game, stormed out of the room, and dropped out of the tournament? In that case, results like WX and LF should also be possible.
I would like to see future versions of the pairing programs take these issues into account.
Yes, that was an interesting thread, especially on page 6 or so when it began to get a little flaky. It’s interesting reading.
It is true that FIDE collects win/loss statistics for each color. However, this does not affect the FIDE rating procedure. While it is always desirable to collect correct information, failure to do so will not adversely affect players’ ratings.
Thanks for the info and the pointer to the other thread. I had a player tell me that it affects ratings, and I was skeptical. He must have confused that with color and draw data.
The ideas for collecting complete data are interesting, but it’s hard to make them foolproof. A double-round tournament is a multi-dimensional thing, so it’s harder to put on a form. The below might be a bit cleaner and more readable.
Whatever you do, the players have to read and pay attention, and we can’t count on that.
