New in Chess is offering a book which originated in the U.S. market: Improve Your Chess at Any Age, by Andres Hortillosa. It is stated that the author acquired an initial FIDE rating of 2199 in the New England Masters. (That’s the U.S.’ New England, not the Australian New England.) But an Amazon reader’s review of the book points out that the author’s FIDE rating has dropped by more than 100 points and is now about 50 points higher than my own. One may suspect that his initial rating was generous, perhaps due to the method of calculating an initial rating? If I could acquire an initial FIDE rating of 2200, I might even be tempted to rest on that laurel, even at the cost of wearing it in the wrong place.
It takes nine games against FIDE rated opponents to get a FIDE rating. There must be at least three games against FIDE rated opponents in an event in order for that event to be included in the determination of a player’s initial FIDE rating, and in the first such event the player must score at least 1 point against the FIDE rated opponents he or she faces.
For the full details, see B8 of the FIDE handbook: fide.com/fide/handbook?id=73&view=article
Details of his performance in that 2008 event are available at: ratings.fide.com/individual_calc … 2008-10-01
He scored 3 out of 9 against players with an average FIDE rating of 2324. 2199 seems a reasonable initial rating based on that performance.