How to caluclate" Academic " chess ratings for 7th

Running Chess Tournaments
1

I’m coaching some middle school kids, and they cannot afford to join USCF yet.

Is there a formula I can use to calculate a general rating, with all newcomers starting with a general rating of about 750??

2

My son heads up an elementary club of about 40 kids. He started with 500 as an initial rating and then used the USCF site ratings calculator to determine ratings. Of course, as a high school freshman he has a little more time than most adults. Just a suggestion.
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3

Here is a link to how the southern Arizona Scholastic league calculates ratings.

this if a fairly simple formula

sazchess.org/ratingsintro.html

the link does not cover draws, but 1/2 the value could be used
In the example in the link, if the players drew, then instead of adding/subtraction 11, then use 5.5

4

Thanks Michael Reed! That rating calculation method should work just fine! :stuck_out_tongue:

5

uschess.org/scholastic/sc-guide2.html

There is a formula in that link called the “Harkness System”. You may find it useful.

I coach a middle school chess club, and we run a couple of internal unrated swiss system tournaments a year. In the past, I just sorted everybody for round 1 alphabetically, and moved on from there.

This year, I also assigned my players a rating of 600 and calculated the ratings. After the tournament, I posted the ratings, and announced a challenge “ladder”. Simply put, you can challenge anyone within 100 ratings of you, and the games are “rated”. (It’s not the kind of ladder where number seven challenges number one and gets his spot, it’s a rating list, but I call it a ladder.)

I chose 600 because I wanted the ratings low, in case someone actually goes to a tournament. I don’t want someone to have a club rating of 1100 and then they play overconfidently against a 900 player.

After I figured out how to run the ratings each week, I shuffled the work to my best player. He does the ratings “stubby pencil”, and enters the updated ratings in an excel sheet. That chart makes it very easy for him to make the calculations. We save each weeks paperwork, and an updated file so we can backtrack if there is a question. We post the ratings list each Tuesday.

The rating list and the ladder is a huge draw. It has energized my players and encouraged challenges.

Good luck with your club!

Albert Rine
Tulsa, OK