Moscow Chess Federation Rating

A young man of 11 years plans to play at tournament Saturday. He claims to have a rating of 1750 according to the Moscow Chess Federation.

The guidance from the USCF rulebook would have me add 250 points to his rating and seed him as a 2000 rated player.

A rating of 2000 feels high (especially for an 11-year old).

What seems best? I’d hate to see him get clobbered in an Expert plus section, or a 1700+ section for that matter.

Should I seed him at 2000? Or stick with 1750?

Would it be inappropriate of me as a TD to seed him as a 1750 (or 1850), rather than a 2000?

You’re 3 points from making National Master (congrats btw…): play him a blitz game as an additional point of reference and add points as you see fit.

I have played against such players from Russia. The Russian rating system is not too dissimilar from the FIDE rating system. He very likely is at least 1900 in USCF rating strength. He should be adequately prepared in his openings and will be skilled in endgame technique.

The Experts might be the ones to get clobbered.

I’d follow the rulebook and add 250 points. Even if this puts him too high it will give the player valuable experience, and he’ll get a USCF rating which he can use in future tournaments.

I did this at the Massachusetts Open with a player who told me he had a Philippines rating of 1980. I followed the rulebook and added 250 points, putting him in the Open section. His post-tournament USCF rating is… (wait for it)… 1980! In this case it appears that adding 0 would have been a more accurate formula for converting his Philippines rating to a USCF rating than adding 250. I still think I did the right thing. If I hadn’t known about the Philippines rating he would probably have gone 6-0 in the U1500 section as an unrated.

250 seems o be too high an adjustment.

Add 150 to an estimated 1900 and then he will find his own level with his wins and loses.