PLEASE NOTE: this article has been superseded by an article on the ICU ratings web site.
The ICU normally only rates games played in Irish tournaments. However, individuals or teams who travel abroad to play in FIDE rated tournaments can also have their performances rated by the ICU if they follow the procedure outlined below.
- Ensure you are currently subscribed to the ICU.
- Notify the of your intention to play in the tournament (not necessary if you pay your fee online).
- Pay a 10 fee preferably online but otherwise by post to the .
- Play the tournament.
- Submit your results to the in an acceptable format (see below).
To be clear about this, please note the following:
- You have to notify the Rating Officer before you play the tournament.
- The 10 fee is per player, per tournament.
- Notifying your intention to play and be rated commits you to reporting the results, irrespective of your performance.
- If more than one player wants the same tournament rated, the results should be submitted together (see below).
- If you have to withdraw from the tournament your fee will be refunded.
Results should be submitted as either a CSV file (comma separated values) or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. CSV is preferred. Below is a complete example which can be downloaded in various formats (csv, xls, xlsx) and adapted for your own use. Following that is a more detailed description if the example is not clear enough.
The example is a CSV (comma seperated values) text file, where the commas correspond to cell divisions in a spreadsheet), and is based on an actual tournament (slighlty modified for illustrative purposes). CSV files can be produced directly with a text editor or exported from spreadsheet applications like Excel.
Event,"Isle of Man Masters, 2007" Start,2007-09-22 End,2007-09-30 Rounds,9 Website,http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/monarch2007/ Player,456,Fox,Anthony 1,0,B,Taylor,Peter P.,2209,,ENG 2,=,W,Nadav,Egozi,2205,,ISR 3,=,B,Cafolla,Peter,2048,,IRL 4,1,W,Spanton,Tim R.,1982,,ENG 5,1,B,Grant,Alan,2223,,SCO 6,0,- 7,=,W,Walton,Alan J.,2223,,ENG 8,0,B,Bannink,Bernard,2271,FM,NED 9,=,W,Phillips,Roy,2271,,MAU Total,4 Player,159,Cafolla,Peter 1,0,W,Jackson,Oliver A.,2198,,ENG 2,0,B,Jeroen,Van Den Berssalaar,,,NED 3,=,W,Fox,Anthony,2100,,IRL 4,=,B,Collins,Sam E.,2394,IM,IRL 5,1,W,Troyke,Doreen,2151,WFM,GER 6,=,B,Nelson,Jonathan P.,2282,,ENG 7,0,W,Egozi,Nadav,2205,,ISR 8,=,B,Weeks,Manuel,2200,FM,AUS 9,0,W,Grant,Alan,2223,,SCO Total,3
The file can contain as any number of blank rows (empty cells or lines with just commas or blank in CSV). For readability include one blank row after the header information and after each block of player data, as in the example.
The first significant line in the file should be the event name.
Event,"Isle of Man Masters, 2007"
Note that if the event name contains commas, then it should be wrapped in double quotes in CSV (not necessary in Excel files). After the event name should come the start and end dates, both in yyyy-mm-dd format, the number of rounds and the tournament website address so the Rating Officer can verify the results.
Start,2007-09-22 End,2007-09-30 Rounds,9 Website,http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/monarch2007/
After the 4-line header informaton about the tournament follows a block of data for each player who wants the tournament rated by the ICU. Each block starts with the player's ICU number, last name and first name(s). The last name should be given first and the name should be spelled the same way as in the ICU rating lists.
Player,456,Fox,Anthony
Following each player's name is their results, one line per round. Each round is divided into 8 fields:
6,0,W,Cox,John J.,2381,IM,ENG
- The round number.
- The player's score in the game: 1, 0 or 0.5 (you can also use = instead of 0.5).
- The player's colour: W for white, B for black.
- The opponent's last name.
- The opponent's first name(s).
- The opponent's FIDE rating.
- The opponent's FIDE title, if any.
- The opponent's federation (three letter country code).
Please be careful to specify opponent names in the right order (last name first).
If an opponent is another Irish player, give the federation as IRL and be careful to spell their name as it appears in the ICU rating list. Their ICU rating and not their FIDE rating will be used in the rating calculations, but give their FIDE rating anyway (unless they don't have one).
3,=,W,Fox,Anthony,2100,,IRL
The opponent could be another Irish player who has not requested that their results in the tournament be rated by the ICU (and who therefore does not have a block of data in the file submitted to the ratings officer).
4,=,B,Collins,Sam E.,2394,IM,IRL
In that case, the game will be rated for both players, but none of the opponent's other games will be rated.
If the player has a bye, or a default, or the game is unrateable for any other reason, indicate this by replacing the player's colour with a dash (hyphen) instead of the normal W or B, give the score attributed to the player for that round and leave out any details about the opponent.
6,0,-
If an opponent is unrated leave their rating blank, as in the following line.
2,0,B,Jeroen,Van Den Berssalaar,,,NED
At the end of a player block, after their last round result, is the player's total score.
Total,3