Rating Season
The ICU Rating Season runs from 1st September to 31st August each year.
Events are rated chronologically (by date completed).
Results of events are to be configured to a particular format so that the ICU Rating Program (written by Ray OBrien, Limerick, Chess Club) can handle them. This program is fed results on a regular basis so that the most up-to-date ratings are available to event controllers and selectors.
Annual Rating List
The September Rating List is deemed to be the Annual Rating List, and often called the Season Start Rating, and used by League Controllers for their respective Provincial League and Selectors in determining selection of players for national and international events for individuals and teams.
League Controllers
League Master, the program for recording league results was designed specifically to produce a data file from which the ICU Rating Program can process.
All league controllers were supplied with a copy of the League Master program and can import player details from a database file (LM-DBF), produced by the ICU Rating Program.
Details included in LM-DBF: ICU No., first name, last name, club and rating. LM-DBF_Sept04 was sent to relevant league controllers in early October 2004.
Tournament Controllers
Swiss Perfect, the versatile pairing program, records results in such a way that a data file can be exported. The ICU Rating Program was designed to be able to import results from this file.
Almost all tournament controllers now have Swiss Perfect and can import player details from a database file (SP-DBF), produced by the ICU Rating Program.
Details included in SP-DBF: ICU No., first name, last name, club, sex, rating, date-of-birth and ICU Membership status.
Updated SP-DBFs were produced and sent to relevant tournament controllers in Sep. 04, Jan. 05, Mar. 05, Apr. 05, May 05 and Jul. 05.
Clubs
A letter was sent to 70 secretaries of active clubs throughout the country in early October 2004 with Sep. 04 ratings for all players in ICU Active database, last registered with their club, and an offer to rate any events they play.
Players
As players renewed their ICU membership for season 04-05, their rating-change breakdown for season 03-04 was sent out with their membership card c/o ICU Membership Officer (James Osborne).
Published Rating Lists
The time-frame for Published Rating Lists (September, January and May) divides the season equally into 3:
- Start of Leagues season, and before the first regular weekender (City of Dublin in October) and should include rated results of all events from the previous season.
- Start of calendar year, and before the first regular weekender in the New Year (Gonzaga in February), and should include rated results of regular events: City of Dublin, Munster Championships, Limerick Open, Braille Championships, Kilkenny and Ulster Championships.
- After Leagues season, and a host of weekenders: Gonzaga, Bunratty, Cork, North Munster Championships, Malahide Millennium and Junior Championship events (Leinster, Munster and Irish) but before the Irish Championships in July.
Lists include all current paid up members, for that particular season, at time of posting.
| Rating List | Players | Provisional | ICO | icu.ie | ICJ |
| Sept04 | 797 | 204 | 4/10/04 | ||
| Jan05 | 396 | 157 | 18/1/05 | March | |
| May05 | 675 | 199 | 5/6/05 | ||
| July05 | 708 | 198 | August |
Provisional Rating Lists
A player must have played 20 rated games before he or she is eligible for an official rating. However, so that these players may have some indication of their rating strength, the ICU publishes "provisional" ratings for these players. Players should treat these estimates with caution. In many cases, the provisional rating is based on a handful of games, and when a player eventually obtains an official rating, it may be considerably higher or lower than the provisional rating.
Please continue to enter these players to events as U/G (ungraded).
ICC (Irish Chess Calendar)
Webmaster: John Loughran. Details available of all rated events from start of season 00-01.
Rated events 03-04 added 12/10/04.
ICO (Irish Chess Online)
No longer maintained - replaced by this web site.
Webmaster: David McAlister. Posted Rating List, Provisional Ratings and Events Rated for Sep. 04 and Jan. 05.
Posted Final Crosstables for most weekend events (c/o Swiss Perfect). This proves useful, as it allows players to confirm results are accurately recorded and thus correctly reported for rating. David is now posting events to the Tournaments section of this site.
icu.ie (Irish Chess Union)
Webmaster: Mark Orr; Editors: Vincent Bissett, Shannon Clements, Gerry Graham and David McAlister. Posted Rating List, Provisional Ratings and Events Rated for May 05.
All previous published lists, from Sept01, have also been posted and linked, allowing players to view their rating progress. Final Crosstables for most weekend events have also been posted.
ICJ (Irish Chess Journal)
Editors: Kevin Burke and John Healy.
Issue "February 2005" published Jan. 05 rating list and provisional ratings sorted by player name, and list of events rated. An extra field was included for this list ranking of players was based upon standing of Irish players ratings in ICU Active Database (containing all players that played or have been an ICU member in the last 5 years).
Issue "August 2005" published Jul. 05 rating list, incorporating provisional ratings sorted by club, and list of events rated.
Selections
The selection of players for individual and team events, both nationally and internationally is an important part of official bodies function (for the ICU and each of the provincial unions). As such, the most up-to-date ratings are essential for selectors and updates were provided to relevant committees in Sep. 04, Jan. 05, Apr. 05, May 05 and Jul. 05. April 05 ratings were made available for the ISC (International Selection Committee) meeting on 24/4/05.
FIDE
Rating Lists are published 4 times each year: October, January, April and July. The number of players in these lists were, respectively, 100, 101, 103 and 108.
The ICU submitted 2 events for FIDE-rating this season:
- 2005 Cork EU Championships (rated for July list)
- 2005 Irish Championships Senior (to be rated for October list)
Annual Rating List (Sept05)
Many results have been recently received and will be rated before release of Sep. 05 Annual Rating List, to be posted to icu.ie about mid-September:
- LCU: Branagan Cup, Killane Cup, Leagues04-05_Div6, Leagues03-04_Div5, Leagues03-04_Div6
- MCU: Leagues04-05_Div1, Leagues04-05_Div2, Leagues04-05_Div3
- Club Champs: Drogheda, Elm Mount, Limerick, Malahide, Phibsboro
- Representative: European Team Champs, Faber Cup, Glorney Cup, World Youth Champs
- Foreign: 4NCL, Badalona, Coventry, HB Global, New South Wales, Queensland, South Wales, Stiges, US Open