(Last Updated June 4th)

A further 53 tournaments were rated in May to bring the total for the 2011-12 season so far to 71. The list contains 873 members, 741 with full ratings and 132 with provisional.

FIDE Ratings

e2e4 Dublin Easter (Masters, Majors, Challengers), Gonzaga Masters, LCU League Div 1 and 2, Mallahide Millenium Senior, Munster League Div 1 and National Club Championship have all been submitted to FIDE for rating.

It had been intended to rate LCU Leagues Div 3-5 with FIDE, however whether this will actually happen is currently in the balance. The problem is clause 8.21 of FIDE's rating handbook which states: If an unrated player scores less than 1 point, or he plays fewer than 3 rated opponents in his first rated event, his score is disregarded. Since there are few FIDE rated players in the lower leagues it brings into question whether it's worth the cost to the ICU (€1 per player).

The ICU and LCU are currently (May 15) in discussion to decide on this matter. Unfortunately, the deadline for submitting the reports to FIDE is May 17 (2 months after the tournament end dates). We can still submit after this deadline, but the ICU will have to pay late submission fines. For those involved on both the LCU and ICU side, a quick decision would be good. (Update: the deadline passed without a decision being made.)

Status Report on New Rating System

The new ratings site is now routinely being used by tournament controllers to upload their reports. If you're a controller and you haven't yet read the guidelines, please do so.

All tournaments have been rated and players can login and see how their ratings are calculated. However, please note that:

• The site is still in beta (not finished) and has not been used to produce the May rating list.
• The various historical lists (full, WAR, top juniors, top improvers) are using data produced by the old rating system, including the May 2012 ratings.
• There are some minor differences between the ratings calculated by the two systems (for more details, see below).

We are still on target for having the new site ready by the beginning of next season, at which point it will take over completely from the old system. It's expected that the September list will be the last one calculated by the old system. During 2012-13 more information will be made available on how to use the new site, both for controllers and players.

Differences between the Rating Systems

Most players have the same or similar ratings (within one or two points) in the new and old systems. Most differences are caused by recently discovered problems that occurred before the January list. It's easy to correct problems, even ones that occurred months ago, in the new system but not always so easy in the old one. Here's a list of all currently known problems:

• Pedro Quaresma was mixed up with his son (who shares the same name) in the Galway Minor 2011. As a result his start rating for the only other tournament he has played since then (NCC 20112) was underestimated, to the detriment of both him and his opponents. Status: correct in new system, correct in old system.
• The Irish Veterans 2011 should have been rated before January but was submitted late and therefore had to be rated out-of-order in the old system. Status: correct in new system, unfixable in old system.
• Czezary Glegowski had the wrong join date which reduced his K-factor and suppressed a bonus due in LCU Div 3. Status: correct in new system, fixed in old system (June 4).

When the new system acquires the ability to generate rating lists we will retrospectively correct the January, May and September 2012 rating lists.