Sunday, February 1, 2015

Shock February ratings

I got the biggest shock of my life when I saw the FIDE Elo Rating List for February 2015. See the screen shot below.




Dilwen Ding has leaped into the top 10 Malaysian players with a hefty 2274 rating making him the 5th highest rated player. By my estimation he was around 1800 last year which means that within three months he has gained over 400 points. If he continues this climb he could be the number one rated Malaysian before long.

The reason for this is the of course the change in rating calculation which FIDE wisely adopted the K=40 rule for juniors who have not reached 2300 in rating and below 18 years of age (or is it 20?)

A gain of 400 rating points is not unusual, there were reports that a junior gained 568 points within three months.

Dilwen is currently in Europe and scoring in some minor tournaments. In January 2015 alone, he has gained 300 points. I hope Dilwen will continue to progress and gain another 200 points in this  month and that will put him over 2400 and the highest active Malaysian! Congratulations!

7 comments:

Mohd Noor said...

Hi Jimmy, any idea why isn't Mok in the rating list?

Jimmy Liew said...

If you do not play any game within a certain time frame then you are out of the active list.

Peter Long said...

I don't blame Dilwen - he is like many others all over the world who is taking advantage. Frankly I don't think he even began to imagine the impact and what surprises me is how well he has done (still got to go out and win the games). If I am not mistaken it applies till 18 years of age but what I don't understand is that there was supposed to be a ceiling of 2300 after which his K goes back to normal. Will find out... This is important as we have the likes of Li Tian and Aaron who would then be able to take advantage but I fear they are considered "normal" as past 2300.

Jimmy Liew said...

Once over 2300 the K drops down to 20. Both Li Tian and Aron are already over 2300.

Like you I do not blame any players. They dont make the rules and only bitter old men will actually deny them their accomplishments. I have the feeling that Dilwen never thought he could achieve this much. Gaining more experience and increasing his rating was the goal. I'm sure he must be just as surprised that his rating soared so high. Like Peter said, still have to go out and win the games, so well done to Dilwen.

Peter Long said...

What is important is that he continues playing and either proves his level or shares out the points and helps other young players also stabilise their ratings in this new environment. Opportunity for all!

Anonymous said...

Congrats Dilwen, keep up the good work. And congrats to his parents who have been planning and paying for all his expenses. There has been no help from any party, no sharing of expenses and experience, nothing. As such, I don't believe he has to prove anything to any armchair critic and surely not 'share out his points'. So if the boy can go up further, lIke Jimmy says, many Malaysians will applaud you Dilwen and be equally proud of your achievements in Chess.
Block out the noise, stay hungry and stay focus

Anonymous said...

Ratings and titles should be abolished altogether. It serves no purpose at all. Instead FIDE should just adopt a system like in badminton or tennis with ranking points to determine who the world no.1 should be. When you are past your best and you play like a patzer, a GM title hangs like an albatross down your neck.

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