Changes in the Rating Regulations from 1.7.2009

Registration of Tournaments

All tournaments have to be pre-registered one month before the tournament; exceptions to this may be decided by the QC Chairman.
The intention is to publish registered tournaments in a calendar on the FIDE web page immediately after 
registration. This is to inform the participating players that the tournament will be rated.
A tournament registration may be rejected, if the tournament seems to be suspicious. FIDE has also the right not to rate a tournament. The organizer may appeal against these decisions.

Rating Period

The rating period will be shortened from three months to two months. The list dates will be January 1, March 1, May 1, July 1, September 1 and November 1.
The closing date, it is the date on or by which a competition must be finished to be included on the list, will be seven days before the list date. The official FIDE competitions will be taken on the list if they finish even on the day before the list date.

Coefficient K

The change of K as decided in Dresden was not confirmed by the PB. The K values stay as they are.
Also the value of 0.5 point in a new player's rating calculation will stay as 12.5 (half of the highest K value).

The K is determined based on the rating at the beginning of the tournament, not based on the rating at the time the ratings are calculated (the practice now)

Rating of Previously Unrated Players

Games against unrated players are rated in round-robin tournaments, as they have been rated so far. It is, if a previously unrated player scores at least 1 point in the event, the rating will be calculated. For the previously rated players all games, also the games against previously unrated players are rated.

In the Swiss tournaments, the rating of a previously unrated player is calculated, if the player plays against at least three rated opponents, scores at least 1 point against the rated opponents, and the rating calculated based on these games is at least the rating floor.

The rating of games of a rated player against unrated opponents was not confirmed by the PB, but the issue was returned to the QC.

Rating Floor

The rating floor will be 1200 from 1.7.2009. It means that a first result giving a rating at least 1200 for an unrated player is taken into account when calculating the unrated player's first published rating.

Changes in the Calculation of the Unrated Player's Rating

 The new player's first published rating will be calculated in a cumulative way. 
Until 30.6.2009: The rating is calculated as a weighted average of tournament ratings (at least three rated opponents in a tournament) when the total number of games against rated players is at least 9. 
From 1.7.2009: The rating will be calculated as if all games had been in one tournament.

Example:
An unrated player has played three tournaments as follows: 3 games with a result 1.5/3 against opponents with an average rating of 2000, 4 games 1/4 against 2100 and 5 games 4/5 against 2200. 

Until 30.6.2009: The partial ratings would be 2000, 1907 and 2238, weighted average is 2068. 

From 1.7.2009: The average rating of all opponents is 2142, the total result is 6.5/12, so the new player's rating is 2142+12.5=2155. 

Maximum Rating Difference

The maximum rating difference used in the calculations will be 400 points instead of 350. If the rating difference between players is more than 400 points, 400 points is used. It means that the highest expected result in a game will 0.92 instead of 0.89 and the lowest expected result will 0.08 instead of 0.11.

Changes in the Title Regulations from 1.7.2009

Registration of Tournaments

All tournaments have to be pre-registered, as described in the Rating Regulations.

Allowed Rates of Play

From 1.7.2009 only a certain set of rates of rates of play are valid for title results. This was a requirement by the players' organisation to have less variation in the tournaments.
The allowed time controls are as follows:
•	90 minutes with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from first move (This time control is valid only until 30.6.2010.)
•	90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from the first move
•	100 minutes for 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds cumulative increment for each move starting from first move	
•	40 moves in 2 hours followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game
•	40 moves in 2 hours followed by 60 minutes for the rest of the game 
•	40 moves in 2 hours followed by 20 moves in 1 hour followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game

Publishing of the Applications

Except the registered titles, the title applications must be published on the FIDE web for at least 60 days before final approval.

Automatic (Registered) Titles and Norms

The table 1.21 dealing with automatic (registered) titles and norms has been updated to have more consistency. 

Concerning the norms and titles in 1.21, the minimum number of participants in a group is eight to get the title/norm.

In special regional or other groups (except IBCA, ICSC, IPCA) at least one third of the member federations have to participate to produce the titles/norms. 

In the zonals and subzonals, the 66 2/3 percent result gives only one IM/WIM, and 50 percent result only two FM/WFM titles, no matter whether the tournament is played as a round-robin or a Swiss tournament. 

U-8 youth tournaments will give also FM and CM titles, similarly to, for example, U-10 youth tournaments.

The GM, WGM, IM, WIM performance in certain competitions based on at least 9 games is worth 13 games, a norm based on at least on 9 games is worth 20 games. 

Titles Based on Achieved Ratings

The titles based on ratings (FM, WFM, CM, and WCM)  may be achieved with a rating at any time, a 
published rating, a rating within a period between tournaments and even a rating within a tournament.

Changes in Requirements for Title Norms 

The performance requirements are changed to even numbers 2600, 2400, 2450 and 2250. The requirements of the average rating of the opponents are also changed to even numbers 2380, 2180, 2230 and 2030.

The number of the opponents having the applied title is increased from three to 1/3 opponents with a minimum of three. For other than GM title, conversion coefficients for higher titles are used, for example, for an IM title, 1/3 of the opponents must be IMs, a GM opponent will count as 1.5 IM.

The protection against unrated or low rated opponents is limited to only one, and the floor value is decreased to performance requirement - 400, for example, for a GM application, only one opponent may be raised to 2600-400=2200.

Unrated title players are treated as having a rating as follows: GM 2400, IM 2200, WGM 2100, WIM 2000, FM 2100 and WFM 1800.

Even if the competition is longer than 13 rounds, and a title norm is achieved based on more that 13 games, the norm counts only as a 13 game norm. Even with overscoring the maximum is 13 games.

One title result must be with normal foreigner and federation requirements met. It is that not all norms are achieved in national championships without the foreigner and federation requirements met, nor without foreigner and federation requirements met in tournaments where the total number of foreigners and foreign GM, WGM, IM and WIM players would allow the have title norm without foreigner and federation requirements met.