Online Grading Service

Latest News (Dec27 2010): Thanks to all the area graders who have supplied data over the last year. Thanks also to the programmers. The next online grades update will be on January 5.

(Dec1 2010): Processing dates and the inclusion of data. All data received by the chief grader is processed usually every Wednesday. All data gets the latest processing date on it regardless of whether it has changed or not. So for example the Marymass Congress grading data from the start of the season may be the same for weeks on end but the "Grading calculations last updated" date will keep changing every Wednesday. Quite often there will be subtle changes like a player name spelling so that's why everything goes through processing each week to keep these crosstables accurate.

This does not mean that every game played prior to that Wednesday is included in calculations. Leagues and clubs vary with the frequency with which they supply data to be graded. If the data has not been supplied to the chief grader or the league official who compiles grading data is not informed of the result then clearly the data will not include those games. Similarly FIDE rated games played outside Scotland will only appear every two months when FIDE supply a spreadsheet of results from that preceding two month period.

There is a delay of a few hours between when all the revised crosstables are uploaded and when the online grading system is made live. So it may be that say the Glasgow League web report says Dec 1 last updated but the online grading system still has a November 24 change date (you can view the date in the left hand column of the online grade lookup). At the moment manual intervention is required by the programmers to make the latest database live. Eventually we should return to the situation of about a 30 minute period over which all grading, crosstables and the online database, is refreshed.

(Nov 3 2010): Thanks to programmer Gordon Rattray for a smart new facility which automatically captures all the SCO entries in the FIDE database. Latest FIDE file. This turns a tortuous hour of text, excel and html manipulation into a few minutes work. FIDE will be updating monthly some time next year so this is a very welcome improvement. As usual pls let us know if any errors.

(Oct5 2010): Our hosting firm had a vulnerability which allowed rogue code which temporarily affected all their customer's websites. Thanks to programmer Andrew McHarg for investigating and applying a fix. The online grade site should be working normally again.

(Sep 30 2010): The Grand Prix Leaderboards are now calculating points correctly. Draws are now being held in the program as 0.5 rather than 1/2 and this seems more to the liking of the system. Please let us know immediately if you think there is an error in any GP calculations. grading@chessscotland.com

(Sep 8 2010): Thanks to programer Gordon Rattray we now have the latest online update available which includes the September 1 FIDE download and recent Marymass Congress. Gordon is working on a revised Grand Prix leaderboard and that will be online as soon as amended.

(Sep 3 2010): A slightly different delay today. The September FIDE import file will not import. The programmers are having a look at why. Once that is fixed we think we will soon be back on the weekly upload schedule.

(Aug 18 2010): Apologies for recent and ongoing delays in getting online lookup access for new and rejoining members. An upload is available Aug 18. Gordon intends to get this uploaded in next few days. Prior to the change of computer package Gordon had devised an automated uploader - but that doesn't work with the new package. The revised uploader is being devised and meanwhile its back to manual hence delays.

Area Graders can set up the program for the new season. Download the latest master.zip and change the year to 2011 on the front of the program.

(July 30 2010): The new season has been set up and the Scottish Championships processed. The Grading List has been sent for printing.

(July 20 2010): We are almost ready for new season. As anyone knows when you change things in computing you risk introducing errors and so it was with the new website package which took a dislike to our use of halfs for draws. Thanks to the programming team for dealing with these issues and we hope to have the new season online before the weekend. Of course we didn't just change things for the sake of it - the new package should bring with it an enhanced grading service. Work continues on this project.

We will be uploading a temporary grading run to incorporate the Scottish Championship so that final Grand Prix scores can be calculated and winners announced. Once the GP tables are created this run will be redone removing the Championship data - the new 2011 season will follow shortly after.

Outside data and visitors: Some players have indicated they are not aware of the changes made to the conversion factor to be applied between ECF and CS grades. We now process ECF grades using the revised formula ECF*10+180= CS. See outside grade page for a discussion on the reasons why we believe a change was required.

FIDE rated games are now imported automatically using a spreadsheet supplied by FIDE every two months.

CS Members: New members should usually be able to access the online grading system on the first Wednesday after their membership has been processed. The online grading page indicates the date when grades have last been uploaded.

Non CS members: Non member adult players with over 10 games in a season cannot see latest grade in the ranking pages. However club lists and top player lists etc can be resorted by clicking the column called Published Grade and all start of season grades are displayed for all players - member or non member. Non member new adult grades appear as xxxx.

Club Lists: You can view all the members of your club by using the drop down menu on the right hand side of the online lookup page. The facility gives a default view of the latest grades of the first 100 players with a particular first club code. NB: The second club code is ignored. Non members may not be visible - see explanation above.

Area Graders: If you want to supply grading data please see the Area Grader page. Thanks to all area graders, clubs, congress officials, and individuals who compile grading data. Thanks to programmer Gordon Rattray.

ECF Lookup: The English Chess Federation online database. To convert ECF grades to CS multiply by 10 and add 180. (This is our new conversion formula from August 1, 2009).

FIDE Lookup: World chess federation database

Feedback: Please check that your data is correct by consulting online lookup. If you spot any errors pls email grading@chessscotland.com immediately.

Please click here for latest Online Grade Lookup