FIDE Qualification Commission Ratings Officers Workshop 11th October 2025
The FIDE Qualification Commission (QC) held a workshop for Federation Ratings Officers (FRO) on the 11th October 2025. It was well attended, with over 40 federations represented. The workshop ran for 2 hours and consisted of three main sections.
QC Chair Sabrina de San Vicente covered FIDE Titles Policy. Topics included requirements for title events, the process for applying for titles and how QC manages the approval process.
QC Secretary discussed the FIDE Rating System. Topics of interest included recent changes in rating regulations, how QC receives and implements suggestions on changing the rating system, and how QC investigates complaints concerning the conduct of events.
QC Member Cristobal Vega Adorno went through the use of the FIDE Rating Server (FRS). Subjects included correct registration of events, adding new players, and demonstrating extra functionality that the FRS provides to federations.
At the end of the meeting there was a short time for questions from the attendees and explanations from the presenters. The response from the participants was very positive and QC intend to hold similar meetings on a yearly basis.
Slides from each of the presentations are available at:
FIDE Titles Presentation: you can access clicking here
FIDE Ratings Presentation: you can access clicking here
FIDE Rating Server Presentation: you can access clicking here
A copy of the meeting video is available clicking here
Shaun Press
Secretary, FIDE QC
Workshop Questions and Answers
Questions from participants in bold text
What to do when organising Federation doesn’t send signed certificate to player’s federation and even FIDE?
Contact us (QC) and we will contact the Federation
To make it easier on the QC, I would usually start by contacting the organizing Federation to understand where the holdup is. Could be the organizer is tardy in providing the certificate. If no answer then ask QC for help. Guess this approach is also OK?
This is also OK
I presume the same for pgn-files?
Yes.
May I confirm if the norm certificate must be signed only by the Rating Officer and the President, and not by other officers such as the Secretary?
Yes. Although it is possible to ask for another official to be responsible, but you should have only President and 1 other. And please confirm this with QC in advance
Regarding minimum rating, should K factor at the start of the rating period be always counted?
Yes, but note regulation 8.3.3 If the number of games (n) for a player on any list for a rating period multiplied by K (as defined above) exceeds 700, then K shall be the largest whole number such that K x n does not exceed 700.
There has been a bug for about a year now where some players have their K coefficient set to 0, which prevents them from getting an elo, even if they have played enough games. I have complained about this several times, when will this problem be fixed?
The FIDE Ratings Office say it should be fixed now, but if not, please send examples
Can a FRO officer be also an arbiter of the tournament?
Yes
After 1st of April 2024, there are many situations when a player gets an initial rating and then, sometimes during the same month, loses the rating completely, without playing a single game. Often, these players are children and we cannot convincingly explain to their parents why they have lost totally the rating.
See the answer below concerning rating corrections
What is the procedure when faulty results are in the reports? If the wrong rating file is being counted, what is the correct procedure for correction?
In both cases, send an email requesting a correction to ratings@fide.com. Include the corrected file
NB With the implementation of crosstable reports for submitted events platyers and ratings officers should now be able to fix errors prior to the event being rated.
To make corrections, e.g. of wrongly recorded results or wrong rating report uploaded by mistake, is there some sort of time span within which this need to happen. Do we need to point these out before next monthly cycle? What if the error is pointed out 1½ month later?
QC is establishing a new policy regarding correction requests. This will be published shortly.
Current policy is to run rating update corrections to cover the previous 18 months, to have the most accurate calculations and to preserve historical data.
We are getting changes every 3 and 4 days what to do?
Rating lists are released on the 1st of every month. If the ratings for the previous months need a technical update (due to errors in data or the implementation of a new regulation), these ratings may change. Organisers should use the ratings that were published on the start date of their event,
The related issue here is a conflict between fixing incorrect results as soon as possible and waiting until the start of the next period to do so. QC receive strong arguments covering both cases
NB With the implementation of crosstable reports for submitted events players and ratings officers should now be able to fix errors prior to the event being rated.
If player becomes rated and after some month, he became unrated. Are 26-month criteria applicable in this case?
Yes
In some cases 26-month criteria applied and some cases only considered last event?
If a player fails to achieve a minimum rating based on combining consecutive events, earlier events (oldest first) are discarded until a minimum rating is achieved. The 26 month limit refers to the date of the first event used and the last event prior to achieving a published rating
One ID used by two – how to resolve some support from Ratings.
Send an email requesting a correction to ratings@fide.com
Duplicate ID cancellation
Send an email requesting a correction to ratings@fide.com
Hypothetical opponent added multiple time without strength of player so fluctuation of initial rating getting and becoming unrated in next played events.
Send an email requesting a correction to ratings@fide.com with specific examples
During event rating change. Which rating data should be used for any event. Is it 1st of every month ignoring changes after 1st of every month.
Use the rating that was published at the start of the event. NB organisers aren’t expected to check everyday for a change of ratings. However the date of the latest update is listed on the download page
When uploading results, there is often a difference in the players’ ratings (often just one point). Is it necessary to correct these differences in the uploaded data or will the tournament be automatically counted with the correct ratings?
You don´t need to correct them. The correct rating will be retrieved from the ratings database based on the players FIDE id.
A few years ago, when the arbiters were filled in with their FIDE IDs in the documents, they were automatically updated when uploaded to FRS. This does not work at the moment. Why was this functionality cancelled and is it not being considered to bring it back? Often, when registering, the organizer only reports the head arbiter and only in the documents are all the arbiters listed, which then have to be entered manually.
QC has asked the FIDE Ratings Office and this is their response
“This was removed as new categories of Arbiters appeared and some ‘new category’ arbiters were moved under e.g. Deputy Chief etc. just to be listed in TRF. Same for FPL/Anticheating.”
If all games of a fide rated round robin is broadcast on a DGT server, should federation send a pgn file as proof of games
Yes. QC still need a file submitted as part of the norm claim
Is there only one login for the FRS server or can we have several officials with different log in?
One login is recommended for all federations. However some larger federations have more than 1, to help with the workload of the FRO. QC has asked the Ratings Office if events can be registered in bulk, via the use of spreadsheet files. No response as yet
How do I register a tournament that’s like the World Cup — knockout format, starting with standard games, then rapid, then blitz?
They need to be registered as separate events – due to different time controls
Do you know there is a bug when you use “new long tournament” where you have filled in an organizer? The organizer is not saved the first time. Same with “add new round”.
QC has asked the FIDE Ratings Office and are awaiting an answer.
If you enter a maximum rating for an event reported over two cycles, and a player gains rating in the first month to surpass this maximum. Will that cause any problems?
QC will ask the ratings office – I assume you mean a 30m+30s event with a player 1799 in June and 1801 in July?
What is the procedure for deceased (Dead) players?
Send an email to ratings@fide.com
Deceased players should be automated
QC has asked the FIDE Ratings Office this was their answer
“Deceased players case was not granted to Federations as it can be used as ‘hide’ feature. This was done intentionally.”
Under the section where we can change players details, is a complete change of name allowed provided the player has provided documentation?
Yes
If a birth date is corrected, are ratings recalculated with new K?
It depends on when it is updated – if it falls within the current recalculation schedule (past 18 months) it will be recalculated.
About the export. We export player ratings into our Federation tournament system every month. This is an automated task that happens on schedule on the 1st of the month. Recently there has been some months were the list was not updated by FIDE when our script ran, so we got the month-old list – was there a change in FIDE timelines at the end/start of monthly cycles?
Not that we were aware of. QC has asked the FIDE Ratings Office and this was their answer
“This update is a manual update in config file but we may have 1-3 days delay in that and update once we receive a note if this was missed.”
Are you considering adding a player deletion feature to FRS?
No. There may be issues with Federations deleting players for reasons other than data errors
We currently have a problem with a player whose ID has been hidden but he still has played in rated Events. Unfortunately FRS does not refuse to accept hidden IDs in TRFs. The player appeals that his games continue to be rated.
QC is addressing this specific issue and developing a policy on this matter. NB Players cannot play in FIDE Rated events and not have their games rated. If a player denies having a FIDE ID (or fails to supply one when they have been issued one), then they should be excluded from the event.
The FIDE Rating Office will add a filter to not accept hidden players in TRF file.
Most important, rating officers should be able to submit corrections themselves – access to an already rated event, and submit either a corrected Krause-file, or update other relevant information (arbiters/time control/etc); the QC would approve the changes – or not.
We will add this to our list of requested improvements to the FRS
The FIDE Rating Office says
“Upload of corrections for past events can be dangerous and will require manual check anyway from ratings dept.
If Federation makes wrong correction by error – we can ruin the whole recalculations for too many players, I would suggest that we concentrate on live calculations so players and others see calculation faster and may have more players to report errors.”
Crosstables and provisional rating changes should appear as soon as a tournament is submitted – eventual errors would be detected more easily.
QC has asked the FIDE Ratings Office and they have implemented this feature. Importantly, all Federation Ratings Officers should now be able to check and correct errors before the end of a rating period.
ID requests to other federations; currently very problematic since some federations seem unreachable; the federation is of course free to impose its own conditions, but it would be nice to know in advance what they are
While not all federations respond to such requests (or refuse to grant ID’s to non resident players), current policy is that foreign players must have an ID before the start of the event. Otherwise entry must be refused.
It should not be possible to choose deceased players as arbiters and organisers. In the same way, it should not be possible to chose minors
The FIDE Rating Officer will implement this suggestion.
In the tournament pages, something to distinguish time control should exist. It would actually be enough a single letter next to the system.
We will add this to our list of requested improvements to the FRS
