FIDE Historical Ratings, July 1990-2000

Several people have asked if I have any midyear rating files. I received the July files for the years 1990-2000 at the same time I received the January files, but never processed them. The July files covering those 11 years are now available in the same directory...

FIDE historical ratings
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/ratings/

...as the other files.

FIDE Announcements: Grand Prix, Kamsky - Topalov

The last few weeks have seen a flurry of FIDE anouncements on the Grand Prix, Global Chess BV, Kamsky - Topalov, and Anti-Doping Regulations.

• Grand Prix Qualifiers • 'FIDE is pleased to publish the names of the first batch of players who have qualified for the Grand Prix series 2008/9' [4 January 2008]
  
  
• Agreement between Global Chess BV and Turkish Chess Federation • 'Following the contractual assignment of relaunching the FIDE website by the Executive board in November, the CEO of Global Chess BV Geoffrey Borg and President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici signed an agreement for cooperating on developing new web technologies, improving the design and the content of the FIDE web site.' [14 January 2008]
  
  
• FIDE Grand Prix and Player's Undertaking • 'FIDE is pleased to announce the dates and venues for the 2008/2009 Grand Prix Tournaments' [1 February 2008, changed later]
  
  2008-04-20 / -05-06 Baku, Azerbaijan
  2008-07-30 / -08-15 Krasnoyarsk (or other Russian city), Russia
  2008-12-13 / -12-29 Doha, Qatar
  2009-04-14 / -04-28 Montreux, Switzerland
  2009-09-01 / -08-17 Elista, Russia
  2009-12-07 / -12-23 Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic [aka Karlsbad]
  
  Reserve cities are Istanbul and Teheran.
  
  
• Bids for the WCC Challengers Match Kamsky - Topalov 2008 • 'FIDE has accepted an offer for the WCC Challengers Match Kamsky - Topalov 2008 by the Bulgarian Chess Federation. This offer included a net prize fund of 150,000 USD and has been approved by the FIDE Presidential Board since June 2007.' [12 February 2008]
  
  
• FIDE Anti-Doping Regulations • 'In furtherance of its role, Federation Internationale Des Echecs (FIDE) [...] dedicates its efforts to ensuring that in chess the spirit of Fair Play prevails, leads the fight against doping in sport and takes measures the goal of which is to prevent endangering the health of competitors. [...] FIDE has accepted the World Anti Doping Code and its International Standards. For any matter that is not covered in these rules, the Code and the standards will prevail.' [13 February 2008]

It's curious that the FIDE Presidential Board accepted the Kamsky - Topalov bid in June 2007. There was recent speculation that it would take place in Elista.

FIDE Historical Ratings 1971-79

Continuing with FIDE Historical Ratings 1971-74, I added links for the four new files to the index page of all rating files. (See that previous post for links to other pages mentioned here). Then I did some simple tests on the files.

The first test was to see why there is a different count of players between the 1971 file and another copy on Old in Chess (OiC). I determined that all of the players on OiC are on my new file (WCC), but the WCC file lists three additional players. There are many other differences, especially in the spelling of names. Two of over 160 examples are WCC: 'Tseshkovsky, Vitaly V', OiC: 'Cheshkovsky, Vitaly', and WCC: 'Vinje-Gulbrandsen, Arne', OiC: 'Gulbrandsen, Arne'.

There are also small differences in the number of titled players. WCC lists 83 GMs and 178 IMs; OiC lists 82 GMs and 172 IMs. The ratings for the 589 players found on both files match perfectly, and that is what really matters. It is clear the files have a common source, but have been massaged by different hands. The numbers of players on the four new files are as follows:

1971:   592
1972:   794
1973: 1119
1974: 1096

Except for 1974, when many women disappeared from the list, this compares favorably with growth for the rest of the first decade of FIDE ratings:

1975: 1528
1976: 1650
1977: 1910
1978: 2020
1979: 2426
1980: 2883

Some numbers for subsequent years are 1990: 7786, and 2000: 33383. This compares with 87562 names on the January 2008 FIDE rating list, including 1109 GMs and 2808 IMs.