Ranking Calculations

Find out how we determine our monthly rankings below! Very simply, it's similar to FIDE circuit rating points with a few tweaks. For any questions or more details, feel free to email king@abqchessclub.org.

Event Criteria

Here are the criteria for an event to qualify for ranking points:

Events must be a USCF-rated event held in the state of New Mexico
Any affiliate's event may qualify for ranking points. No special cost or request is required.
Must be the top single section of an event
Must have at least 6 players
Must have at least 3 rounds (will change to 4 rounds in 2025)
The average of the top 6 players must be at least 1650. Provisional player ratings will only be used after 5 games played.
Pre-event ratings will be used in determining tournament average rating
Club nights do not qualify. Must be an advertised event.

Player eligibility

Here are the criteria for a player to qualify for ranking points:

Basic points for a tournament are awarded if the players placed in (or tied for) the top 8, provided that the placing is within the top half of the tournament
Basic points are 100% shared equally among all tied players
Ranking months used will be a rolling 12-month period
Players will appear on the list after two months of earning points in a 12-month period
The top five months of scores in the previous 12 month period will be added together to determine final ranking points

Calculating points

Here is the math of how ranking points are given:

Points obtained by a player are as follows:

P = B times k times w
P = points obtained by player
B = Base points
k = tournament strength factor, calculated as k = (TAR - 1600) / 100
TAR = Tournament average rating of top 6 players
w = weighting, 1.0 - Regular, 0.8 - State Rapid, 0.6 - State Blitz and other Rapid events
Base points
- 1st place - 10
- 2nd place - 8
- 3rd place - 7
- 4th place - 6
- 5th place - 5
- 6th place - 4
- 7th place - 3
- 8th place - 2