FIDE USCF(and other countries) Rating Relations

This is my first blog, and since I was too dull to think of anything else, I would like to elaborate on the subject of the relations between USCF and FIDE ratings. I myself am a frequent USCF player who is about 1900 USCF and about 1830 FIDE. My current FIDE is quite decent, but it was not always like this.

Last year, my FIDE was about 1730, and my USCF was I believe 1770 or 1780 at the time. I entered a tournament in Philadelphia, which was 6 rounds. The tournament itself was decent (I gained USCF but lost 80 FIDE points in the process), but I would like to specifically talk about the final round. I played a 2036 USCF player, and I intentionally will not tell you his FIDE yet. Since I was a weak 1700 amateur, I obviously got crushed by him in a completely equal endgame.

After the game, we discussed the game with each other, and he agreed that I did miss a chance to draw. Further in the discussion, we began to talk about how we began to play chess tournaments and reached our current ratings. And then my opponent told me he had just had an extraordinary tournament the preceding week. As I recall him telling me, he knocked out 3 National Masters in the same tournament, won against a 2100, and lost only a single game to another 2100, scoring 4/5 for 2nd place. The most insane part about all this was that when he played this tournament, he was only 1940 USCF!

His rating made a massive jump, and he reached the illustrious but trifling title of Expert upon becoming 2000+. I was shocked. Then it came to my mind to ask him about his FIDE. He casually said his FIDE was 1500. 1500? I was 1780 USCF and even my FIDE was much higher than his. And with that FIDE he beat 3 National Masters?! That simply shows how completely imbalanced the relation between FIDE and USCF ratings are. USCF players like my opponent have FIDE ratings that are heavily underrated for their skill and USCF.

For this reason, I believe FIDE should not immediately give a player a FIDE rating based on a certain number of FIDE rated games. There should be more factors involved in the assignment of a rating to a player. It is true that most countries follow the FIDE chess ruled and rating system, but what of the countries that do have their own rating systems? USA, China, Germany, France, and many more are all but examples. So essentially, the rating of a player based on their country's system should also be taken into account when they are getting their first FIDE ratings.

Hopefully this blog made you think about these rating relations and differences. Additionally, as a bonus for reading this far and through the entire blog, I'm including a brilliant game I played otb a while ago. (3 brilliants!)

? vs ?: Scandinavian Defense: Marshall Variation • lichess.org