Racing King titles • page 1/1 • Lichess Racing Kings • lichess.org

Hello,

I would prefer it if the Racing Kings titles could be given out by that team (so the leaders of the team) because the website of the "International Racing Kings Federation" (https://sites.google.com/view/irkf/irkf) is not pretty explaining. Also if I read it right there is nothing about Title Norms, except "RKWCM".
I would generally prefer if Lichess (or the mods of the Variant teams or "normal" mods) could give out those titles because I can't really understand that somebody unknown invents those titles.
I hope you understand my problem and I would be happy about feedback!

Best regards!
FS-Schach

Hello, I would prefer it if the Racing Kings titles could be given out by that team (so the leaders of the team) because the website of the "International Racing Kings Federation" (https://sites.google.com/view/irkf/irkf) is not pretty explaining. Also if I read it right there is nothing about Title Norms, except "RKWCM". I would generally prefer if Lichess (or the mods of the Variant teams or "normal" mods) could give out those titles because I can't really understand that somebody unknown invents those titles. I hope you understand my problem and I would be happy about feedback! Best regards! FS-Schach

RoyalManiac

Hello @FS-Schach,

Thanks for bringing this up!
To be clear, I'm writing this response on a personal title rather than as an official statement from Lichess Racing Kings as a team, or even Lichess itself.

The only fully functional title system for chess variants as of now is that of the International Antichess Federation (IAF).
Players have attempted to introduce titles to other variants on several occasions in the past, including for Racing Kings.

The problem is that succesfully implementing a title system requires a well-written set of rules, trustworthy and active volunteers to update titles and verify norms, and the support of a significant part of the community. In other words, a large amount of continuous work.

So far, no team has been able to maintain a functional title system for RK for longer periods of time. The IRKF is not an organisation / team that I had ever heard of before, nor does the current form of their title system seem worth supporting unfortunately.

I've personally opposed RK titles on several occasions when other players / teams tried to introduce them, for several reasons:

There were no players to keep verifying and updating titles, and I was not willing to do it
RK Arena tournaments at the time were much less active, and I believed that higher norms by tournament performance rating (tpr) would not be reliably achievable
I believed that the RK rating pool was heavily skewed in favour of fast time control players at the time, and still is to some extent today
Variant titles were often seen as a joke by other players, and even the RK community itself did not seem to take the idea seriously at the time
In most proposed title systems, it would appear that the lowest ranked titles were "freebies" for any stronger chess players who spent time on the variant. This is quite unlike in Antichess, where the ACM title seemingly requires a genuine effort out of anyone.

If there is truly a large interest from the community, who knows what could happen. For now though, I believe that setting personal rating targets or tournament goals can already be more than enough incentive for players to improve at the game, and that RK titles are not worth the effort it would take to create and maintain them - let alone to get the wider community to acknowledge them.

Hello @FS-Schach, Thanks for bringing this up! To be clear, I'm writing this response on a personal title rather than as an official statement from Lichess Racing Kings as a team, or even Lichess itself. --- The only fully functional title system for chess variants as of now is that of the International Antichess Federation (IAF). Players have attempted to introduce titles to other variants on several occasions in the past, including for Racing Kings. The problem is that succesfully implementing a title system requires a well-written set of rules, trustworthy and active volunteers to update titles and verify norms, and the support of a significant part of the community. In other words, a large amount of continuous work. So far, no team has been able to maintain a functional title system for RK for longer periods of time. The IRKF is not an organisation / team that I had ever heard of before, nor does the current form of their title system seem worth supporting unfortunately. I've personally opposed RK titles on several occasions when other players / teams tried to introduce them, for several reasons: - There were no players to keep verifying and updating titles, and I was not willing to do it - RK Arena tournaments at the time were much less active, and I believed that higher norms by tournament performance rating (tpr) would not be reliably achievable - I believed that the RK rating pool was heavily skewed in favour of fast time control players at the time, and still is to some extent today - Variant titles were often seen as a joke by other players, and even the RK community itself did not seem to take the idea seriously at the time - In most proposed title systems, it would appear that the lowest ranked titles were "freebies" for any stronger chess players who spent time on the variant. This is quite unlike in Antichess, where the ACM title seemingly requires a genuine effort out of anyone. If there is truly a large interest from the community, who knows what could happen. For now though, I believe that setting personal rating targets or tournament goals can already be more than enough incentive for players to improve at the game, and that RK titles are not worth the effort it would take to create and maintain them - let alone to get the wider community to acknowledge them.

FS-Schach

Yeah makes sense. Thank you!