National rating
The national rating number ( NWZ for short ) is a rating number in chess to compare the playing strength of individual players.
National ratings in general
In general, NWZ is the name given to the rating numbers administered by the respective national federation in contrast to the Elo number given by the world chess federation FIDE . Most national rating systems are based on the Elo system, at least in terms of the value figures.
National ratings in the GDR
In the GDR, a rating was only given for players of higher skill levels. This was called the NWZ . The rating list was recalculated and published annually by the "Classification Working Group of the Technical Commission of the German Chess Association of the GDR". The rating was calculated analogously to the Elo number or corresponded to it at least in terms of the order of magnitude and the direction of the rating (larger number = higher skill level).
At that time, a substantially different system, the Ingo number , was used in the German Chess Federation in the Federal Republic of Germany . After the unification of both associations, a uniform system - the German valuation number (DWZ) - was introduced, which is also mathematically based on the Elo system.
prehistory
The idea of introducing a rating system based on the FIDE Elo system came from Berlin's Uwe Bade , who was then the deputy chairman of the Technical Commission of the DSV in the GDR . During a visit to the DSV general secretariat in 1971, he became aware of an issue of the Swiss Chess Newspaper in which the Elo system was presented. Bade studied the article intensively and tested the system for a possible introduction in the DSV. He presented the results of his work to the association and received a consistently positive response.
In February 1972 the Technical Commission decided to partially introduce the rating system described by Bade in SCHACH 1/1972. All players participating in national competitions should be taken into account for the evaluation. Uwe Bade was responsible for the women's tournaments and Hans-Jürgen Hochgräfe from Leipzig for the men's tournaments.
The calculation of the national scores of the German Chess Association of the GDR - the official name of the scoring system - could be done with the help of computers from the start . Bade worked in the Center for Organization and Construction , where he had an IBM 360/40 mainframe computer at his disposal - a model that was later copied by the GDR ( ESER series from Robotron ). Hochgräfe processed the men's tournaments with a Cellatron 8205 small computer.
The first scoring lists
When setting up the scoring system, the following conditions had to be observed:
- The national ratings should be aligned with the international ones.
- The evaluations of women should be in real relation to those of men.
- There should be relationships with the still binding classification system.
In 1971, Bade undertook the evaluation of women's tournaments on a trial basis, because the database was manageable - there were around 150 active players. To create a real starting point, he retrospectively recorded all tournaments from 1963 and iteratively calculated from this data - the initial values were the Elo numbers - the first NWZ. This NWZ should be as close as possible to the known values of the GDR players from the Elo system.
Based on the experience gained in drawing up the women's rating list, competitions from 1965 were started when creating the men's rating list: the ¾ final (preliminary tournaments to the GDR individual championship), the final (GDR individual championship) and the special league ( top division of the GDR team championship) - a total of around 40 players. The circle of players was expanded to include the league and league competitions until 1970, so that around 400 players were included in the first scoring list. At that time, 14 GDR men were on FIDE's international list. The Elo numbers of these players were used as a reference to correct the national rating list accordingly.
Technical
As a programming language for the written bathing evaluation software was PL / I used. The same software was used for women and men, which was developed on the basis of the calculation rules applicable to the international lists. The data was fed into the computer via punch cards . The results were previously recorded by Hochgräfe in registration forms.
As the workload for data collection grew, Holger Borchers joined the team. Borchers also brought helpers with them who put the registration sheets on punch cards with punching machines. The punch cards were then brought from Bade to the Center for Organization and Construction and fed into the computer there. The use of the company computer was tacitly tolerated by the operations manager and the work was recorded as a social activity.
Individual evidence
swell
- The new rating system of FIDE (Elo system) by Uwe Bade in SCHACH 1/1972
- The Elo system in the German Chess Federation of the GDR in SCHACH 5/1973
- Letter to the editor answered by Uwe Bade in SCHACH 7/1982
- Interview by Frank Hoppe with Uwe Bade on March 11, 2007