Announcement

Junior selections for 2016 international representative events will be based on a new "High-Tide" system, whereby a player's HIGHEST full rating at the end of ANY tournament (domestic or foreign) ending between January 1st and the first Monday in May will be used as the basis for rankings for selection.

The junior eligibility criteria, together with the requirement for players to be federated to Ireland, are unchanged.

Any questions regarding this announcement should be addressed to [email protected] cc [email protected]

Background

In previous years, selections for the Glorney Gilbert International and other international representative events eg WYCC and EYCC, were based on one “snapshot in time” rating list – for example the “May 2015” list.

One consequence of this was that juniors were making decisions NOT TO PLAY rated chess events in the lead-up to the deadline for fear of losing not simply rating points but places on teams or squads. Juniors have been known not to play in events from as far out as 2-3 months from the selection date.

This new measure has been introduced to encourage a “nothing to lose, everything to gain” approach to tournament participation in the run up to selection.

Ratings website changes

In support of this new system, the Top Juniors page on ratings.icu.ie is to be changed in due course. This change will be detailed when it is implemented on the ratings website.

FAQs

• Q. What if a player plays NO tournaments in the period? A. The players published rating will be used.