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A review of the
Chess Express Rating
service through the eyes of someone who actually uses it.

by Pete Blanchette*

Hello everybody, I'm President of a small chess club in Gastonia, North Carolina (USA).  We joined Chess Express Ratings, Inc. (CXR) because I thought they could breathe some life into our club.  Man, they did the whole CPR thing for us!

There we were, just about flat-lining, when all of a sudden... BZZZZZZZZZT!  Excitement was zapped right back into us.  By now you're probably thinking, "This guy has had one too many brain scans."  Well check this out...

We had been together as a club only a few months and already some of the guys were bored and frustrated.  They asked, "How long does it take to get a rating around here?" and "When is this rating ever gonna change?" or, "Hey man, if I'm gonna study and read all this stuff, I wanna see some results pretty quick, or why bother?"  With CXR now I can report our game results right on their website, and get updated results in just 24 hours.  Enthusiasm, and more importantly attendance, has increased.  Now the guys are back to being excited about chess.

One area of excitement is their "Hot List".  Each month they show who is gaining the most rating points that month, and the guys try really hard for bragging rights.  We often see our names on the list, right along with the Masters and GMs.  We get ratings (yes, that is plural) updated and categorized in just 24 hours.  Statistics like you see in other sports too.

Our players can log in at CXR any time, day or night, and see their latest ratings: ratings with the White pieces, Ratings with the Black pieces, uphill ratings (games against higher rated opponents), downhill ratings (you guessed it, games against lower rated opponents), fast time control ratings (games in 7-14 minutes), quick time ratings (15-39 minutes), and longer time controls of 40 minutes or longer.  They even have a rating for playing without a clock.

CHESS EXPRESS RATINGS
PLAYER PERSONAL FOLIO
for Peter Blanchette
As of 11/08/03 at 16:17:48

Player ID

1701

Club

Knights Corner Chess Club of Gastonia

Club ID

KCCCG

Official CXR Rating

1375

Current X-rating

1377   (unofficial)

Rating Status

Rating Established

Highest Rating Achieved

1414

White Rating

1300

Black Rating

1250

Uphill Rating

1206

Downhill Rating

1226

Speed Rating

more games needed

Quick Rating

1262

Regulation Rating

1341

Untimed Rating

more games needed

* Total Games Reported

40

* Total Games WON

35

* Total Games DRAWN

1

* Total Games LOST

4

* Overall Winning %

88.8%

* based on activity from April 1, 2003 forward.

 

 

Authorization Level

Primary Rating Official for Knights Corner Chess Club of Gastonia

Date of Birth

1951-10-01

Email address

pblanchette@carolina.rr.com

Player Status

Active

Think about it, what a great learning tool!  Now you can see your strengths and weaknesses.  That also makes it a great weapon; knowing about your opponent before the battle starts.  Even our die-hard USCF rated tournament players like to play CXR games to hone their skills and not hurt their precious USCF rating.

From the CXR website:  "CXR ratings provide you with more information than any traditional rating. As you use our service, you'll find that you have numerous statistics (not only a rating) that can give you advantages never before available. These statistics can help you decide what you need to study and practice for further improvement."

Benefits for the Player

Benefits for Your Club

  • Annual Dues only $5.00

  • Your personal "Folio" of over a dozen statistics updated daily!

  • Your CXR rating - a sensitive measure of your current playing ability

  • CXR rating reflects both tournament and casual play

  • No need to pay costly tournament fees in order to be rated

  • Rapid feedback on your chess progress

  • New ratings and percentages that isolate:
    Your performance with the WHITE pieces
    Your performance with the BLACK pieces

  • New energy and excitement improve your play

  • Ability to review your Game History in detail

  • Distinctive Player ID Card admits you to CXR Clubs and Events

  • Your club members save a small fortune on rating costs
  • Your club offers the most advanced chess rating service on Earth
  • We track over 40 statistics on each of your players
  • Your club provides the tools for your players to improve
  • Your club offers the fastest rating updates available anywhere
  • Enthusiasm about ratings and statistics attracts new members
  • Increased excitement and competition encourages more games
  • Benefits of CXR service helps your club keep its members
  • Revenue from ratings improve your bottom line
  • CXR metrics help team captains fine-tune their lineups
  • Player ID Cards boost your club's prestige

Every week, just before we meet on Saturdays, I go ahead and print out our club's roster (by rating, although you can get that roster about 18 different ways) to post on our bulletin board.  We can check out all kinds of stuff.  Say you have a brother in another state who is part of CXR, you can bring up his club roster to see how he's doing - not that he would ever lie, or exaggerate!  You may just want to see how many members are in that club, or how strong their club is:

CHESS EXPRESS RATINGS
CLUB ROSTER for Knights Corner Chess Club of Gastonia
For Active and Inactive Players
For Rated and Provisional Players
Shown by Rating
As of 11/08/03 at 16:14:51

Player
ID

First Name

Last Name

Club
ID

Status

Official
CXR
Rating

Unofficial
Current
CXR Rating

Rating
Status

GvsR

exp.
pts.

White
rating

Black
rating

Uphill
rating

Down-
hill
rating

Speed
rating

Quick
rating

1709

Melvin

Lyles

KCCCG

I

1512

1512

R

n/a

n/a

1532

1512

1571

1531

0

0

1708

Scott

gruBell

KCCCG

A

1487

1487

R

n/a

n/a

1594

1454

1562

1471

0

0

1701

Peter

Blanchette

KCCCG

A

1375

1377

R

n/a

n/a

1300

1250

1206

1226

0

1262

1707

Austin

Glover

KCCCG

A

1272

1272

R

n/a

n/a

1127

1250

1212

1089

0

0

1722

Emmett

Smith

KCCCG

A

1265

1260

R

n/a

n/a

1289

1296

1458

1338

0

0

1713

Curtis

Morrison

KCCCG

I

1206

1206

R

n/a

n/a

1201

1206

1230

1195

0

0

1712

John

Turlington

KCCCG

I

1200

1200

P

0

0

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

1714

Chris

Willis

KCCCG

I

1169

1169

R

n/a

n/a

1149

1169

1134

1170

0

0

1715

Derek

Stadther

KCCCG

I

1139

1139

R

n/a

n/a

1100

1198

1185

1165

0

0

1704

Franklin

Hatcher

KCCCG

A

1133

1133

R

n/a

n/a

1142

1112

1107

1076

0

1090

1718

Dusan

Krivosik

KCCCG

I

1085

1085

P

1

24

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

1719

Martin

Inman

KCCCG

A

1083

1083

R

n/a

n/a

985

1076

1047

1011

0

962

1710

Brian

Ruff

KCCCG

I

1045

1045

R

n/a

n/a

990

1026

994

1000

0

1025

1717

Jerome

Wells

KCCCG

A

1042

1042

R

n/a

n/a

1068

1067

1085

1095

0

0

1706

Charles

Ruff

KCCCG

A

1010

1002

R

n/a

n/a

985

997

986

1045

0

941

1720

Rick

Hooker

KCCCG

I

1000

1000

P

0

0

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

1711

Doris

Goodson

KCCCG

I

981

981

P

2

48

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

1702

Kenneth

McCarver

KCCCG

A

962

973

R

n/a

n/a

904

953

833

914

0

975

1716

Lee

Stadther

KCCCG

I

900

900

R

n/a

n/a

0

900

920

920

0

0

1721

Scott

Strickland

KCCCG

I

833

833

P

1

24

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a