January 2013 Grades

 The new ECF grading list came out this morning, published here. For me it was a more satisfying sight than its predecessor in July - I am now graded A162 for slowplay, and A151 for rapidplay. So for once my attempts to predict with the help of a spreadsheet were not a million miles off the mark; you will recall I estimated 164/150. The slowplay is a little bit disappointing, especially when I can now plug the exact numbers in and discover that if I had collected 2 more grading points over the course of 30 games, I would have reached 163. Oh well. As a junior, I would be 172 slow and 170 rapid. But I'm not, and a small point of note is that I am the 3rd most-improved adult rapid player in the country. Or, if you prefer, I was the 3rd most-undergraded adult rapid player.

 Rather belatedly, I have climbed to second on the slowplay section of the Sutton GS grading entry, behind only our ex-top board who has just qualified as a National Master. Amongst Bristol University's active players, I am =6th, and expect on the basis of that to be playing board 4 for our 1st team at the British Universities Championship in three weeks' time. I haven't moved in Wallington's list (although the two above me are now very close at 166 and 163) and remain 7th-strongest. Sadly Castles has started to disintegrate since it moved venue, but officially I am 7th there too.

 To revise the grades from my January opponents thus far, Koby Kalavannan is 156, David Howes is 125 (rapid), GA Harvey is 145, and Stuart Iles is 164. Thus my nebulous performances to date are 172 and 150, but early days yet of course!

 Addendum, 04/02: Very early days - the ECF has today published a revised version of the grading list, since an oversight relating to junior calculation (see here if you really care) has knocked a huge swathe of junior rapidplay grades, over 2000 of them, out by a point or two. So lots of juniors, or people that play lots of juniors, have gone up, and I'm one of them. I now stand at A152 for rapid, and thus an improvement of 32! None of my opponents this season to date have changed.