Check out your ratings

A key incentive for players is rising in the lists, says David Levy

ONE of the major incentives for improving the skills of players in certain mind sports is elevation in the rankings or ratings list. Major physical sports such as tennis and golf each have their own system of gradings - and that idea has long been popular among players of mind sports such as bridge, chess and Go.

A rankings list enables players to monitor their progress and to compare their strengths and results with friends and rivals.

Each different mind sport has its own system of rankings. In chess there is the Elo system, named after the Hungarian-American professor of statistics who invented it, which gives each player a numerical rating.

It became apparent to the US Chess Federation when the Elo system was introduced for tournament chess in the 1950s, that the highly- competitive nature of chess players made them ideal subjects for such a system. Many players are more concerned about how their rating is advancing or declining than they are about their creative abilities at the chessboard and their results in individual games.

In bridge the system is different. Players collect points which are cumulative. A player who competes for long enough at a reasonable level can become a Life Master.

In Go the system is different again - players are rated in grades or "Kyu" until they rise to 1-Kyu, then their grades move up to the rarefied "Dan" level: 1-Dan, 2-Dan and so on.

The Third Mind Sports Olympiad is being marked by the launch of a unified MSO ranking list that measures players in the same way for every game and mental skill. A player's ranking in a particular discipline is based on where he or she finished in that mind sport in each of the Olympiads in which he or she competed.

Stronger tournaments, as determined by the average rankings of the players just prior to the event, will be given more weight in the calculations than weaker tournaments.

Recent tournaments are weighted more highly than past tournaments in order to reflect the current form of players. Once a player is ranked, he cannot rest on his laurels - those who do not compete will see their rankings decline slightly, due to a small percentage drop for each year that player is inactive.

The inaugural MSO rankings list will be published for every mind sport shortly before the start of this year's Olympiad, together with full details of the calculations leading to those rankings.

At the end of the Olympiad a new list will be published which takes into account this year's results.

As a corollary to the unified format of the MSO ranking list, a system of MSO titles is also being inaugurated at this year's Olympiad. Participants will be eligible, in each game and mental skill, for the titles: MSO Grandmaster, MSO International Master and MSO Candidate Master.

The rules for gaining one of these titles are simple. To become a MSO Grandmaster in a particular mind sport, a player must win two gold medals or one gold and two silvers.

To become a MSO International Master, the necessary achievements are two silver medals, or one silver and two bronze, or one gold and one bronze.

A MSO Candidate Master title is bestowed on a player who wins two bronze medals or one bronze and one silver. Competitors in a few mind sports must play a certain number of games in the tournaments in which they won their medals.

Medals won in the first two Mind Sports Olympiads may be included in the tally and the first title certificates will be presented during next month's Olympiad.