note that this deadline would’ve aplied to when FEDERATIONS must submit their reports. FIDE would still be within their rights to rate ANY completed event that finished within the deadline (maybe even later) as they see fit, according to B02, point 0.2 in the rating regulations.

both mtel (may 23rd) and poikovsky (june 12th) finished before the “old” deadline of june 15th. hence, FIDE could still rate both of them.

whether FIDE could also choose to rate bazna for almost the same reason, is something the “rules” aren’t clear about. i first assumed “no”, but that might not be the case. fide’s rules as presented in the fide handbook have got several inconsistencies as it is – for instance, still according to the handbook, events not _pre-registered_ – that is registered before the events start – will NOT be rated, at all. FIDE quite clearly does not comply to that rule (in the fide rating regulations) – even if that paragraph is quite clear and has been present for some years now.

feel free to draw your own conclusions… ;o)

sorry, that should be 16 points. 8 points is compared to rating none of the two events, but that seems to be hypothetical by now.

i think it should’ve been, as the change to “7 days before the new list publication date” wasn’t supposed to take effect before _after_ july 1st, similar to the switch to 6 rating periods. but this is FIDE we’re talking about – and they’ve kept rating events submitted all up to yesterday. according to “new rules”, the last day for submitting (non-FIDE organized) events is today, june 24th.

btw, shirov will _permanently_ earn 8 points in the july + january average compared to also rating poikovsky now.

here is a summary of various rating orders:

mtel now, poikovsky later
compared to

poikovsky now, mtel later: +24
none of them now: +8
both now: -16

so in theory a different rating order (which is not strictly governed by fide rules), could’ve left shirov with a final rating average (for the qualification to the candidates) that would be 24 (twenty-four) points lower than what now seems to be the case. currently this is ideal for shirov – but the whole concept that rating ORDER – not final rating or game results – might become the decider here, shows that FIDE’s rules are heavily insufficient.

i would personally like shirov to have the best possible chances to qualify for the candidates, but at the same time it doesn’t make sense overall that poikovsky (end date june 12th) will not be rated for the july list. in situations like this, i think it’s vital for any perceived fairness that every event including top level players are treated the same. “the same” is of course a vague term, but i might formulate the prinsciple roughly like this:

“every event that might affect a rating qualification issue should be rated with no undue delays, as long as it finishes on or before the deadline.”

we don’t want arbitrary RATING ORDER to decide qualification to the World Championship of Chess.

Maybe because all the players were very critical of the cycle change.