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Yorkshire
Chess Association |
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Zero and
Negative Grades? |
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Theoretically it is possible
to get a grade of zero or even a negative grade, but the important thing to understand
is that there is no connection whatsoever between a player being ungraded and a
player having a grade of zero. (See What about Ungraded Players?)
Zero and negative grades are
possible because it is in the nature of chess playing skill that there is no
definable absolute datum for a grading scale.
The scale is pitched so that players are usually above zero, without the
normal range being far above zero. You
could say it expects players to be about 150 plus or minus up to 100 grading
points. However, really exceptionally
weak players who spend their time losing to "only very weak" players
will occasionally end up with a zero or negative grade. Such grades mean very little. To save embarrassment they are usually
published as some token minimum grade such as 1 or 5.
A zero grade is a bit like a
room temperature of 0° centigrade. It's
improbable but possible, and the temperature could in theory be lower. There is nothing special about 0°C. It's just that somebody thought the freezing
point of water would make a handy reference point for "normal"
temperatures. It doesn't mean
temperatures can't be lower.
There is in fact,
conceptually, an "absolute" zero temperature, when matter contains no
kinetic energy (arguably an unattainable state). Chess is not the same.
There is no usefully definable "absolutely useless" level of
chess playing (in-)ability. You could
argue that a player playing totally random moves would merit a chess grade of
zero, but even on that scale a player intentionally playing especially bad
moves would merit a negative grade.
Thus a grade of "absolute zero" hasn't usefully be defined as
a basis for a grading system.
In fact, if all grades had
1027 (or any other arbitrary number) added to them, they would still mean the
same relative to each other, and the grading calculations would still be the
same. You could subtract 1,000 from all
grades, making super GMs around -750 and ordinary mortals around -890. These grades would work in the same way and
be just as valid, but would look silly.