Another problem with otb rating floors

Are they fair to seniors ?! I think not. I am a senior now and struggle to maintain a 2200 level of play, which is where I have been since 1984. I know at least 1 senior in the US who is past 70 ( I am 57 ) and has a floor of 2200 , yet his results are sometimes horrible and I think his floor should be done away with. At his most recent event he lost his first 3 games and withdrew. At the start of this event his rating was floored at 2200 and he lost all 3 games to lower rated opponents and his rating stays at 2200. Isnt this simply wrong ?! Seniors get weaker as they age, even the greats do. I think once a player reaches 50 their floor should be done away with, or at least readjusted..... 

My main complaint is it hurts the rating system.

What were rating floors originally used for?  To combat sandbagging somehow?  That doesn't seem right.  I wonder when/why they were implemented.  Does FIDE have anything similar?

 Yes, floors are one of the weapons used against sandbagging and the USCF is the only chess organization in the world that uses floors, that I am aware of. Fide does not have them.  I realize that as I age I will play weaker chess if I continue to play. If my level gets down to B or C class I would like to be eligible to win prizes for B or C class but the floor will NEVER allow this. I may be at B class level and stuck playing Open sections because of my 2000 rating floor... hhhmmmmm   fair ? 

Yuck, that would be unfair.

Used to fight sandbagging?  Hmm, I'm not sure that would be effective.  At least now with computers, a TD might check a rating graph before handing out prizes to see what a players peak rating had been and if it had fallen many hundreds of points recently.  I know TDs have a big job already, but the rating floors seem easily the worse of the two.  Not that there aren't other options, but already off the top of my head the rating floor doesn't make sense heh.

What is sandbagging?

 Sandbagging is losing intentionally in order to lower your rating so that you can play in lower rated sections and try to win big cash prizes..... while facing weaker players ( unless the section has several sandbaggers ) 

You fix games to lower your rating (lose on purpose).  Then, with your new low rating, enter in a section where you're a ringer for the prize money.

Basically misrepresenting your strength to screw others over on a fair shake at the prize money -- fixing games is always cheating so this can be an ugly thing to accuse someone of, and if true can get you banned from your national organization / FIDE.

Senior Master Klaus Pohl, while playing at the House of Pain a few years ago, would come downstairs while I was on duty and lament the fact that his playing strength had eroded with age, but his rating was kept artificially high because of the rating floor. It was good to see that after he retired his results improved. I've called him the 'Viktor Korchnoi' of Southern chess, with good reason. I'm proud to say I once bested SM Pohl, a game that was publidhed in Chess Life.

Although I crossed the expert barrier several times, it was BC (Before Computer). I was, therefore, given a floor based on my highest rating AC (After Computer). My rating was allowed to fall into the 1700's, not only because my strength was lessened with age, but because USCF began to rate ever faster games. I was then accused of sandbagging by a chess playing father, who was described as "Bi-Polar" by Steve Dillard, after I had beaten his son. It mattered not that I petitioned USCF on several occasions to have my rightful floor of 1800 instituted. After Mike Nolan did some research, finding that, indeed, I had been over 2000 previously back in the 'dark ages', I wrote to the Ex Dir, Bill Hall, insisting I be given a rating of 1800, which is where my rating stands, as I no longer play. I have stated I only intend to play in Senior tournaments; with a secondary time control, not any of this G/90+30 seconds crap!

I have written previously that the answer would be to grant titles. For example, I would be an Expert no matter how low my rating dropped. Klaus would always be a Senior Master even if his rating dropped into the 2000's! Rex Blalock would be a National Master even if his rating dropped into the 1700's. Just kidding, Rex! One of the things I like about Senior tournaments is the opportunity to finally score against a player against whom you never scored previously; as is the case when it comes to my score against Mr Blalock! There should be more tournaments for Senior players. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that there are not that many Senior players. That's why they are called "Seniors'.

Reb

Is your rating floor 2000 or 2200?

I'm also 57... You mean I'm gonna get worse?

 My floor is 2000 as my best rating was 2279 or so back about 1995.

The large payouts for class sections are probably a concession to the fact that since there are no big-money sponsors for chess, the TOs need to be able to count on a large number of amateurs paying for USCF registration, shelling out the bucks for hotel and travel expenses, and forking over the entry fee for the tournament without any realistic shot of winning, but rather playing only for fun and pride.

It would be a sad story to tell your friends and family about how you took off from work and flew to the East Coast, shared a room with several buddies, won a large U2000 tournament that went for 5 days, and still didn't break even after being awarded the cash prize for first place

If you're not already a GM or on your way to earning the title, I'm pretty sure the USCF stops caring about you as soon as you turn 18 . . .

I think rating floors are stupid, if one lost a couple hundred rating points within 6 months they should be asked to move to open or a category that fit there old rating.

Couldn't tournaments simply have a policy that if you won a given class prize (or big money in a section) you couldn't win in anything lower for x years? 

 That long?

If you won the U1500 this year it makes sense to me to have that player play in u1700 at least for a few years.  How fast to chess players get worse? 

you can ask uscf to lower your floor

You also can play rated matches, and if your rating would drop below your floor, it's taken as a request to lower your floor. You can look up the details at http://www.glicko.net/ratings/rating.system.pdf 

I know a guy who is 1350 now and back in the 1980s he was a 2175