Class prizes and Sandbagging

Do you think big class prizes encourages sandbagging? What should be done to combat sandbagging and what should the punishment be, if any, for those caught sandbagging?

Hi Reb,

I'm exposing myself here as a neophyte, I apologize about that. Could you clarify what you mean by sandbagging? I think I have an idea what you might mean, but I'm curious.

This is why USCF has rating floors. It's not a perfect system, but it's better than doing nothing.

--Fromper 

Also, the largest organizer of big prize chess tournaments in the US, the Continental Chess Association, keeps track of players who win more than $1000 at their tournaments. This and the rating floor both have the flaw that you can sandbag every section once. But at least it's only once.

I have definitely played against sandbaggers. I later found out they had ratings in other countries. Honestly, there's not a ton of money to be made sandbagging. I figure without the incentive, there's probably not too many of 'em and I try not to worry. 

I don't think there really are that many true sandbaggers - but a lot of us class players are inconsistent, and it gives the appearance of sandbagging, unfortunately.

 Even harder to face are the scholastic players whose ratings have not caught up with their actual performance. You sit down across from a kid in the 1200-1400s and they play WAY above their rating! Yikes.

Also, this conversation was in 2007...

    Sandbagging was a 19th century slang term for filling pockets sewn into the sleeves of overcoats or jackets with sand, making a blow struck to someone's head unexpectedly forceful. It was picked up by pool hustlers to describe letting the "mark" win a few games before talking them into raising the stakes and then playing up to your real strength.

     Chess sandbaggers will deliberately lose rated games at chess clubs or low-cost tournaments in order to drop their rating into a lower class, giving them a good shot at winning prizes at big $$$ events.

     USCF has "floors" below which a player's rating cannot fall--the bottom rating of the class beneath the best rating ever achieved. After I quit playing for 25 years and then returned after retirement, USCF found my old final rating of 1990, so now I cannot fall below 1700.

     So some player with a "real" strength of around 2100 could be careful to never let their rating rise above 2000 and then deliberately blunder away enough games to get a 1750 rating before a big-money tournament and win the B-class prize, but it would seem that the entry fees for enough events to drop that many rating points would eat into the winnings by enough to make the whole scheme pointless, especially as they wouldn't be sure of winning as they must compete with other sandbaggers as well as B-class players whose rapid improvement has made them much stronger than their rating.

     There's no real way to prove someone is sandbagging, so complaints are probably useless. A high-rated foreign player in their first USCF tournament will be in the Unrated section, which always has the lowest prizes, making the whole idea less appealing. And once they win their provisional rating will be high enough to put them in a much higher section.

     Still, we all know that some sandbagging does occur. If you're entering a big-money tournament just for the big prize you will probably be disappointed in the end--the competition will be intense in any event, and some legitimate class players will have a good streak during the tournament. So just go for the chance for good competition and the chance to play vs some new opponents.

Foreign players are supposed to divulge any official ratings and US Chess has rules for rating conversions, so they most definitely should not be playing as unrated.

Also, for US Chess rating floors, it's based on 200 below the highest rating rounded down to to x000 points; thus a player that had a highest achieved rating between 2000 and 2099 would have an 1800 floor.  The lowest rating floor is 1200 and there is one every 100 points up to 2100. There is also a 2200 floor for any player the achieved the original Life Master title (300+ games above 2200). There are also rating floors for winning large class based prize amounts.

this happens all the time and i hate it