General
Events can be submitted for rating via the ECF’s LMS . This page summarises what you need to know and how to check that your event has been successfully submitted and rated. Even if you let the LMS do automated submission then there is still a job to be done by the Results Officer to ensure results are stored against the correct players - trying to prevent instances where a player appears twice in the rating list for example. The role of Results Officer can be taken in the LMS by an organiser, or a Rating Officer.
Automated Submissions
If the LMS is sending your event automatically, then the games will be sent for rating on the 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th of the month. If you want it sending at another time as well it is also possible to submit the event via the auto rating report.
- In the event settings, set where to send for rating to the appropriate value for the type of event. Note that the Rating shown on matchcard and Extra rating in brackets have no impact on the where the event is sent for rating.
- Ensure that you have the correct rating email recipient selected for the event - this is the person who will be emailed any errors. If this person is not a valid grader according to the rating system then the results will still go through, but they will not be able to take actions in the rating system itself such as requesting new players. If you wish to become a rating officer contact the rating team to ask.
- Ensure that the correct treasurer is selected for the event - this is the person who will be billed by the ECF for any game fee owed
- Check in Reports / Ecf Reports / auto grading that the event shows for auto grading and that there are no errors. There is also a games count to show how many games have been sent to the grading system in previous months.
The LMS sends files to the rating system at 2am on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th day of each month, the idea being that there is time to correct errors before the end of the month. It will only send an event if a fixture or round in that event has been updated since the last automated sending. Note it only looks at Active seasons, so don't make a season inactive until all results are in.
The person specified will receive an email with feedback from the grading system notifying them if the grading submission was successful or if there is anything they need to fix. Some things can be fixed in the LMS such as:
- missing ECF rating codes
- new players who do not have a club specified
If you fix something in the LMS, go to Reports/auto rating and press the Resubmit button for the appropriate event. You can also press this button at any time you want to update the rating system although it will still get sent automatically anyway.
For a player missing a rating code, graders can login to the rating system (via links from the email) to choose the rating code from a list of possible matches or request a new one (for a new player). These things can be fixed in the rating system without resubmit in LMS. But once a new rating code is assigned in the rating system it would need entering in LMS ready for the next time the event was sent through to rating.
If you are not an ECF rating officer and so can't request new rating codes via the rating system, the ECF rating administrator should notice the failed submission and create them. You should get an email within about a week. If this doesn't happen contact the Rating Administrator at grading@englishchess.org.uk . The email will tell you the new rating codes that were created. These need to be entered into the LMS manually in the player lists against the players concerned.
It would save a lot of trouble if organisers could ensure that player rating codes are correct using the various reports that are available in the LMS.
To see if your event has made it into the rating system look at this page