Class Norms and Titles

This is a cool thing I learned about a couple weeks ago. USCF is implimenting new lifetime titles for players both masters and amateurs. The highest title is Senior Master, followed by National Master, Candidate Master, and then 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th category.

Players can earn norms by playing well in tournaments with at least four games.

A norm is achieved if a player scores more than one point more than what the performance is suggested (National Master level is 2200, 1st category is 1800, 4th category is 1200). If a player earns five norms at that level, they earn the life-time title. Here's the formula.

Norm is achieved if S > X + 1

Where S is the score of the player in the tournament and X is the expected score of all games at norm level N.

X = X1 + X2 + ... Xa where a is the number of games in the tournament. a > 3

If Rz > (N + 400), Xz = 0.0
If N < Rz < (N + 400), Xz = 0.5-(Rz-N)/800
If N = Rz, Xz = 0.5
If (N - 200) < Rz < N, Xz = 0.5+(N-Rz)/400
If Rz < (N - 200), Xz = 1.0

Where Xz is the expected score of a game with opponent z at norm level N and Rz is the rating of said opponent.

As can be seen by the formula, players are punished for playing players below the norm level. A player trying to get a 1800-norm who plays a 1600 player, the expected score is 1.0, even though his true expected score is really only about 0.75. If the same player played a 2000 player, the expected score for that game is 0.25. So a player who played two games, one against a 1600, one against an 2000 (an average of 1800), his expected score for an 1800 norm is 1.25.

It is somewhat easier to score norms in longer tournaments, as the one point barrier that a player must exceed the norm by becomes less and less important. A player playing in a 4 round A section (1800-1999) basically needs to score 4.0/4 (100%) to earn a Candidate Master Norm. However, a player in a 9 round A section could earn said norm with a more modest 7.5/9 (83%)

To date I've earned the 2nd category (1600) title with one 1st category (1800) norm.