Felixstowe A v Ipswich A

Thanks for your comment Phil.

Estimated ratings are not used for rating calculations - only when considering league rules like competition eligibility, board order and substitutions. As he's far and away Ipswich's strongest player, whether Yaroslav is rated e2000 or e2200 doesn't really affect the fair operation of competitions. His estimated rating would only really become a problem if it was U1800 or U1650, allowing him to unfairly play in one of the rating-limited competitions, or allowed him to substitute into an Ipswich team in a lower division or play on another board for Ipswich A. Even with a "low" e2000 rating, he can't.

That being said, we should try to have accurate estimated ratings. As you say, Yarolsav was graded 196 but that was 10 years ago. His latest ECF rating, from 2017, was 179 which is 2042 in the new system. Yaroslav has a FIDE rating of 2120 but again this is from 10 years ago. It is true that he has an ECF rapidplay rating of ~2200 but it's a P-rating based on two games against Simon Wilks, who at the time had a P-rating too, so not necessarily very accurate. Coupled with his loss to you last night, there's not a lot of recent evidence that Yaroslav plays at master strength and it's better to be conservative with estimated ratings, provided fair play is ensured.

Estimated ratings can be adjusted mid-season. If evidence emerges that Yaroslav is playing nearer his old strength, then I'll explore changing his estimated rating.