chess-The Oxford Companion to Chess - First Edition by David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld

RAT OPENING 2?5
ard sele.ts a piece lor b8, whilc places a similar
piece on bi. nnd so on Thus, 2.880 ar.als are
In screeD ches. sonetines clllcd batlle chess.
the Bhire and black arrays are Dot intentionally
nnrored. Each playcrsetsup his own pieces as he
wnhes while a scrccn temporarill placed a*oss the
niddlc ol the board conceah nh intentions
E.29,1.400 dillerent arrays arc possible. Alphonse
Delannoy (180G83) claimed that in hn youlh h.
played rhis gine against Ordonneaux lor 2l hou6
snhoul a brcak, neither eitinC nor drnrknrg. and
conrpleling 16? ganes. wh.i revived io lhe 19?0s
called baseline chess. (ln
England durine the Firsl World war KRrEcsrrEL
Eas called s.reen chess lo !!oid thc use olGemrn
The demand lor lhis kind oI vanlnl probably
arose {ben opcnings becane thc subteci of
srrstenatic study. clriously, a classilier ol open
1ngs. aLEI^NDRE, pas onc oI the 6rn lo nake
experinents wirh randomized che$. Laler the
srns composer Erich Biu.ner (1885 1938) re
vivcd the idea. Nhich sonctimes bears his name.
RANK, or hoizonral Iine.. roN oleighl laterauyadjoining
squares lron sidc Io side of the board. A
rank is cunonarlly dehncd b, ns relationsbip lo
tbe playe! and not by the rank nudbei in srandard
.otation. In the array Whire s pieces stand on his
nrsl rank or back rank (his opponenfs eighth
rank). his pa{ns oi hn second rank (his oPpo
Malor pieces can na.euvms ciLclively o. the
ranks as on the 0les Rooks are especially *eU
placedon rbe sevcnth.ank. (ForexabplesinNhich
thev occuDv other ranks advantlgcously see
R,ANm\ YARIATION, .153, a good line lbr whitc
in the FouR kNrcHr. opENtNc, analysedin thc er.ss
Plaf.t s Chranicle.1879, by th. cdiior. Charles
Edward Ra*en (1828-1905).6st presidenl olthe
O ord Unive6ily Ches Club.
LAPtD TRANSIT CHESS, a rcrmued in the USA
lor lGsrNrNG csEss. named ailer the New York
RASTIKOVSKY. NAI]M NIKOLAYEVICH
(1916 ),Sovictplayer.InternadonalGrandmat
ter (1980). From 1972 to 1980-t he comp€ied in
Iive USSR championships, in 19?9 he won an
inremati.n,l rournancnt al Sochi. and in 1982
he and BRoNsrErN became joinl champions ol
RATL\G, a nethod otestimating ptaying srength.
Its purpose might bc the seleclio. olplaycrs lor a
lhe awardi.g ol Iitles.
pairing ol oppoden[ in a ss(s SYSEM louri+
ment, allocation ot playes in a comPerilion with
seleral tournaments. provision of a lacility lor
oitering awards to players oi diilerenl slrcngth
withinrhesametoumamenr,orsinplytherelative
assessmenl oi lhe srength ofplayeG who hale not
yet mer. An cany cxample was lhe custon ol
classine a playerbythe handicap heaould receile
irom a nBt class player- an cmpnical assessnenl
thar *as nor alNaysrcliable in alien enlironnenls.
Towards rhe end oithe l9lh century !arious srilcis
tried lo assess the relative srrenglhs of lhe leading
maste.s. and paitly hccause this exe.cise Nas
restricted ro nast.r rournaments oi aboul cqual
strengrh rhc rankinS lisls were closc lo general
Unlike athleres $hose resutts can be m.asurcd
aglinsr stlndards such as tide or distance. ches
playen can be measured only againn each other
'lhe basis ol all modern rating sysiems is a
combinalion ol the average rating of a player's
opDonents and the percenlagc sco.e he maLes
aeainstihem Thereis some alfinitywithauxrLrARY
scoRrNcMErHoDs.'Thcmeasuremenlotlhcraling
of an individual mieht *ell be comparcd ivith the
measurement oflhe posnion olr cork bobbing uP
and down on tbe surflce of agiiated Naler with a
,ardnick tied to a rope Nhich is s$aying in rhc
wind said Elo in 1962: but cufenrnc$ods nave
provcd mo.e reliable than this comment suggesh.
l hc li6l modem type ofratinE system was used bt
ihe Correspondencc Ches League ofAderica in
1939- bur the one tbat made in impact on
intcnrational chess was fie Ineo systcm, named by
irsdesignerAnto. Hd$linecr (18?5 1959) ailerhis
home town lneolsiadt in Bavana. ln rhe 1950s
cLARxr insfned the grading sysrem adopted by the
Brirish Ches Federation lnd al about lhe same
time tbe Unned Srates Chess Federation inlro
duced a sysren shich was modified in 1960 lo
Thc USCF meihod, inroduced by a commntee
chaned by ELo, became thc offcial F1DE raliog
systen and is known cilher by that nane or as Elo
radng. A1l thcsc mode.n metbods give similar
resulk ilplayers are in the sade chss but only Elo
raiing appears to be dependablc when lhere are
great diiierences in playing nrenglhr and his
ne$od isthe foundation on {hich tne aqardingol
Both Clarte (rrnslt Ch.s Mogazine, 1953.
1960.1973) lnd Elo (chds a't, 1962.1964) have
aprlicd mode.n ralinS melhods retospc.iilely to
the middleolrbe i9rhcent!ry. Such measurements
hale also been uscd to examine tbe eilects oI
ageins on chess perlo.mance (Dt^pet. hulnat of
th. Rolal Stotistical Societ!. 1961. a|dEla. laumal
of Gerontolosr, 1965)
A. E Elo, The Rdtiig of Ch.rsp/a-ven (London,
1978).
Clarkc. Grading Sysleni, an articlc in the arnnn
Ches Moqazine. 1969.
RAT OPENINC, 696, a tokine description ol lhe
oPENtNc. M,nler. a London