Answers.Body: <p>The <a href="http://universalrating.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Universal Rating System</a> is an alternate rating system which, according to the project's web site:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>The Universal Rating System™ (URS™ for short), is a revolutionary new
  sport’s rating system designed to assess the relative strength of
  participants across a wide variety of competitor vs competitor sports
  or games.</p>
  <p>The URS™ was developed as the result of a collaborative research
  project funded by the Grand Chess Tour, the Kasparov Chess Foundation
  and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>According to the project's <a href="http://universalrating.com/faqs.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">FAQ page</a>, the major differences between URS ratings and FIDE Elo ratings are:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>There are many differences between the URS™ and the FIDE system. The
  most striking difference is that the URS™ calculates only one rating
  for each player, informed by their results at all rates of play. This
  published rating is the URS™ system's assessment of each player's
  strength at Classical chess (defined as a rate of play where each
  player has at least 2 hours for their first 60 moves). The URS™
  recognizes that there is useful information about a player's
  over-the-board chess strength in all game results regardless of the
  time limit, and can therefore more effectively estimate a player's
  Classical chess strength by also considering their results at games
  played at faster time controls. As the speed of play increases, the
  URS™ assigns less and less importance to the game results relative to
  games played at slower time controls.</p>
  <p>Furthermore, the URS™ is a weighted performance rating, calculated
  across several years of previous game results for all players. Older
  games are given less importance than more recent games, by applying an
  exponential decay rate. Unlike traditional performance ratings, which
  are based upon the opponents' rating at the time the game was played,
  the URS™ constantly reassesses the strength of all opponents and
  searches for the most likely set of current ratings for all players,
  in order to best explain the observed results.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-11-23T20:10:57.950Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-11-23T20:10:57.950Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: patbarron
Body: <p>While watching this year's <a href="https://youtu.be/f4qCYtkZMnU" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2020 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX</a> I noticed they gave players' ratings according to the URS or Universal Rating System. Which are the characteristics of this rating system?</p>
  
Tags: <rating>
Title: What is the Universal Rating System (URS)?
ThreadText: # What is the Universal Rating System (URS)?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-11-23)
  
  While watching this year's [2020 Champions Showdown Chess 9LX](https://youtu.be/f4qCYtkZMnU) I noticed they gave players' ratings according to the URS or Universal Rating System. Which are the characteristics of this rating system?
  
  **Tags:** rating
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2020-11-23. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  The [Universal Rating System](http://universalrating.com/) is an alternate rating system which, according to the project's web site:
  
  > The Universal Rating System™ (URS™ for short), is a revolutionary new
  > sport’s rating system designed to assess the relative strength of
  > participants across a wide variety of competitor vs competitor sports
  > or games.
  >
  > The URS™ was developed as the result of a collaborative research
  > project funded by the Grand Chess Tour, the Kasparov Chess Foundation
  > and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
  
  According to the project's [FAQ page](http://universalrating.com/faqs.php), the major differences between URS ratings and FIDE Elo ratings are:
  
  > There are many differences between the URS™ and the FIDE system. The
  > most striking difference is that the URS™ calculates only one rating
  > for each player, informed by their results at all rates of play. This
  > published rating is the URS™ system's assessment of each player's
  > strength at Classical chess (defined as a rate of play where each
  > player has at least 2 hours for their first 60 moves). The URS™
  > recognizes that there is useful information about a player's
  > over-the-board chess strength in all game results regardless of the
  > time limit, and can therefore more effectively estimate a player's
  > Classical chess strength by also considering their results at games
  > played at faster time controls. As the speed of play increases, the
  > URS™ assigns less and less importance to the game results relative to
  > games played at slower time controls.
  >
  > Furthermore, the URS™ is a weighted performance rating, calculated
  > across several years of previous game results for all players. Older
  > games are given less importance than more recent games, by applying an
  > exponential decay rate. Unlike traditional performance ratings, which
  > are based upon the opponents' rating at the time the game was played,
  > the URS™ constantly reassesses the strength of all opponents and
  > searches for the most likely set of current ratings for all players,
  > in order to best explain the observed results.
  
  
  ---
  
  