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FIDE classifies chess tournaments according to the average Elo rating of the participants. The starting category for master-level tournaments is category I, which applies to a tournament whose participants have an average Elo rating from 2251 to 2275. Each category is 25 points wide. For women's tournaments, the categories are 200 rating points lower. So for a women's tournament, a Category 1 is an average rating of 2051 to 2075.
The FIDE categories began in 1970. The categories are, by Elo Range Category:
In May-June 1882, at Vienna, the #1 through #10, except #9 (Rosenthal) in the world participated. It was a Class 21 event. In 1883, in London, the #1 through #7 in the world participated. It was a Class 19 event. In 1895, at Hastings, the #1 through #9 in the world, except #5 (Lipke) participated. It was a Class 19 event. In 1936, at Nottingham, the #1 through #8 in the world participated. It was a Class 20 event. In 1938, the AVRO tournament had the #1 through #8 players in the world. It was a Class 20 event. The players were Keres, Fine, Botvinnik, Euwe, Reshevsky, Alekhine, Capablanca, and Flohr. In 1992, at Linares, the #1 through #8 in the world participated. It was a Class 20 event. In 1993, at Linares, the #1 through #10, except #9 (Short) in the world participated. It was a Class 21 event. In 1994, at Linares, the #1 through #9 in the world, except #6 (Salov) participated. It was a Class 19 event. In 1996, at Las Palmas, it had the top 6 players in the world and nobody else. The players were Kasparov (2785), Anand (2735), Kramnik (2765), Topalov (2750), Karpov (2775), and Ivanchuj (2730). In 1999, at Wijk aan Zee, the #1 through # 7 in the world participated. It was a Class 19 event. In 2001, at Wijk aan Zee, the #1 through #8 in the world participated. It was a Class 20 event. In 2005, the Corus A tournament had the #2 through #9 in the world as participants. It was a Class 17 event. In 2008, the Pearl Spring tournament in China was a category 21 tournament with an average of 2751.6. It was the strongest tournament ever held in China at the time. In 2009, the 2009 Tal Memorial in Moscow, won by Vladimir Kramnik, was a Category 21 tournament. In September-October, 2009, the Pearl Spring tournament was a Category 21 tournament, with an average rating of 2764. The players were Magnus Carlsen (2772), Veselin Topalov (2813), Wang Ye (2736), Teimour Radjabov (2757), Peter Leko (2762), and Dmitry Jakovenko (2742). In 2010, the Bilbao Grand Masters Final was a category 22 tournament. In October 2010, the Pearl Spring tournament in China was a category 21 tournament. The players were Carlsen (2826), Anand (2800), Bacrot (2736), Gashimov (2719), Topalov (2762) and Wang Yue (2732). In 2011, The Tal Memorial in Moscow was a Category 22 tournament, with an average rating of 2776. In 2012, the Tata Steel A-Group tournament in Wijk aan Zee was a Category 21 tournament with an average rating of 2752. In January-February 2014, the Zurich Chess Challenge was the first ever category XXIII tournament with an average Elo rating of 2801. The players were Carlsen, Aronian, Nakamura, Caruana, Gelfand, and Anand. In August-September 2014, the Sinquefield Cup was the second category XXIII tournament with an average Elo rating of 2802. The players were #1 Magnus Carlsen (2877), #2 Levon Aronian (2805), #3 Fabiano Caruana (2801), #5 Hikaru Nakamura (2787), #8 Veselin Topalov (2772), and #9 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2768). In December 2016, the London Chess Classic was a category XXII tournament with and average rating of 2785. The 10 player round robin consisted of #18 Michael Adams (2748), #8 Viswanathan Anand (2779), #6 Levon Aronin (2785), #2 Fabiano Caruana (2823), #10 Anish Giri (2771), #3 Vladimir Kramnik (2809), #9 Hikaru Nakamura (2779), #4 Wesley So (2794), Veselin Topalov (2760), and #5 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2804). The winner was Wesley So. The USCF has rating categories. A senior master is rated 2400 and up. A national master is rated between 2200 and 2399. An expert (or candidate master) is rated from 2000 to 2199. Every 200 point range below expert is a class. For example, a rating of 1900-1999 is Class A. A rating of 1600 to 1799 is Class B. A rating of 1400 to 1599 is Class C, etc. Please report broken or duplicate links to the Webmaster. Official Website Copyright 2016 by William D. Wall All Rights Reserved |
 Bill Wall
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