In order to inspire and encourage renjuplayers all over the world to make good results in important Renju tournaments, and in many cases distinguish players for qualification to international tournaments, an international system with internal rankings between renjuplayers from the whole world is introduced.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995

#1. To achieve an estimation of quality of a players momental playing strength a system with individual coefficients (rating) is used, an adapted variant of professor Arpad Elo's system.
#2. The official international rating coefficients for all renju-players are calculated three times per year - April 30,  August 31, and December 31 - by the International Qualification Commission in R.I.F.
The rating is based on results from individual games between players in renju tournaments with direct play, and with a minimum time access of 60 minutes per player and game, and with no time limit to watch before 60 minutes.
Following types of tournaments will entitle to international rating:

• World Championships (WC) finals
• International Qualification Tournaments for WC-finals
• Open International Tournaments in connection with WC
• National qualification tournaments for WC in R.I.F. member countries (though not the countries regional qualifications)
• European Championships
• Other open international renju tournaments, sanctioned by R.I.F. Central Committee.
• National Championships in R.I.F. member countries, final tournaments
• Some other important tournaments of national character, which the R.I.F. CC may decide to sanction, if those tournaments are open for all RIF players.

Requests regarding sanctioning a national tournament must be made to CC, not later  then three months ahead of the tournament. International tournaments must be announced in the official journal "Renju World" or in other official R.I.F. periodical, or a special invitation must be sent to all R.I.F. member countries, which is received
by the official R.I.F. predecessors in these countries not later then three months ahead of the tournaments.

#3. The qualification commissions in the R.I.F. member countries must send a report, after each concluded tournament in their country (which entitle the players to international rating), to the International Qualification Commission in R.I.F. about the results in tournaments according to  #2, which includes complete tables of all individual results in these tournaments. If this will not be done after three months after the tournament the responsible federation have to pay a fee (USD 20).
In December each year, a report is also given about players, who are no longer members in the national renju federations, where after ratings for these players are no longer published by R.I.F.
Players from countries without a national renju federation connected to R.I.F. can get rating from all tournaments in 2nd #7 where they have the right to participate (if not the R.I.F. GA or CC decides else).

#4. Only tournaments, which are played according to the International Renjurules of R.I.F., can entitle players to an international rating.
Only results from games played in reality will be counted. A game is counted as "played in reality" and entitles both players to receive rating if somebody won the game or they agreed to make a draw in the game (no "walk over"). If a break is made in a game and one player does not appear when the play is about to continue, the game will be counted as "played in reality" for both players regardless of which the referee's decision about the result in the game will be.

#5. In the beginning of a tournament the players have start ratings, which are equal to their the current official rating coefficients. After a tournament, which entitles the players to international rating, all contributions (positive or negative) to a given players start rating coefficient are summed up. All players total rating contributions in tournaments finished latest April 30, August 31, and December 31, are summed and added to their current official rating, which give all players new official rating coefficients on the given dates. (see #8 about how this start rating is calculated for "new" players)

#6. The contribution (positive or negative) to a given players start rating coefficient in a tournament is calculated as:

where
F is equal to the total contribution (positive or negative) to a players start rating coefficient,
Et is equal to  the total number of gained points by the player in games, which entitle to rating in the tournament,
Ee is equal to the expected number of points, which the player must achieve to receive no rating contributions at all in the tournament.

#7. To find Ee for a player, a calculation is made:

where
dR is equal to the difference between the average start rating coefficients for the opponents and the start rating coefficient for the player,
R is equal to the start rating coefficient for the player, P₁, P₂, ..., P_m is equal to the number of games the player has played against the respective opponents, R₁, R₂,..., R_m is equal to the start rating coefficients of the respective opponents,
M is equal to the number of opponents,
N is equal to the total number of games played in the tournament by the player.
After the calculation, F is rounded to the nearest integer. (see the appendix for a table, which makes it easy to estimate the rating contributions based on results in individual games)

#8.a. A "new" player, who has not earlier played in a tournament which, entitles to international rating, must play at least three games in a tournament to be entitled to receive a start rating coefficient in a tournament.  If a "new" player has played in such a tournament before, but has not yet received an official international rating
coefficient, his start rating in this tournament is equal to his start rating in the last previous tournament with the achieved rating contributions added.

#8.b. The "new" player,  will achieve a start rating coefficient  (Ro), which is inside the interval  2000 - 2400 at his first appearance in a tournament, which entitles to international rating, if the average rating (Ra) for all is opponents he has played with in the tournament  is 2200 or higher. If Ra  would be lower then 2200,  then  Ro is calculated in the interval (Ra - 200) <Ro  <Ra + 200).

#8.c. Though, a player who gains 0 points in a tournament in all matches against players, who have an official international rating coefficient, will not achieve a start rating in the tournament. No rating contributions, based on results in matches where both players do not have a start rating, will be calculated for either player in such matches.

#8.d. The start ratings for the "new" players are calculated after all matches in a tournament are finished, and are based on results in the individual matches.
If one or several "new" players take part in a tournament, start rating coefficients for these players must be calculated first, before the calculations of rating contributions for all players begin.
The "new" players are considered to have the same playing strength in the beginning of the tournament as in the end of the tournament. This means that the rating contribution to a "new" players start rating must be zero as long as the start rating coefficients is higher then the lowest rating in the interval and lower then the highest rating in the interval, according to point b. If the start rating coefficient is set to the minimum level in the interval, the player can get a negative contribution of rating points, and if the start rating coefficient is set to the maximum level of the interval the player can get a positive contribution of rating points.

For the "new" players: Ee = Et and

Though, R₀ must be inside the interval, according to point b., and the conditions in point c. must by be paid attention to.
Rating contributions are calculated for all players in a tournament, who are entitled to start ratings, according to the formulas in #6 and #7.

#9. A renju player, which due to different reasons has lost his official rating coefficient, can regain his old rating again when his national renju federation approves.
After five years absence of an internationally rated player, from tournaments entitling to international rating (according to #2), official RIF-rating is no longer published. Though, by renewed activity the player regains his old rating.

APPENDIX

Table based on the formulas in #6 & #7 for an estimation of rating contributions in individual games.
If a player having the start rating R₁, has higher (or same rating) then a player with the start rating R₂, the rating contributions in a game rounded to an integer and with different results in the game would be:

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996

Decisions made by the R.I.F. GA in the meeting on May 2, 1996.

1.) Calculations are made for a number of old tournaments (see below), from August 1988 to April 1996, and the first Official Rating List will be valid from 1 May 1996. The list of old tournaments for the years 1988 -1996  to be included and counted in the process of the rating calculations is as below:

1988
Stockholm Summer Trophy
Meijin tournament & final
4th Soviet Open team Championship
Swedish CS-final

1989
1st Soviet CS, 1st league
1st Soviet CS-final
Swedish WC Qual. final
Japan WC Qual.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Meijin tournament & final
Federation Cup in USSR
2nd Soviet CS, 1st league
Swedish CS tournament

1990
Leningrad New Year Prize
Swedish CS tourn.
2nd Soviet CS-final
Open Soviet team CS
Karepa
Swedish Open CS
Meijin tourn. & final
Tokyo Int. Tourn.
3rd Soviet CS, 1st league

1991
Leningrad New Year Prize
3rd Soviet CS-final
Swedish CS tourn.
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish WC Qual.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Baltic Cup in Riga
Meijin tourn. & final
Tokyo Int. Tourn.
4th Soviet CS, 1st league
Linköping Open tourn.
Tallin Int. tourn.

1992
S:t Peterburg New Year Prize
Latvia CS-final
Swedish CS tourn.
4th Soviet CS final
Swedish Open in Arjeplog
Karepa
Meijin tourn. & final
Riga Independence Cup (Latvia Open)
Tokyo Int. tourn.
1st Russian CS, 1st league
S:t Peterburg New Year Prize

1993
1st Russian CS-final
Latvia CS final
Latvia WC Qual.
Armenia CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
Estonia WC Qual.
Karepa
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish WQ Qual.
Int. WC Qual. tourn.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Meijin tourn. & final
2nd Russian CS, 1st league
Tallin New Year Prize

1994
2nd Russian CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
European Team CS
Latvia CS final
Karepa
Kyoto Memorial Int. tourn.
Armenia CS final
Meijin tourn. & final
3rd Russian CS, 1 st league
1st European CS in Tallin

1995
3rd Russian CS final
Swedish CS tourn.
Latvia CS finals
Baltic league
Japanese WC Qual.
Swedish  WC  Qual.
Latvian  WC  Qual.
Int. WC Qual. tourn.
WC-final
WC open tourn.
Armenia CS final
Meijin tourn. & final
4th Russian CS, 1st league
2nd European CS in S:t Peterburg

1996
4th Russian CS final
Latvia CS finals
Swedish CS final

("CS"  means  Championships, "WC" is World Championships)

2.) In a few tournaments results are still not gathered (or incomplete)  by QC.

If it is impossible to get complete results from these tournaments before the end of May 1996, these tournaments will be excluded from the rating calculations.

3.)The rule in  #8c.  will not be used when calculating rating contributions in tournaments played earlier then 1996.  Also, the minimum time access in games played in tournaments before 1996  is only 45 minutes / player.

4.) Such national tournaments as the yearly first league of Russia, the Baltic league and qualification tournaments ahead of Meijin tournament may be such tournaments to be sactioned by RIF CC.
RIF GA  in S:t Petersburg
May 2, 1996

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997

3. New ratings will be calculated after each tournament (or event) and, normally, in chronological order by their ending dates. The ratings produced by each event are used for calculation in next event, and so forth. Results from tournaments, which are played during a longer time must be reported after each separate stage of the tournament. If a separate stage of a tournament also is played during a longer time results can (and are encouraged to) be reported after each playing event to RIF QC. However the dates of reports must be annouced in advance to QC.

5. Players with official ratings (and published) are called "established". Players with eastalished ratings are those who after an event have played at least 10 games with other established players AND earned no less then 3 points totally in these games (win=1 point, draw=0.5 points). Players who have played less then 10 games with established players OR earned less then 3 points in these games are called "provisional". Provisional rating are not published.

6. For established players ratings are only calculated in games with other established players.

7. Provisional ratings is calculated as

Rp - the performance rating (i.e. the new rating)
Ra - the average rating with established opponents
W - the number of wins
L - the number of losses
N - the number of games
Provisional ratings are much less reliable than established ratings. Rp is maximized to Ra+300.

8. For established players ratings are calculated as before, but only calculating each game separately:

Rc - the rating change from one game.
W - result of a game in points (win=1 point, draw=0.5 points, loss=0 points)
We - expected score (Win Expectancy) from following formula:

dR - difference in ratings between the players
The established players changes of ratings can also be approximated from a table as before.  The rating changes Rc added up from each game are added after the event and rounded.

9. A players who is provisional at the start of an event stays provisional through the whole event until a new ratings are calculated. If the provisional player during a tournament has fulfilled the conditions to become an established rating his provisional rating will turn into established after the event.