A new multi-criteria model for ranking chess players

Chess is a very demanding sport as it requires advanced planning and strategic thinking skills. The degree of difficulty of the game also depends on the time allotted for a game, which can range from a few minutes to several tens of minutes. For this reason, the games are divided into several categories: standard, blitz, and bullet. However, as many chess players specialize in only some of the categories, it is difficult to determine the best chess player. It is very important to keep a proper ranking of the players. One way to recognize their achievements is the FIDE (Federation Internationale des Echecs) titles awarded to the best players. However, there is still the problem of how to determine the best among the Grandmasters. There are many very talented players competing in chess. Creating a single ranking for all types of chess, regardless of the time allotted for the game, is a difficult challenge, as many undeniably outstanding chess players do not specialize in all types. Creating a ranking for only one type would not accurately describe the level of players. Therefore, a ranking was created based on all of them using the COMET method, which belongs to the multi-criteria decision-making methods (MCDA). It is based on fuzzy logic and uses characteristic objects for the assessment of alternatives, which guarantees immunity to the paradox of reversal rankings. Expert opinion was used for correct evaluation. This article presents the ranking of chess players regardless of the type of game they specialize in, to prove that it should be possible to identify the single best chess player. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://crativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of KES International.