The BGA dan certificates are award based on the BGA ratings, which are in turn based on the European ratings. You will be awarded an X dan certificate when:
In addition:
This system applies to all promotions made after the 29th November 2003 BGA Council meeting. Some details were modified at the 25th January 2004 and 14th March 2004 Council meetings. You may also wish to read the ratings FAQ. The description of the previous system for awarding dan certificates has been kept for historical interest.
Note that since the strengths on the rating list are rounded to one decimal place, the threshold for promotion to, say, 3 dan, is actually 2.95 d.
Note that the conversion factor between rating and strength varies each month (as explained in the FAQ). This means that it is possible for player whose strength on the was previously 2.9 d to suddenly have their strength appear as 3.0 d on the rating list without playing in a tournament, but just because of small changes in the calibration and the effects of rounding. This is not good enough for a promotion. Certificates are only awarded due to changes in strength caused by tournament results.
This means that the rating list is not the most reliable place to look to see whether someone has earned a dan certificate. It is better to look at the table on a player’s rating graph. This table lists the strength following each tournament appearance by that player, but not the strengths in months when that player did not compete. It is this list of strengths that is used to judge promotion cases.
The first time you play in a rated tournament, your rating is initialised to what amounts to a guess. Only after you have played in several tournaments does it settle down to reasonable measure of your playing ability. The final condition ensures that certificates are not awarded during this initial settling down period.
You can work out whether you have satisfied this final condition by looking at the table underneath your rating graph. This table lists all the rated tournaments you have played in, and for each one tells you (among other things) what your rating was after that tournament, and how many rated games you played during that tournament.
As a worked example, consider Tim Hunt’s rating graph. The relevant part of the table is reproduced here:
| Tournament Date | Strength | Rating | Games Played | Games won | Tourn Class | Tournament | Tournament Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Mar-1998 | 1.7 k | 1899 | 2 | 1 | B | Cambridge, 22nd Trigantius | T980301 |
| 7-Feb-1998 | 1.7 k | 1895 | 3 | 1 | B | Oxford | T980207D |
| 1-Jan-1998 | 1.5 k | 1913 | 8 | 3 | A | London, GPE | G980101 |
| 2-Mar-1997 | 2.5 k | 1822 | 3 | 2 | B | Cambridge, 21st Trigantius | T970302 |
You will see that Tim played in the London Open on 1st January 1998 and the Oxford tournament on 7th February 1998. Together these constitute 11 tournament games (8 + 3). Before the London Open Tim’s strength was 2.5 k, and after the Oxford tournament it was 1.7 k, which is higher. Therefore Tim could be awarded a dan certificate any time from this Oxford tournament onwards. (Although obviously only after his strength reaches 1.0 d, and this dan promotion system only applies from 29th November 2003.)
So this condition will probably already be satisfied by any player who has worked their way up through the kyu grades while playing in European tournaments. It is most likely to affect strong players who play in a rated tournament for the first time when they are already of dan strength.
The EGF rating site says:
If a rank professed by the player had improved significantly (at least by 2 grades for amateur players or by 1 professional grade) with respect to the highest previously professed rank, the rating of the player is reset. This measure helps to deal with fast improving players and with players who participate at included tournaments only occasionally.
Once a reset like this has happened, you must satisfy the “have a run of tournaments during which you play ten or more rated games, where your strength at the end of the run is at least as high as it was before the beginning of the run” condition again before you can earn a certificate.
This graph was generated from the 7th November 2003 European rating list. It shows the distribution of strengths of all European dan players at each dan grade (and 1 kyu). The white arrows show the thresholds at which BGA dan certificates are awarded. These thresholds are above the majority of players at the lower grade, and within, but near the bottom of, the main body of players at the higher grade. (Note: the Strength axis has been compressed above 7.3 d.)