18-06-2016, 12:59 AM
Many of our rapids and weekenders here in NZ are FIDE-rated but rating cut-offs, grade prizes, and pairings are regularly done on national ratings. As far as I am aware, the only requirement is that the pairings are done consistently and correctly (easy to achieve if you use a FIDE-approved program - we use Vega mostly). Only big international events (the NZ Open) use FIDE ratings (because a lot of the players won't have NZ national ratings).