With 13 players in top division, how many will be demoted this time? Will it be a gradual decrease back to 9, stay at 13, or sudden decrease back to 9 (i.e. just top 5 survive?).
The plan, as last publicly stated by Richard, is that anyone who doesn't finish in the top 5 will be demoted, unless they are in the top 10 in ratings. Since the top 10 are now automatically in the first section (assuming they're in the Championship at all), the first section will generally have more than 9 players.
So the 10th ranked player can lose every game but not get demoted, while the 11th ranked player can come 6th and get demoted.
It'd be fairer if more wins than losses was enough to avoid demotion, but maybe I'm just bitchy 'cos I seem to be in the demotion zone with a good record :-(.
