Does anyone else feel like Online chess has been getting tougher?  Ratings deflation, perhaps?  I've been feeling that way for a little while -- my peak rating was around 2250, and I don't feel like I've been getting worse, but I've been struggling to hold it over 2100 lately.

I just assumed it was my own perception, and that I really have been not playing as well.  However, today I noticed that my 2104 rating is #3135 of 288657, 98.9% percentile.  I swear that 6-12 months ago, a 2100 rating was no more than 97th percentile.  So perhaps I'm not crazy after all?

Am I misremembering history?  What's your experience/impression?  If this is really happening, any ideas on why would that be?  I've never seen a chess rating system do that.

Spiffe, I've been wondering the same thing. I was consistently around 1800 a year ago and can't get unstuck from 1700 now. My USCF rating is 1787. Many of the lower rated players seem to play extremely well. I may not be getting better, but am I getting worse?

ilmago, I'm not assuming the system got tougher because my rating went down.  I would -- and did -- assume the same thing you said.

What made me pause, though, was the percentile relative to the pool at large -- unless I'm misremembering (possible), I think my percentile has actually gone up, even as my rating has stayed the same/gone down.

2010 02 08

Players:  88182

Average Rating: 1384

Average Glicko RD: 119

*************************************

2010 06 26

Players: 289029

Average Rating: 1343

Average Glicko RD: 137

http://www.chess.com/echess/players.html

If we have hit a plateau and the young guns are improving over last 2 years then it is possible that maintaining old rating would become difficult. However my problem is that my percentile has jumped from 90% to 95% in one day - with no change in rating !

It is a little tricky now with both an overall deflation in ratings and a rise in ranking.

For the ranking issue, there was a major influx of players. Seems a large number were rated very low.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/in-case-youre-wondering-why-the-number-of-members-jumped

At least one other noticed a jump in ranking with no increase in rating.

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/off-topic/why-did-my--go-from-90-to-95

Must've been "close-the-cheaters'-account day" ... toss a few 2900 players and the average rating goes down a bit ;)