everyone starts at 1200. then as you play you get a new rating. it is all based on the Glicko ratings system :) check it out - it's a fun read!
http://math.bu.edu/people/mg/glicko/glicko.doc/glicko.html
You know what's really sad? I visited that link and understood every single bit of it. Heck, I even know how to write the Excel formulas to emulate it. That's just sad... sad, sad, sad. Man, I need a social life. ROFL.
I visited that site, took one look at that formula .........and ran !!
Interesting idea, Clownfish. The formulas could be used with some sample data to determine the results. But to use that approach in real life, as a "strategy" per se, would require you to know not only the ratings of your potential opponents but also their RD values. Then you would have to run the numbers to determine the best possible sample of opponents against which to battle. Even then, there's no guarantee of better success against the lower-ranked sample group.
And what if the higher-ranked players have very high RD values and the lower-ranked players have very low RD values? Then the results for the two scenarios you describe above could be equal or even reversed!
I offer the following spin on your idea: We have no way of affecting our opponents' RD values. But we can affect our own. By definition, the RD value will gradually increase with time. So if we take extended leaves between groups of rated games, that would affectively cause our RD value to increase before each group of games. Therefore the ratings swing caused by our game results would be more dramatic (which could be a BAD thing). But we would need to know what time constant the USCF (or FIDE or whomever) uses for the RD equation. 2 months? 6 months? 1 year? 2 years? And of course we would have to stay "up on our game" during those sabaticals.
In the end, I don't think there's an easy way to minipulate the formulas or the system. There may be a way, but it's probably not very easy. Or we could try to win every game. :-)
i'm rated 1200 and i don't play golf
come get me
no fool can play chess and only fools do
This thread is humourous - i was puzzled at the "Why then did I go down from 1200 (to 1361)" - then i read on and realised that the poster thought ratings were like golf handicaps. Broke into a smile - (i was feeling somewhat tense for reasons not related to websites) - and feeling relaxed - it was theraputic! Thanks, MickBJ!
(the above is meant seriously! i am *not* taking a dig at anyone. Perish the thought...)
I agree with the assertion that ratings do matter to serious players. I do not agree however that OTB ratings have some superior status to correspondence or on-line ratings. Why does he think that people who play correspondence chess or online chess cannot be serious players? Not everyone has the opportunity or time to play otb....I myself have limited time even to play online, but I take each game seriously and give it as much thought as I can within the time available. My rating is not too bad but I would desperately like it to be better.
Oh yes it does! How well you play includes how well you manage your time. Time is as much part of Chess as it is in other games. In football you could score the greatest goal in history, but if the referee blows time before it goes in it doesn't count. Similarly in Chess if you don't get your moves in within the time, you lose, and correctly so.
I could be wrong, but I assume she's talking about blitz games. There are lots of people who are great blitz players but terrible in long games, and vice versa.
I try to play differently in blitz games. In long games I try to play (what looks to me through my myopic chess goggles) the best move, whereas in blitz games I try to play moves that make the opponent think
The problem I have after reading this is Glicko assumes the rating of a player who has been out of the game for a while is not reliable. Let's say that I play chess for 20 years and earn a 1700 rating then stop playing for 20 years. A new prodigy comes up and after 2 years of playing has a 1700 rating but his rating is earned more recently than mine was. That would make the prodigies rating after only two years of play more valid than my rating earned after 20 years of play because I haven't played in 20 years. I could have 1000 professional games under my belt and the young prodigy only 100 so how is my rating less valid than his? I would consider the newer players rating the less reliable because he has fewer games. Time should have no effect on how many points someone gains or loses from a match. If we could bring J.R. Capablanca back from the dead would anyone say that his rating is less valid than Vladimir Kramniks?
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