well i just did my first tornament and i came out with a rating of 841 and went in unrated. As you can see my live chess and online chess are between 1350- 1450. i was just wondering if this is really correct.

Thank you, KFC

It doesn't surprse me. Give yourself some time to adapt to otb. Your rating will be on the rise soon enough.

Comparing cc ratings here to sanctioned otb is truly apples and oranges, apart from the inflated ratings here.

USCF ratings are usually not considered reliable until you have played over 25 games. That is, they are considered provisional and a different formula is used to calculate your ratings. Don't worry just keep playing until you have amassed 25+ games.

Live chess and USCF are usually almost identical, however the CC chess ratings are very inflated (200-400 pts).

thank you very much!!

Well, I wouldn't say that the Online chess ratings are "inflated".  They just represent a different type of chess than live and OTB.  People playing online chess should have higher online chess ratings than OTB or Live since they have the oppurtunity to use books and certain other things and also have longer time periods to make theiur decisions, as opposed to having to play a whole game in a relatively short period of time.

I have looked at a couple of dozen cc games here. Not all that many, to be sure, but in each case I see some quite bad play that does not correspond with what I know of USCF otb-ers with similar ratings. The cc games are much worse quality than what I see otb, with similar ratings. I can only conclude that the ratings are very inflated as they express chess skill/knowledge.

Live chess. Haven't looked at one game so I have no opinion.

To add to the previous poster's point: You would expect an increase in quality, not a decrease in quality, given that each player has so much more time to think about their moves.

Have to agree with Kupov and Goldendog: the ratings here are inflated compared to USCF by at least 200 points.  I recently had a game with a 1600 who left his queen in take. This is when he had 3 days to look over his move! You would not see a USCF 1600 do that in a tournament otb game, and certainly not in a game  where you can move the pieces to analyze for 3 days before you move.

CC Chess ratings are very overinflated especially when compared to ICCF Correspondence Chess ratings.

As far as Live chess or CC here compared to OTB it is impossible to compare the two.  I have seen over rated and under rated players in Live chess and much of it stems from having 3-15 minutes to play a game versus an hour or more.  I personally rarely break 1600 playing online chess on any sever yet I'm rated 1716 USCF OTB and 1780 ICCF.

What is fide and usfc  

Nearly everyone I see with a USCF rating has an almost identical live chess rating (until about 2000 or so when the competition on live chess thins and makes the ratings unreliable).

USCF - US Chess Federation

FIDE - World Chess Federation

ICCF - International Correspondence Chess Federation

I disagree, and I don't mean to come off as insulting you, but 4 months serious chess playing does not give you a sense of whether someone with a 1600 chess.com rating is playin at a 1600 USCF level.

 HMMMMMMM SEEMS INTERESTIN" TO ME......my chess.com CC is 600 points too high......judging that at the time of writing my on the board rating is 660.

In regard to Live Chess, I imagine all those USCF ratings in people's profiles are from slow standard otb play. If the Chess Live rating is dervived from games of bullet or blitz or rapid then there's another reason we can't directly compare them. Some thrive in the quick play while others play like garbage.

I have never played a rated OTB tournament. I am basing my idea entirely around people whose profiles I have seen.

And what does mine say about me ha?....  

My A.C.F. rating was about 1646 before i stopped playing O.T.B. tournaments. My live rating is;

1721 for the long 1767 for blitz u think that's a fair assessment? But my correspondent rating is now 2161 which clearly is not my OTB rating. :)

I think ratings are a guide but yet to find any system OTB or not that is accurate.

I say this to ratings here at uscf, at fide at icc at anywhere:

Play because you LOVE to play and NOT for stupid points!

ps: I am WAY overrated