Cautionary Note-- Take Care Chessmates !!! Rate changes much altered eg. retiring at start of game can now cost ( in my case ) minus 10  after only opening moves instead of previous rulings  of " insufficient moves to alter ratings "

Now that sounds like a good change!

YES- As long as one knows ruling changed !!

cheers for letting us know.  i think its quite a good idea right enough.

thanks xqsme

are you sure about it? please say it in detail..

Yes absolutely .. look at my game results  V  jillijoe 11....

thanks for the update

Thanks

The usual mechanism by which chess.com announces changes is via Forum topics containing the word "FEATURES". If you search for FEATURES, you'll find the following topics:

2007

New features on Chess.com! - Chess.com (Aug 2007)

A Few Site Fixes & Updates - Chess.com (Nov 2007)

New Site Features Released Today - Chess.com (Nov 2007) 

2008

Site Features & Updates - 6/12/2008 - Chess.com (Note: June! – U.S. date convention)

Features & Updates - June 25th, 2008 - Chess.com

Features & Updates - 31 July 2008 - Chess.com

Site Updates & Features - Aug 26 2008 - Chess.com

New Features & Fixes - Nov 18 2008 - Chess.com

2009

New Features & Fixes - Mar 12 2009 - Chess.com

New Features & Fixes - May 3 2009 - Chess.com

I've doubtless missed a few - and I haven't seen any announcement for a change to the treatment of game losses or resignations in under 4 moves.

Many thanks for source information artfizz.There is evidence also of reduced gains for wins against higher ratings, though again I may have missed notification of changes in the "scale of charges"

I believe like Columbus rediscovering America you have rediscovered an unannounced change from February. No minimum moves on a resignation or withdrawal. The more than three moves rule remains on timeouts.

Ratings calculation was recently fixed.

ichabod801 wrote: "With c squared the average RD was 75. With c not squared the average RD was 113 (which is more than the maximum RD with c squared!)."

It would be nice to have a concise summary of the consequences of correcting the factor c to c² in the rating calculation formula. If I understand ichabod801 correctly, switching to c² should reduce the amount by which ratings change.

Perhaps also it could be helpful to re announce discovery of America in cases where it had not registered !!  EG   for people too busy playing chess to read all notices OR who might miss them ON VACATIONS  OF PHYSICAL  not  MENTAL variety !!...IF THE CAP FITS.....

if this post didnt help you, fair enough......you got the all seeing eye!

obviously it's gave quite a few of us information we didnt already know.

whats the problem with that?

again,  thanks exqsme.

pmk

Thanks pmk but I think i have as usual with me opened my mouth too  much trying to  be too clever in forums... the cap fits me perfectly. Still  the subjects  evidently need the extra publicity.

A friend of mine has just told me he found his rating devasted by 46 points  in  3 games thru ruling change !!!

well you informed me of change, and when challenged, i bite back too.  its only natural (particulary for a scot haha)

 That is very very true.That was me.

A low RD should reduce a player's rating change but their opponent's RD also figures into the calculation so it is possible the RD fix has a small impact on ratings change. There is a calculator provided in the Ratings calculation thread.

As well anyone can monitor average RD here to see if there is any change in average RD. Currently the average RD is 129. It may take awhile to decrease since all the players who have left the site, with their high RDs, have to drop out of the average over the course of the next 12 months.