Wow, Shasikiran the 2nd Indian who has interad into 2700 club.. he is heading with great pace..

well, ozzie, i dont really know about how rating systems are calculated, but, i can tell you this (below) from what i learnt concerning Elo Rating System.

just WARNING you, that's a reallly nerd thing im about to explain, so those who want to leave, please do so for your own good...;lol

let W_e = win expectancy,

ΔR = difference in ratings of the 2 players

the win expectancy is the calculated using the formula below:

.................................... (still to continue below...;lol)

now, a new variable: K

K depends on the rating of the players;

K=32 for rating 0-2099

K=24 for rating 2100-2399

K=16 for rating above 2400

for a match, the players score may be 1 for a win, 0.5 for a draw and 0 for a loss. let this be S, i.e, either S=1 or S=0.5 or S=0.

then, using the formula:

the new rating can be calculated.

maybe i succeded in enlightening you on this problem, or maybe i just succeded in making you hate chess rating calculations, but no worries, in both cases, its good for you and for anyone else also...;lol

Ozzie - I have no idea how ratings are culculated but, intuitively speaking, a win or loss between people with near-identical ratings would result in the least change.

For instance, when Anand finally agrees to my match with him I expect my rating (1600s) would increase very significantly as a result of my victories over him. Conversely, in the unlikely event that he wins, his rating would probably change by the smallest fraction (0.000001 or something.)

Perhaps some mathematician could enlighten us all about this.

Davidetal, great job ! Stand by and strike back !

I guess it somehow makes sense... but how does one get only 14 rating points for scoring 3 wins and 3 draws against someone basically equal in rating?

I figure that the draws are pretty even in rating points, and the wins, well I would have expected more than 5 points per win!

thanks for the update :)