RATINGS
A chess rating measures the approximate strength of a player based on his/her performance against opponents. All successfully completed, rated games count towards a player’s rating.
Every ChessCube user has two independent ratings:
- a general rating for all rated non-tournament games, and
- a tournament rating for all rated tournament games.
How ratings are calculated
ChessCube uses the ELO rating system which is currently the most widely used rating system in the world.
New ChessCube users start with a general rating of 1500. If you have never played in a tournament your tournament rating will be set to your general rating when you enter your first tournament.
To deal with the uncertainty of newcomer ratings we use the following K-factor values in the ELO formula:
- if you have played less than 20 games your K-factor = 50,
- otherwise your K-factor = 24.
Rating floors
To prevent abuse ChessCube limits the amount of rating points a user can drop. Plus, a lot of users are grateful for rating floors because they don't want to fall so far from the rating they proudly reached at their peak.
Rating floors exist at: 100 (absolute floor), 1000, 1100, 1200 … 2000, 2100, 2200.
A player's rating floor is calculated by subtracting 200 points from the highest established rating, and then using the floor just below.
For example, if an established player's highest rating was 1941, then subtracting 200 yields 1741, and the floor just below is 1700. Thus the player's rating cannot go below 1700. Note that a player's highest rating is only set after they have completed 20 rated games.
