Rules of Chess Ratings
Before I say 'goodbye' because of trouble with purposeful faulty internet connections while playing here on chess.com, I wish to comment on the current Rules of Chess Ratings.
Pertaining to how chess ratings are currently calculated, it is very difficult for a chess player new to tournament play to move up to a respectable rating even if he or she is a good player. Why is this? Because ratings do NOT reflect the true abilities of chess enthusiasts. Sure, there must be rules and of course, many are flawed. However, there is hope IF one has the time to travel to many tournaments, spend over $400 per weekend for travel, hotel, food, tournament fees and miscellaneous expenditures. Who has the time and the money to do this consistently for several years? I know I don't.
Just curious, but how LONG would it take someone that can play at Grandmaster level but is new to tournament play to move up in rating to be 'invited' to play in the Sinquefield Cup for instance? Five years perhaps? What about other things in life? This is also true for many other sports. Take golf for instance. If there really WERE someone who could play golf as good from the beginning as was portrayed in the movie, "Happy Gilmore", would he be invited to the PGA Tour next year? No, of course not! He would have to PROVE himself through years of playing in mediocre tournaments for many years first, then and only then would he be invited to the PGA. Why is life like this? Because of mankind's nature to complicate everything that should remain basically simple.
Since I am basically 'annonymous' here, I can share a bit about myself. I am an accomplished physician and musician. As a child prodigy, educators said that at age five I could reason as a nine year old and 'gave' me an IQ of 180. No one ever mentioned this to me, not even my parents until I was an adult. My best 'unnoficial' IQ is around 160, and I take this with TWO grains of salt, as the human mind had many varied and interesting capabilites for multiple intelligences, with the IQ part being the 'g factor' that can raise all other abilities. In the solitude of my library, I can play with my good chess buddy, "Deep Fritz 14" at the 2300 level. But I want to play humans with all their quirks and psychological emmanations also.
Sorry, but I have had TWO bad experiences three years apart here on this site. Sure, it is a good place for Nakamura to 'knock' everone out. But for me, not so. After all, one must be an extremely GOOD player in Classical Chess over G 65 to G 40/120 SD 15 to begin to be good at Blitz Chess. Principles first without learning to make mistakes by playing too fast without adequate chess training and knowledge. Kramnik mentioned this very thing on three occasions.
Here at chess.com, it is difficult for anyone to play enough games before deciding to become a 'paying member' in order to have a good internet connection without being trashed and losing one game after another for having 'abandoned' the games. Therefore, I must leave this site for the second time. Having been here three years ago as 'IrishGuy' I now must relinquish my title of 'DrIrish' and forget about ever coming back to chess.com, until, if and when, I have been fortunate to have played at a high level of classical chess first, and then only will I play Blitz and nothing else.
I hope all of you that read this blog post will thoughtfull consider what I wrote and that you all will have a much better experience than I have had. Take care! ---- DrIrish