🧩 The Puzzle Rating Paradox – My Thoughts as a Fellow Chess Enthusiast

On January 21, 2025, a Chess.com account named "Alyurfed" became inactive after achieving a staggering puzzle rating of 81,173, the highest ever recorded on the platform. With zero games played and only puzzle activity visible, this account has raised eyebrows within the chess community for its extraordinary, almost system-breaking rating. Given how Chess.com’s puzzle rating system works rewarding progressively fewer points after each correct solve beyond the 3000+ level reaching such a number seems virtually impossible through regular human play, even with engine assistance, which typically slows down rating gain due to time penalties and diminishing returns. This leads to the likely assumption that the account either exploited a rare system bug, engaged in automated puzzle solving using scripts, or uncovered a loophole in how rating inflation works under extreme conditions. Interestingly, the account was closed by the user themselves, not banned, which rules out official disciplinary action and adds further mystery, suggesting that the person behind it may have intentionally pushed the system to its limits, proved a theoretical point, or perhaps wanted to leave a mark before stepping away. Whatever the reason, the closure of such an anomalous account leaves behind not only a question of how it was done, but also why and whether such feats add value or merely highlight the vulnerabilities in an otherwise well-respected platform!!