Targeting: why teams players see FFA as a joke.

I m not rated that high in FFA. It hovers around 2600. This is because whenever I join any que less than 2400+, I often get targeted by my neighbors and my opposite goes passive. Then one of the neighbors blindly attacks me, giving the other neighbor the win.

The difference between humans and wild apes is that we have a larger brain that allows us to think and not just act on impulse. If you see a high rated player and you have the urge me want attack high rated. Me want do this, despite the fact that doing this is not strategic, then you're probably not using your brain. In fact, you're really no better than a wild ape. This seems to be how a great many FFA players rated lower than 2500 act though.

It's easy to ignore at first, but when it happens game after game after every single game... you realize that FFA is largely populated by people that just simply do not take time to think. And this is precisely why many teams plays don't take FFA seriously.

I really held nothing back in sharing my thoughts on this in the following game where I was targeted, and the guy who targeted me clearly shared how he was blindly attacking me due to me having a higher rating, which isn't even that high: https://www.chess.com/4-player-chess?g=11160689

You probably speak here more about the non-anon. games, where to play when one is 2600+ with players under 2400, and even worse, 2300, is very risky: most will attack you (even sometimes 3 vs. 1) and quite often the opp (especially if he is under 2300 and doesn't really understand the game) will remain passive, simply developing and looking passionlessly how they're killing you.

That's why I never play non-anon games with a level which differs from mine by more than 150-200 pts. Far too risky; you finish 4th quite easily without making anything wrong, but because you have an incompetent idiot in front who understands nothing about the 3 stages of a FFA game and their basic characteristics. It clearly doesn't pay: when you win (after often a very hard battle) you get 5-7 points and if you lose being 4th, the punishment may be easily -30/-40. It's not worth.

(Anyway, with the reform that will be implemented soon, with automatic Solo for high-rated games, the problem will be over!)

Well.... that's if these wild apes can understand how the solo system works, which is doubtful.

They're obliged, or they'll never be in Top 100.

You want to hear a rant about targeting and dirty play in hyperbullet? No? 

In a nutshell, the game is basically finding simple mates on your opponents, doing things that they don't expect (like checking them to waste their clock)... but then you have these absolute losers taking 3 seconds to drag a rook across the board to take your pawn or just straight up sacking their entire army into you (and then proceeding to flag).

We high-rated players underestimate how difficult it is to figure out correct strategies. Even basic things such as teaming/3player stage just don't click with a lot of people. It took me months to even figure out I should work with my opposite.

Sometimes we blame other players when we should blame ourselves. If you give someone(to use an extreme example) a mate in one on you, and they take it, even if they shouldn't, that's your fault as much as there's. Much of FFA is influencing players to make mistakes that hurt someone else, not you.

The rating system, ideally, should sort out things so this would not be an issue.

Otherwise, have grace.

Yes, I should be graceful enough to let it go. I think my frustration is not so different from GM Hammer's. Perhaps the issue is that the pool of four player chess ffa players are generally low in skill.

you have the same problem with 2pc. I'm 1700, and probably 90th percentile. I'm not very good of course. But even seemingly easy things like not hanging pieces, is hard! 

Bluntly, and referring to 4pc in general, not to you, Putting unrealistic exceptions on people, and then insulting them when they don't meet them, I don't understand why that's necessary.

It's never right to think that the whole 4pc community will all at once become a government filled with non-targeters. It's not going to change, so we might as well live with it. If people aren't going to listen to your advice, then giving them more advice isn't going to help. 4pc is possible because of the 4 players who play it, no matter who the players are. So we might as well accept the fact that the 4pc community will never change, that these "wild apes" will always be present, and hope that they realize their faults and improve someday. 

Yall aren't right, but the theory is almost true.

This is coming from a player who has played one rated game? 

Yall aren't right, but the theory is almost true.

This is coming from a player who has played one rated game? 

I've had one account (For security reasons I have limited the name: Phoe***0***), but I used to enjoy chess.com. Also, I don't DO rated games. I like to remix stuff.

Yea sure security reasons, we're not suspicious at all

I was not referring to targeting, so much as subpar play as a whole.

My problem is not with subpar players, but that the community feels the need to belittle those who play subpar

I honestly don't give a crap about ffa

Yea sure security reasons, we're not suspicious at all

The only **** reason I do that is because I got hacked and if someone knows my username then they'll hack me again, so SHUT THE ### UP PLEASE!

So perhaps this post was not written in the best spirit. Clearly it's just a game and I shouldn't get so annoyed at something just for fun.

True. But my old username wasn't Phoenix0923. That was an account on scratch and kogama.

FFA = Joke is a joke. The joke is that really it is a joke, but by fixing it a little we get solo. The real reason behind FFA = joke is that it is funny to say that 2nd place wins for any player with respect for the game. Rating hunting is something else, if that was the goal, then 2nd place can be a thing to play for, but overall you aim at the top, improvement.

You need top players to have good solo in the three player stage. Clearly you need to play another rated game and see if you get an intelligent opposite or if anybody kingmakes.