This is my 1-year performance to give more context
Rapid increase in ELO
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I think it's normal. Your general chess will be improving but a specific issue, often mistakes and blunders, might hold you back, so you see a gradual rise due to fixing 'low hanging fruit'. Once a main issue is under control there is a much bigger step. Alternatively, you know how to play well, it's just a case of bringing it together in each game consistently. I've recently jumped from 1300 to nearly 1500 with no losses in 14 games. This is mainly due to not blundering on top of general improvement. At 1500 this includes avoiding simple tactical mistakes rather than hanging material.
squidward1 wrote:
Hello,
Since picking chess back up in February during the lockdown, I have seen a pretty slow but consistent increase in my Elo rating, taking about 6 months to go from 800 to 900 (3min Blitz). However, in the last 30 days, I have suddenly gone from 894 to 1184. Are long(ish) plateaus and sudden big jumps like this common, and if so, why?
If not, could there be any external factors affecting this? my percentile has also increased from about 50ish to 70ish, so I can't imagine this increase is happening with everyone?
Would appreciate anyone's 2 cents on the matter.
I had the same thing happen to me.
Most likely, you have just figured out how to capture hanging pieces and not hang any of your own.
I think learning Chess is similar to learning foreign languages in this respect. You keep plugging away, feeling you're not making much progress, then suddenly you reach a critical mass and realise that you have made a big jump in ability - which in chess is reflected in your ranking.
In 1978, I was 8 years old, I discovered this phenomenon.
I went into a ping-pong hall in Vietnam (it's like a pool hall). In 1 month after picking up a ping-pong paddle, I can beat half the people there. Then I find it harder and harder to beat the rest.
Later in life, I learned the scientific name of that phenomenon, it's called logarithm, or geometric growth.
It's like pulling on a Bowflex (or a bow), it is easy to pull it half way, but every inch after that is harder and harder.
The phenomenon is in everything. Take language. You can learn most of the vocabulary of a language by learning about 2,000 words. Those 2,000 - 3,000 make up 90-95% of the vocabulary used in daily life. The difficulty in language is not the number of words. The ease of language is in how common a word is used. There are only about 3,000 common words. The rest 27,000 words are uncommon (I counted the numbers of words in a hand-held paperback dictionary by taking a sample of 10 random pages [by using a random function on a computer, RND back in the TRS-80 days.])
Each word has a different common value. That is why you can progress so quickly, but it takes so long to master a language, say to be a writer for TV.
It's exactly like a re-chargable battery, any re-chargable battery. If it takes 1 hour to charge half the battery, it takes another 1 hour to charge half of what's left, and so on and so on. It is the opposite of "half life" decay of radioactive materials.
long_quach wrote:
The phenomenon is in everything.
I worked at NASA HQ in DC as an administrative assistant. My boss used to direct Table Mountain Observatory. All the scientists talk about math and science all day long, every day (and I mean when they are NOT talking about math and science).
My bossed noticed that too. In expensive restaurants, the food only taste better in small increments, even though it is twice as expensive.
Same thing for beauty, of women for example. A more beautiful woman is only slightly more beautiful. That's why it's called "fine". She's fine. Fine means small, like "the fine print."
Same thing with intelligence. We call it "sharp" and "dull". That a very good metaphor. There is not much difference between a sharp and a dull knife, but there is a difference in being able to cut a tomato or not.
"Now you know. And knowing is half the battle."
I called it "logarithmic", he called it "geometric". It's the same thing.
long_quach wrote:
I called it "logarithmic", he called it "geometric". It's the same thing.
Think of a hexagon. Mark the mid points along the edges. Make a smaller hexagon from those midpoints, and so on and so on. You can get to half the area of the original hexagon very quickly, but it take so many more steps to get to half of what's left, and so on an so on.
That's actually how NASA scientists and I talk about ping-pong, food, and women.
Hello,
Since picking chess back up in February during the lockdown, I have seen a pretty slow but consistent increase in my Elo rating, taking about 6 months to go from 800 to 900 (3min Blitz). However, in the last 30 days, I have suddenly gone from 894 to 1184. Are long(ish) plateaus and sudden big jumps like this common, and if so, why?
If not, could there be any external factors affecting this? my percentile has also increased from about 50ish to 70ish, so I can't imagine this increase is happening with everyone?
Would appreciate anyone's 2 cents on the matter.