Ratings here vs FIDE ratings

     My blitz rating is between 1600 and 1700 and generally I find that my opponents on chess.com are usually tough!  Most know the openings fairly well, don't fall for easy tactics and play rapidly so that usually I am the one behind on the clock.  More than once I have lost 3 or 4 games in a row.  At one time my OTB rating was in the 1900's. 

pretty tough?? All you to do to beat 1600-1700 is not hang pieces, and take hanging pieces. 1600-1700 players are very weak, and hang a lot of material for free. In fact, even if you hang pieces, you can get away with it.

1800+ on this garbage site is literally nothing, you can easily do it by taking pieces and not hanging pieces. 

(In before myratingis1523)

Honestly blitz is not good if you want to judge your real rating. I'm 1800 uscf but trash at blitz.

TGlavnik, when did you last play, before your long break from the game?

TGlavinic,

I'm sure you are correct about the ratings here being a little bit deflated (by around 100 points of Elo). It's easier to play OTB chess. I confirm that. Yet, I'm sure you can improve your blitz rating a lot.

With that being said, some people fall prey of FIDE Elos i.e. if you didn't play a lot (I mean a whole lot ) of FIDE games internationally, your Elo might be skewed (inflated or deflated). A good alternative way is to calibrate your Elo against an engine. i.e. play rated games against Fritz or Shredder. The engine plays consistently; its Elo doesn't jump up and down like that of humans in bad mood, which is especially true of amateurs. If your FIDE Elo was slightly skewed towards being inflated, that must be bad. I would be sorry to hear that but bs happens.

Needless to say blitz Elo might be quite different from that of standard Elo.

And judging by your bullet rating your blitz Elo should be higher !  That's for sure. It must have been bad luck.

 @3Dchess, do you not think that Shredder's and Fritz ratings are also skewed? I play against Shredder and I've heard people say that it's weaker than it should be on the lower ratings and stronger than it should be on the higher ratings (or something like that)

IpswichMatt,

I think Fritz and Shredder are okay within 100 points of Elo in standard long games. When it comes to bullets and blitzes, I think they are far less precise i.e. they basically tell you that your bullet or blitz skills really suck 

I do confirm (I believe so based on my experience) that both Shredder and Fritz are weaker at low levels and stronger at higher levels. However I don't think that they are much off or no good at calibrating Elo ratings. I find real ratings (FIDE or here) to be jumping up and down more inconsistently at low levels. As to higher FIDE ratings at GM levels,  I think they are very good and precise.

IpswichMatt,

And we have to use anti-engine strategies, or we will continue to skew things. I mean we can end up with low ratings assigned to us by the engine. It's the same for all levels. Even Kramnik could have done a lot worse against Fritz without using anti-engine strategies. So some effort is needed to calibrate the level against an engine properly. On the plus side it will be consistent and reliable.

A much better way to determine his rating is to look at the quality of the games, rather than conclude "bad luck". I can tell you, those games are nowhere near the work of a 2000... maybe a 1500 FIDE player. These are rapid games I'm talking about, not speed games. 

The best way to describe his games is by those of a player who knows a lot of opening theory, but loses to basic tactics...

In this recent Daily Game, the OP misses a mate in 1... and loses to an 1100

https://www.chess.com/daily/game/157404699?username=TGlavinic

 Cherub_Enjel,

I agree that we can determine his rating without an engine provided we know our own ratings extremely precisely and provided that at least a few people give fair judgements. I have no right to be judgemental here saying his Elo is 1500 or 1600 or 1900. Maybe you are right (with 1500), maybe not. To try to calibrate his rating I need to analyze a lot of his games, which I'm not gonna do. Just a guess out of his bullet rating makes me think that he might be within the range of 1650 -- 2050 Elo in long time control. Who knows. I don't think that 1500 Elo is a good assessment here. I think you are somewhat harsh here. He did overlook a mate, and it's a serious blunder (kinda like Elo 1400). Still a lot of analyzing needs to be done in my opinion. I don't like to jump to conclusions, especially harsh ones.

Cherub_Enjel,

Anyway, his rating will go up a lot if he was that strong (FIDE 2100). Just more games are necessary. That's all. I hope real FIDE Elos are not so much skewed that the precision is +/-300 Elo points. Anyway I rely on engines when I need to estimate the strength. Engines have no biases and show consistency. In the real world Elo may jump up and down too much, especially among amateurs. I find it very inconsistent and unreliable in comparison with engines. Sometimes a low Elo player plays too strong. Sometimes I run across a very weak player with a high Elo.

Cherub_Enjel, At the same time it's very weird how he found a way to achieve such low ratings here if he was FIDE2100. Very weird indeed. Such low Elos in rapid and blitz. Even if he had run across strong guys with low Elos, it would still be weird. He should play like my ancient computer Saitek travel champion 2100 computing 4 moves (or 8-9 plies) ahead on average, and that's enough to polish off anyone below a 1800-2000 range.  

I suspect it may be 20 years or more since he last played seriously. Your skills deteriorate with a lay off like that - hopefully for the OP (and for me) it's possible to get them back!

TGlavinic,

A piece of advice. Make sure that pawns are automatically promoted to queens and the option of pre-moves is on. It affects rating in blitz games, and it's a huge deal in bullets. It lets you finish the game or win it even if you have 5-10 seconds left. The rating will eventually go up, if your Elo once was as high as 2100 points. I would not worry about it.

TGlavinic,

Although this portal is very nice, sometimes I feel like they are pulling a prank with all those Elo things. Really. OTB is easy. But here it looks like I'm playing against a stonewall. So you are definitely not alone here who feels like his Elo has been trashed

You don't get a "serious" Fide rating by playing blitz... Apart from that, my Fide rating is around 2300, like here. I have tried to reach 2400 at 5/0, but programmers don't allow me, it seems.

 FM Heliotropador, I fully agree. It does seem so, and it's weird. OTB seems to be easier.