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Concerns About Smurfing and Rating Manipulation on Chess.com
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@25. More to the point, people can seek games with players rated much lower than them without changing their rating. Same with seeking higher rating.
All I can think is that some folks are more prone to conspiracy thinking. It might be human nature to seek explanation (and justification); an ancient survival technique. Most times, it's simply Occam's Razor - I need to become better at winning and stop looking for boogie men.
ChessMasteryOfficial wrote:
If a player is intentionally lowering their rating to farm wins against lower-rated opponents, you should report them. Chess.com has systems in place to detect and punish sandbagging.
I don't think sandbagging detection or enforcing reports on sandbaggers is great here. Look at the tournament pools and who is winning. I would show one account who is doing that shenanigans since 2023 and still hanging out here but it is not allowed for obvious reasons.
Rodrigo-Moraes wrote:
Hey everyone! I’ve been noticing a trend on Chess.com where players who seem highly experienced end up with artificially low ratings, either by creating new accounts or intentionally losing games to drop their rating. It’s frustrating to face someone who plays like a 1500+ but shows a rating of 300–500. It can feel unfair and discouraging to newer players (like me).
Someone says, go and get better, but it's hard to accept me being a ~350 which is literally below day one, play a game with a guy that 2,000 live games on pocket, and the worst part, since now I'm fighting them for 30% of my games I will eventually become these guys too, since I'm losing every game against these smurfs and my ELO keep dropping because of them.
Now I have 385 games and this keeping happening.
Is this reportable?
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Generally, if you believe someone is clearly manipulating their rating (for example, sandbagging by intentionally losing games), you can report them. However, just because someone starts a new account and has strong skills doesn’t necessarily mean they’re breaking any rules, it might just be a new account for a returning player.
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If you notice a sudden or suspicious drop from established 1500 down to 300 (or something equally drastic), it’s worth sending a report?
Now I'm really don't know what to do, buy a course, get better and then after some study go to 800-1000 and this will not happens anymore, but what about new users? They will quit because there is a 25 years old guy in a 5th Grade Elementary School football team, and the Principal don't take any actions?
Even if you did not lose to him badly, you will still have many badly defeats against low rated opponents because your rating is too low. I think that it is much better for you to learn how to improve chess skills.
Smurfing is bad?
What still has not been addressed is what people gain by intentionally sinking their rating? It's not like there's money at stake here.