Matching opponents with similar ratings

Hi

I’m a complete beginner, in the 400-500 bracket. I’m trying to learn seriously and improve my chess dramatically. I am also going through the lessons and doing numerous puzzles a day. I am really enjoying the game despite being absolutely rubbish.

I felt like even on the 30 min rapid games I was feeling the pressure and blundered a lot. I decided to take some of that pressure away and had a go at the daily games instead which I think has helped me.

I keep getting matched with 400 rating opponents on daily game which is what I want but quite a few of these people have fairly high ratings on rapid which demonstrates they are decent opposition and therefore in my view unfair opponents. Is there anything I can do to ensure I am against genuine beginners like me on daily?

Set the minimum number of games at a high enough level that hopefully the stronger players will have higher ratings and not low ones

Those are probably either people who rarely play daily, so they have a starting rating there, or they perhaps play too many games so they have lower rating in daily chess. There will be people like that, because daily chess is not universally popular and someone's rating will not be realistic.

What you can do, because you have a membership, click on play - play - custom - open challenges, then you will see a chart for all challenges at that moment (as far as I know, free members don't have this option, but maybe I am mistaken). On the right side of the chart you will see daily challenges that look like suns (yellow are rated and gray are unrated).

When you hover over them, you will see a username of a person issuing a challenge. Click on it in order to look their profile and see if their rapid/blitz/bullet rating is satisfactory for you. When you are content, you can click on the acceptable challenge.

Bear in mind that daily chess is a bit different than a regular live game. First, there is an opening tab incorporated in those games, as consulting opening database is legal i Daily chess only.

Along with that, there is the analysis tab inside those games (of course without engine evaluation), which is supposed to mimic the ability to move the pieces freely before you decide on a move. That is again only available for daily chess, not for a regular live game.

As a result, daily chess is ok and if you like it, you can keep playing it, but it is not a substitute for a regular live game.

The other thing you can try is even longer game than 30 minute one. You can play 60 minute games. At that level, there is plenty of opposition (as long as you are under 1 500 rated, there is enough people playing these long games). Above that, there is a bit of a problem, as people rarely play it on higher levels.

Hope this helps.

I felt the same way ! I wish there was a way to pick the opponent.

It’s better to play a mix of players