why are 200-300 elo blitz players so good
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I used to play on this app years ago and I feel like at my level, people weren’t that good. Most posts talk about sub 600 players being new to the game but I started playing blitz recently and my ranking dropped quickly. I feel like 200-300 elo players are actually really good on blitz. They are deffo not new to the game. Is it me or have people generally got better?
Aug 1, 2025
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#2
This isn't just a blitz thing. I suffer from this issue with rapid.
I wasn't there to see it since I only started playing last year, but there was supposedly a time where people at my rating really, really sucked. I'd love to know exactly when that ceased to be the case, because that's definitely not true. It seems like with every other game I play, I'll always get put up against someone who never seems to make any mistakes and always knows the right moves to utterly bulldoze you, often without even taking much time to think. And if they do make mistakes, they're often so subtle that it'd probably take someone with at least an 1800+ rating to understand why the moves in question are bad.
Of course, we all have "on fire" moments where no one can stop us, but sometimes I wonder how and why in the world I get paired against people like this so often.
Aug 2, 2025
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#4
At the 200-300 ELO range in blitz, "good" often translates to consistently avoiding one-move blunders and quickly capitalizing on your opponent's mistakes, which can feel very strong if you're still working on those fundamentals.
Aug 2, 2025
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#5
Easy enough to answer.
Low rated players.
Moving fast.
Anything can and will happen.
I think in general players have improved at all ratings because so many study tools are easily available now. The ratings distribution will still be similar even as players are improving because it's based on scoring % against average ratings of opponents. So you have to improve to maintain the same rating if most players are improving.
As an example: I used to play otb rated tournaments (you know, real chess. Hahaha). I know I'm the exact same level as a few decades ago, I know it. I don't currently study or try to get better, there's no point in it. But I do follow/watch tournaments often on the web & listen to the GM commentary. I learn a lot about positional chess from that. I know that if I return to rated competition my rating would likely drop, mainly because 1800's now are better than 1800's from 20 or 30 years ago. Same with 1500's, 1100's, etc, etc. So I'm guessing even 200 rated players are better because getting better in my time required studying books, analyzing games with a real set, etc. Now players can relax and watch videos, play thousands of games on the web, etc. I don't think players under 1000 even studied. It's a lot different now.
probably full of crappy smurfs
