Confused by elo rating

Hi folks,

I am new to this site having yesterday bought a chess program for PC anf another for Ipad. I am 53 years old and whilst I played a little chess as a teenager it must be only a dozen or so games that I have played in the last 30 years or so. I played my first game against shredder today, it set to 1400 elo and I beat the bugger 1st time. It gave me a score of elo1800.  Have I got better without playing? or is this a pure fantasy, flattery score.

Cheers

by official rules you need 25 games before you get an approximately accurate rating. so while you may have mysteriously gotten better you need to play 25 games to find out.

It is very common for your score to go through the roof until you play more games.  That goes for chess programs and even this site.  Once you've played a bunch more games, your score will settle out.  1800 is really high for a beginner.  Either you're harboring some mad chess skills, or this score will die off.  :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system

FUN FACT: After losing a game to Kasparov,  David Letterman was ELO rated 2370 (400 pts below Gary)

so if i played only carlsen i'de be a grandmaster 

not sure if i feel reassured or deflated, thought it was strange. Will play another 24 and report back. I am not surprised letterman did well he is a bright guy and chess is a simple game with huge depth, so a bright mind will do well

So what is the greatest elo rating ever achieved who achieved it and when?

This presumably is the nirvana upon which we would all liket o stand

here is the game if it makes any sense

 Notation Openings Book
Notation Score sheet LiveBook Openings Book
Player. Shredder 1400 1-0
D00 11:3 1 Shredder for iPad 01.01.2001
1.Nbl-c31 d7-d5 2.Ngl-f3 Ng8-f6 3.d2-d4 g7-g6 4.e2-e3 a7-a6 5.h2-h3 Bf8-g7 6.b2-b3 Bc8-fS 7.Bcl-b2
Rh8-fB 8.Bfl-d3 Nb8-d7 9.Rhl-fl c7-c6 1O.g2-g4 Bf5-e4 11.Bd3xe4 d5xe4 12.Nf3-e5 Nd7xeS 13.d4xe5
Nf6-d7 14.Nc3xe4 Bg7xeS 1S.Bb2xeS Nd7xeS 16.f2-f4 NeS-d7 17.Rfl-12 Qd8-b6 18.Qdl-d3 Nd7-c5
19.Ne4xcS QbGxcS 20.Ral-dl QcS-aS+ 21.Rf2-d2 QaSxd2+ 22.Rdlxd2 f7-fS 23.Qd3-d7+ Ke8-f7 24.Qd7xb7
Rf8-c8 25.Rd2-d7 f5xg4 26.Rd7xe7+ Kf7-f8 27.Re7xh7 Kf8-g8

The game score is irrelevant what matters is how the rating system works. ELO ratings begin with an unrated player being rated +400 over the first opponent if they win and -400 under the first opponent if they lose, and the same rating if they draw. End of story.

And Letterman did not do well at all he played like a rank beginner I saw the game score.

This isn't an actual fact. The game was unrated. If we count all the unrated games that Letterman ever played, Letterman would still be ...

unrated.

Yeah I never considered that, I must have read what Dave's rating would have been - or else whatever I read was written by some bozo making ASSumptions like i did

carlsen has the highest elo at something like 2851 acheived this december. this is approximate so don't quote me.