Blitz and Rapid ratings are going in opposite directions

Hey all, just wondering if this is normal, my rapid rating is currently skyrocketing to 1800, yet my blitz is going down the drain towards 1500, when it used to be in the 1700 range. I mean I don't mind since my primary goal is to get better in slower time controls, specifically reach 1800 rapid, but still, seems strange to me why this would be the case. Should I care at all? (Edit: Perhaps having a bullet phase killed my blitz game?)

I think that a reason for this phenomenon is that game improvement and time management are conflicting attributes of the game.

As you seek to improve the game, more time is spent in calculating the best moves and ensuring minimal blunders. All these come at the price of a slice of the clock. More time spent on the board means fewer time for subsequent moves. We are humans, so no matter how good we are, we tend to panick when the time on our clock is very low (computers do not lose their ability even in time trouble).

Part of being able to play blitz is time management. You cannot be analysing every single move, because time is worth a lot in such time controls. Remember that a fair number of players also try to flag their opponents when they know that their opponents are in time trouble (especially in non-incremental games).

It's a trade-off between the two. Remember that there are also players who also face blitz and rapid ratings in opposite directions, but the other way - that is, their blitz ratings go up and rapid ratings go down.

Hey all, just wondering if this is normal, my rapid rating is currently skyrocketing to 1800, yet my blitz is going down the drain towards 1500, when it used to be in the 1700 range. I mean I don't mind since my primary goal is to get better in slower time controls, specifically reach 1800 rapid, but still, seems strange to me why this would be the case. Should I care at all? (Edit: Perhaps having a bullet phase killed my blitz game?)

I have a theory on this, as the same has happened to me, and most I've played I see they used to be 1850 blitz, and are now 1700, or below. I've lost 150 points, close to 200, and to be honest I don't think my chess strength went down at all, and the competition is just as stiff, sometimes stiffer in the 1600's as it was in the 1800's. My hypothesis is that since chess has become more and more popular, you have way more cheats, and you have teams sitting there trying to figure out how to cheat in 3.0 without detection, if you potentially have 30% trying this on the site which is highly likely, because now you can actually make a good living in chess, this will skew the 3.0 blitz ratings downward. If I play Rapid, as I do on lichess, SHOCKER, I am 2100, well above 2k. The blitz ratings on chess.com are absolutely incongruent with chess strength, it is a damn shame there are so many cheats that ruin it for all of us, Once you get out of the 1600 muck, and get over 1800, there are fewer and fewer cheats, because most get weeded out by then, but once you start spiralling down your rating can be decimated as suddenly you hit stronger, and stronger opponents on the way down ''cheats''. Sad state of affairs, and for this reason I think I will move away from playing 3.0 blitz altogether, and into rapid. Much less cheating in rapid/standard. Cheers

Wow @gotbishoped actually this has been a hunch of mine, actually makes sense to me tbh

yeah, you've lost 150 points, I've lost 170, suddenly. I might go back to lichess, less cheating there I am pretty sure. I strongly dislike this site layout, andthe overall experience is just bad. At least lichess was more proactive about catching cheaters, and would credit people, seems that does not happen on chess.com at all. I am done. I was trying to crack 1900 after attaining 1850, but now just going backwards, and the level of play is increasing on the way DOWN lol, yeah right, shouldn't it be the opposite? Chess is becoming big business, and since it is relatively easy to cheat you will have groups trying to win prize money, and where do you think they test their accounts? They will test it out on the 1300-1600 range....

Lol I don’t believe that there are that many cheaters. When I first got to 1600 UScF my chesscom blitz was around 1700, so I’d say it was pretty accurate.

also, @gotbishoped it might seem that the competition is stiffer but really I think it’s the mentality. You think, “I should be able to beat these noobs easily” and don’t really think that much while playing. It happens to me every time when I drop down a floor of a hundred lol. 
like that time I went from 1918 to 1750 and barely pulled myself up to 1800 again. Bishoped, it’s just a 100 point tilt. Happens occasionally.

I’ve only played about 20 cheaters, and I’ve played over 7000 games in blitz, bullet, rapid, and daily in total.

Lol, computer accuracy is definitely not the way you’re supposed to catch cheaters. Chesscom even says so. They look thoroughly to see who is a cheater and only close an account if they’re absolutely sure. You can’t just say they don’t take action against so called “obvious cheaters”.

ive gotten many 95 accuracy and above in blitz and bullet games. I've also had my fair share of 99% and above games, it's not that hard if your opponent plays moves that aren't so good and its fairly easy to punish. It also helps to play easy openings like the Colle or London. 

 I played a ton of games with the guy and 6 out of 7 games he had an accuracy of 98-99%, yeah, that is a cheater. He lost the first few games and then decided to cheat to get his points back and then some.

It seems like something is inconsistent between the Blitz and Rapid rating now. Maybe coincidence but I am up over 200 points in Rapid since the change. I'd like to think I'm really that good, but often my opponents seem to be making a few more mistakes now than I would anticipate. 

Maybe more of the better players are just playing Blitz?  Whether it is better from cheating or just being better is unclear, but I don't feel like many of my opponents cheat. 


Instead, I suspect that when 5 and 10 minute games were combined in Blitz the players who played both were functionally keeping the ratings aligned. Now that isn't happening. 

you've played over 3000 blitz games here. It's much easier to remember the times when they cheat versus when they don't.