Chess.com Ratings are a JOKE

You think Kowarenai is 1400 OTB strength but has 2500 online peaks because he plays for nothing but cheap tricks every game? What?

Even for the absolute youngest and best blitz specialists the biggest gap you would expect between an OTB rating and online blitz is about 500-600 points.

I have played Kowarenai before, he doesn't play rubbish, actually a lot of the games he wins are grinds where he slowly outplays his opponent (many of whom are titled players).

When I was new to OTB chess I might have had the opposite problem as Kowarenai... I played so slowly that I often had the impression I won games because my opponent got bored. I had this impression because they'd play noticeably worse in the 2nd half.

When I was still something like 1600 I (very luckily) drew this 2000 guy... took me 1 hour on my clock to play about 15 moves of theory, of course he blitzed out his 15

But I'd been calculating so much during all this that I was all warmed up. Meanwhile he'd been sitting there bored for an hour... I think that makes a difference i.e. the volume of work you do while seated at the board.

Of course as Finegold says... just can't do it when you get older. Not enough energy (so lower volume of work).

1000 points is enormous though... he's definitely better than 1400 OTB. He just has a bad mindset or something. I haven't seen his OTB games, but you can't be 2500 in blitz by playing 1-2 move threats over and over... that'd be more like 1300 blitz or something.

1) He actually IS ~1400 OTB.

2) I have yet to see a game where he was outplaying a strong opponent (1800+).  I see him making sub-par moves quickly and setting up cheap traps (i.e. ones that make his position worse if his opponent handles them properly)

The rating gap discrepancy is actually what intrigued me, as it is highly unusual to see such a gap.

No offense, but you have proven time and time again that you have no clue what you are talking about.  One day, you will look back at these comments and think, "Man, how was I such an idiot?"

Ok, I saw a few games in his blog... falling for 1-2 move tactics himself... I don't really get it. I can only assume his mind isn't in the game for one reason or another.

But the gap from OTB to chess.com blitz is pretty well known. As Steven says for blitz kids it can be as high as 500 or so points. Over 1000 is definitely strange... and the simple tactics he lost material to in the few games I looked at were also strange. He was definitely not focused for some reason (maybe he has social anxiety, or a disability or etc).

I played one guy who was an amputee and war veteran... he literally took pain medication in the middle of our game.

OP is 1100. Let that sink it before reading the other things he has to say

Interestingly enough, during the timeframe in question (Nov 2021) is when he finally broke 1200 OTB (classical - playing G/25+5) and didn't break 1500 in OTB blitz  until the end of December 2021.

Like I said, I was intrigued by the rating gap disparity.  It is highly unusual to say the least.  He played in a classical (G/25+5) event in June and lost to a 1200 in the first round.  Those are the kind of things you don't expect to see from someone with a 2200+ online blitz rating.  Though, whatever club he is playing at had a LOT of provisional players.  He has played 2-3 in almost every event he has played in this year.

I am not going to link to the kid's stats.  You can look them up yourself.

The fact that you think there is not something odd about a 1400 OTB classical/1500 OTB blitz player racking up master scalps online just demonstrates your lack of understanding just how skillful masters are.  It isn't your fault, you simply have not been exposed to them and cannot fathom why that situation is peculiar.  (And just for clarification, I am not saying he is doing anything fishy - simply that the assumption his playing strength is on par with masters and yet he struggles OTB is rather interesting).

If Kowarenai played 100 rated OTB games in a good mindset and tried hard to win every game he would come out rated at least 1900 USCF, most likely higher. That is what I believe.

If he really is only 1400 OTB strength and 1000 points stronger online, then he must be considered the greatest bullet and blitz specialist who has ever lived, and second place wouldn't be close.

Not at all. I have it correct and you got it all wrong. I also never said that I didn't know why you see it like that, but if you'll reread, you'll see I said the exact opposite of what you said I said.

The common sports sense is that playing against better competition makes you better.

I am not going to link to a minor's stats.  That should be self explanatory.  If you are too dense to understand that, you do not understand more than just chess.

Suffice it to say he has over 100 classical games registered with USCF.  And it looks like close to 200 blitz games (but that is harder to tell because they do not seem to be splitting up the online rated blitz from the OTB rated blitz games in the game statistics page).

When you are talking about masters losing in the SCC, they are doing so to other masters.  You do not see an average tournament player jumping in and crushing NMs, much less FMs, IMs, and GMs.  If you want a taste of what that is like, sign up for an Untitled Tuesday event.  There are no masters in that event, but you will find many 1900+ OTB players in it.  To no one's surprise, they are the ones who win it most of the time.

I would encourage you to challenge a master, any master, to a blitz game.  You will see first hand why what you are saying makes no sense.

Hi mr. know-all 

www.uschess.org. You can look it up yourself.  And I explicitly stated I was in no way implying he was cheating.

I will reiterate: you do not see these masters coming into the SCC and getting blown out by average tournament players.

Not Titled Tuesday.  There is a separate event called Untitled Tuesday for the players without titles.

That is the new published rating (he just played in an event that got rated). You can see the rating history in the Tournament history tab and can click on each event if you want.

His blitz rating before July 1 was ~1500.  His classical rating is ~1400.  It is highly unusual u to have someone with a 1400 OTB classical rating and an online blitz rating that is pushing 2400.  Yes, yes, you are going to come back with "they are not the same thing". I am not saying they should be identical, but usually someone who plays OTB will have a rating within 500ish points of their OTB rating.  For example, my local club had a new guy show up last year who had never played OTB before, but had a 2100 blitz rating on chess.com.  His established OTB rating now is between 1700-1800 (in both classical and blitz OTB).  That gap is pretty common.  It is not common to have a 1400 classical/1500 blitz OTB (or even 1700 blitz - which is usually higher for kids) rating and be pushing well over 2200 online.

You can see for yourself that during the timeframe he was trying to get his new account's rating up, he was playing on OTB events and losing to 1200s and 1400s (and even a couple 1000s).  The point being that your assertion that it took him a long time to "reach his real level" is a bit silly.  I would not expect someone with a 1200 OTB rating (at the time) to have a 2200+ rating online.  Most people who actually play OTB would find that absurd.

@PawnTsunami Don't fight with idiots, they will first bring you to there level then beat you with experience

That is just his blitz games, but okay ... Call me a liar because you do not know how to look at the stat page properly.

And Greg Shahade is not an "average IM".  His peak rating was 2450ish when he decided he wanted to play poker more than make a push for the GM title.  His sister was the US women's champ (twice if I recall correctly) and his father is an FM.  You make it seem like she got spanked by some random guy on the street.  Please do some more research before continuing to spout nonsense.

When did I ever say he played classical online (he actually has, but I never mentioned that)?  Man, you are dense.

I did not lie, but it is obvious you do not know how to look at the statistics page nor the game history to see how (and when) he is performing.  You were claiming he was taking too long to "get back to his real level" back in November 2021, when he was just breaking 1200 in classical OTB and was just hit 1500 in blitz OTB a month later and you somehow think he magically should have quickly gotten back up to 2200+ online?

I really do not know how to get it through your head that it doesn't work that way.  I guess you will just have to learn the hard way as you keep beating your head against the wall trying to get "competitive" games.

Hate to break it to you, but USCF does have an online classical rating (they call it "Online Regular Rating").  So, your "sarcasm" flew over your own head.  His Online Classical rating is a provisional 1253 (and he's played 19 games).

And not to rehash this whole thing again, but it was 200 games from a 400 rating, not 1400.  And that included him losing to a 900 and a couple 1200s in just his first 25 games.  To just drive this point home:  the reason he took so long to get to 2200 is because he is losing to people WELL below that level, multiple times.

He had a 1500 blitz rating until his last event (which was just a couple weeks ago - the rating literally just got published today).  So his OTB blitz rating in November (you know, when you were complaining about it, was VASTLY different than his online rating.  And before you come back saying "well, that is just because he has played more games online ...," think about this:  no matter how many games YOU play over the next 4 weeks (even giving you double the time it took him), you will not even break 1500 in any time control, much less 2200.  Hell, I would go so far as to say you wouldn't even break 1000.  Why?  It is not just about the number of games you play.