I think this Platform is rigged (kind of)

Let me start by making a few things totally clear…

1 - Chess means nothing to me. It’s a beautiful game and way to workout my brain after a long day or just to pass the time. I love to play and I find learning more about the game fascinating, but I have never, nor do I ever intend on playing competitively. It’s my most casual hobby.

2 - I’m not here to say I should be rated better than I am. I’ve seen other posts bring this topic up, albeit with more nefarious accusations than mine, and the posteur gets absolutely roasted lol. I’m simply explaining my observation and would love to hear your take.

Now, then…

I’ve been playing on chess.c0m for ~3 years now and I love the app. I’ve logged about 10k games, almost exclusively blitz. My best rating is 1494, my rating at the time of this writing 1146 (yowza!).

I believe this platform is rigged… kind of… allow me to explain.

In the past few years I’ve subscribed to chess.c0m’s premium services for a few months here and a few months there. It’s a rather predictable cycle of - sub / utilize the services for a few weeks / fall back into just playing blitz /unsubscribe when I get the billing notification and realize I haven’t accessed any premium features in 7 weeks lol. In my bob’ing-and-weaving through premium membership, I’ve noticed something odd, and odder still.

Whenever I subscribe to premium, my rating shoots up like a rocket. Wow! The lessons must really be working, right? Meh.. maybe. To be honest, these feel like incredibly easy wins. The same easy wins literally EVERY time I sub to premium. Of course I eventually get to a level where I enter into a natural win/loss cycle and my rating will fluctuate +/- 30pts, but from a new elevated baseline. Then, when I unsubscribe, yep, you guessed it! I lose over and over to opponents with far lower ratings than mine who feel near invincible to me.

This is where other posts might lose ppl. Accusing the app of propping up bots to pull down your rating… I don’t think so…. Not quite anyway. This is my theory.

This app has over 10,000 of MY games logged and filed. Presumably there is a “file” for each account. Chess.c0m knows exactly how many times I’ve played each opening, my mid game and end game weaknesses, and every time I’ve failed to see a fork or a pin. Basically, it can tailor my opponents to GREATLY increase the odds of my winning or losing based upon my strengths and weaknesses using other completely real players file data.

When you’re winning, it’s almost impossible to see. For one, your hubris doesn’t allow you to believe it. You’re a chess GOD now! After being stuck at 1200 for 6 months, you had a breakthrough this week and now you’re 1400! It’s bc YOU put in the time and hard work! Or… it could be bc the app is pitching you opponents it knows you will beat, or at least are very likely to beat. When you DO notice is on the down slide - It’s nearly see through…

This is where other posts also lose ppl (MAYBE YOU JUST SUCK!!! (Well I do,
I’m 1146)) but stick with me. What really made me notice the fix, was not the predictable dip in rating that I KNEW was coming, but that 9 out of 10 games I played, my opponent played the EXACT same odd opening. Now, you’ll have to forgive bc as I said, I’m a casual chess player and I do not know the names and sequences of each opening but… after playing 10,000 games, I’ve seen a solid 85+% of games opening in similar fashion. It’s one of a standard set of 3 openings usually. Every now and then you’ll get the odd ball. During this particular series, I saw the SAME strange-ass opening again, and again and again and again. And 9/10 of those games I would lose. In my opinion, the fact that I received these opponents was beyond coincidence. Assuming this as truth, the question is in the motive…

Is this to improve my play? OR, is this to subtly push me back into a premium subscription. The conspirator inside tells me this is the perfect symbiosis of psychology and technology. I’m 33. In the early days of social media we had chronological timelines and this seemed like the most logical way for the user to see things, but FB/Instagram/Twitter had other plans. They’d jumble it all up, why? To maximize engagement! if you see something new every time you open the app, You’re more likely to engage. Is chess.c0m doing something similar with my opponent roll? To me it seems like the most fair way to do things would be a completely random opponent of similar rating, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is NOT how things work, and I think you do too….

If you’ve made it this far, I applaud you. Yes, there are ppl with 2000+ ratings who chess.c0m doesn’t make a dollar off of. I would argue that these ppl either don’t have the glaring holes in their skill set that someone like me does, and are less susceptible to this plot - or perhaps these algorithms are turned off for the higher rated players as with their advanced chess acumen they would spot this nonsense instantly.

TLDR; I think chess.c0m pairs you with players of higher ratings it knows you can beat and players of lower ratings it knows you’re likely not to beat, in order to maximize engagement and push premium memberships.

What do YOU think?

(That I suck, I already know, anyone else?)

I think chess is good. Change my mind.

It’s the BEST

WOW

You're hallucinating

Damn, that was a long post. I cant even write an essay that long lmao 

Does chess.c0m really have that kind of intelligence to go over millions of games, scan the players, and pair millions of players across the globe giving one side an easier chance to beat the other? If this is what I'm hearing, let me break down the logic. 

First, if what you say is true, then in order to maximize engagement, your opponent would have to have a non-premium membership. 

Now, there are millions and millions of users on this site. In fact, there were over ten million games played today. I don't think that chess.c0m has the technology to oversee every game, scan through a player's play, and pair that player with another player it "knows" he/she will lose to. I don't think chess.c0m uses that type of motivation to bring back premium members. Instead, I believe chess.c0m often quietly advertises its premium benefits in ways we wouldn't expect. For a long time now, I've always wanted to have unlimited puzzle rushes/puzzle battles. However, being 14, I've never been able to persuade my parents to buy me one I believe this incentive is what draws most premium members onto this site. 

Good analysis. I have similar kind of opinion.. but I wouldn’t say rigged. Rather more like keep you engaged tactics. I agree with you analysis of selecting opponent who can beat you so that your rating will drop and then you play more games to improve rating this spending more time .

But it is YOU who is helping them. If you don’t play more games, irrespective of rating , just play certain no. of games in a day and call it off . Then they can’t play you much. We can play same games with out premium membership.

I don’t blame chess.c0m tactics as long as it’s fair game and fair opponent . Any app business tactics is user engagement so they can make money .. remember they also have families 😊

COULD BE BRO

I don't think this technology is that advanced.  It's quite likely they do have it!  The question is rather, how do they use it?

I do agree!  I'm not headed to FBI headquarters to file a fraud case.  It's just sort of... disappointing to believe I guess .  We (the unwitting masses) are too often being gamed.  It's tiresome. 

I think you is a turrrble playa and just need excuses to help yer weak mind come to terms with that fact that you is turrrrrrble. Chesk is for de smarts and you is not. Pay me and I’ll teach you how to be da champ. 

1,000 lessons & 11,000+ puzzles:

average rating is 1700... coincidence?      🤔

It is completely possible but highly unlikely. Actually my fastest improvement during my account was when I had no premium membership, going from 1100 to 1500 or so in a couple months.

It’s unlikely that chess.com deliberately targets free members because it takes a lot of time and effort and they don’t get anything out of it (making people mad loses customers). Also, you’re not special, so there’s no reason for them to target you or anyone else in particular.

Good theory. However, my fastest rating "boost" was from 1700-2000 (in bullet). That was when I had diamond membership for a year or so already.

     Perhaps when you decide to put more money and study time into chess you take it more seriously and do better. After a while you "burn out", get lazy, don't pay attention and lose more often.

Yeah I agree with mpaetz. You probably just (subconsciously or otherwise) put more effort in once you’ve bought premium. And from their point of view, they’ve got your money, they don’t need to care if you win or not. Classic case of correlation not equalling causation imo. 

it's rigged based on your skill, take that as you wish

Wow. Someone has actually "outdone" the online poker is rigged crowd. Congrats.

This is very unlikely the case but it's crazy to think that's it's theoretically possible. I mean with machine learning they could probably do that if they wanted, though I doubt they would.