Is playing unrated games is an act of cowardly ??

what do u guys think of it ?

There are very good reasons to play unrated games other than being afraid--just think about it...

i play unrated when im on my phone, cuz somtimes my finger will slip and that will result to losing

hmmmmm as 4 me the number one reason is to maintain rating.. 

haha

I like to play unrated games when playing someone a couple hundred points lower than me when offering advice and helping them learn to play better.  It doesn't help my rating much if I win against them, and if I happen to lose then my rating drops quite a bit.  But when you're playing several games against a lower-ranked player you don't want to drop their rating a lot by winning several games against them.  I'd rather not demoralize them by seeing their rating drop.

no it just means USALLY you got to a new 100 ex. 1000 then improved to 1100 so then youlle play losts of un-rated games to keep at 1100

If the player isn't active day to day then you don't have to take their rating seriously anyway, that's all that really counts.  If they play unrated but also play rated a few times a week then their rating is accurate right?

1.I played unrated games exclusively for my first two weeks or so. I was learning and didn't feel comfortable in a rated game. Now that I (think) I know what I'm doing I am, and plan to, play the majority of my games rated.

2. Another reason is that if you're being coached/mentored. In that case, I believe the only ethical way to do it is to play unrated.

Oh, and sometimes I'll play unrated to warm up if I haven't played in a few days.  My first few games are usually my worst in these cases.

It is my understanding that all who play rated games on chess.com have to start with a 1200 rating. This is not realistic and also apparently not even math sound. If I were to play it would be very very few games anyway. [as I am in to vote chess to help the teams I am in]

But tell me does it make sense to start at a rating well below your rating in other chess venues?  This is not fair to me or my potential opponents.

I would guess and I could be wrong that many players who are 800 or more points above 1200 do not want to start out at 1200 because it is unfair to them and also unfair to some of their opponents? 

Let me know if stats indicate I am wrong as it is just a guess...

Well when you play a new player rated at 1200 you don't lose many points I believe, because the system takes it into account that they haven't played any games.  (I think I saw this on this site, if someone knows for sure this is wrong let me know).

On the other end I am sure that the 1200 gains and loses many hundreds of points their first few games to get them where they need to be.  I think you can get to a 2000+ rating in 10 games (or less) if you win them all and they're vs 1500+ opponents.

It depends upon your reasons for doing so. We had a friend who had never played chess before, so a couple of us played a few unrated games with him here to show him the ropes, with the hope of not making him get discouraged by dropping so fast in the ratings. 

I also don't think it's cowardly if you just want to play a game for fun and try some crazy/unconventional things.

Unrated games are a little like kissing your sister, I see really no point.

Almost the only unrated games I play here are engine games. Sometimes a friend requests an unrated game, then I'll accept, though I cant really understand why they would want to do that.

I've played 29 games so far with an average opponent rating of 1671 drawing 1 and losing 1 (due to timeout) and my rating is still 100s of points off where it should be, not even over 2000.

One point, suspose you play a rated game with a player rated 1200 and in real life he is a master...

I play unrated right now, because I don't have a PC to play on. I am also trying new openings and getting used to the different lines. There are plenty of reasons to play unrated. Calling unrated players cowardly is shortsighted.

If the reason for playing unrated is to protect your rating, you probably value online ratings too much.

But if you play unrated because you are under the weather, using your cell-phone, trying an opening that you've never played, or another legitimate reason that would affect your normal playing level, it's not at all cowardly.

If you play unrated when you're not at your best, your rating will more accurately reflect your best playing level while others are playing more casually. If this describes you, expect your online rating to be much higher than your OTB ratings where the playing conditions are much more equal.