Live chess is a LIE

It says there are 15,000 people on live chess. Then why are there only 10 new game queries?

Cause people are idling/talking/doingotherthingsandforgottheywereloggedin?  

eliminates about 1000 people

Sorry you didn't get the word but only unrated and custom time controls are shown:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/livechess/new-logic-for-auto-pairing-and-seek-graph

Yes, it's all a lie; live chess, online chess, chess.com all of it is a lie by the government to determine your state as a chess player.

I think there's a bug in your king.

U think?

Some people also have their parameters set so only a certain rating can play them.  So, if you're too low, or too high you won't see an option for a game.

Haha, that article told me exactly what I was interested in. Thanks

The article states that "We now pair everyone automatically to the best-matched opponent based on rating, lag, and user behavior." - DeepGreene

Does this mean that if you have customs set to ratings [-50 +200] that you will mostly get opponents rated you're level? I always want to play higher rated opponents.

Even if I put [+150 +200] and an opponent who is rated 200 points higher than me is looking for someone 200 points less to play. It is unlikely that we will be matched up.

So much for improving my chess by playing higher ranked opponents...So I will agree with you're sarcasm: "Yes, it's all a lie; live chess, online chess, chess.com all of it is a lie by the government to determine your state as a chess player."

I do that (idling/talking/doingotherthingsandforgottheywereloggedin) about 5% of the time I'm logged in: 1000/15000 is 6.6% which is close enough for my one data point approximation

I don't want to play you so you do not see my seek. It is not personal. Get your rating up a few hundred points and things will change.

Of course, if you set your range to  -2 +500, most of the time, your opponents will be rated higher than you.

You should keep in mind, that within 100 points of your rating, + or -, you are still going to be challenged in ways that are appropriate for your skill level.

I agree about the benefits of playing higher rated players. However, it does no good to learn new things if you do not have the opportunity to practice these things against players you have a decent chance at winning against.

I just took a look at your live chess ratings. With the exception of Standard, your AVG opponent rating is higher than yours. And you have a losing record in all of them. This would indicate that you are already playing a lot of people better than you.

I know you took the time to analyse my stats and opponents ratings, but for someone like me whose been on chess.com for about 6-7 years, average opponent rating doesn't mean much.

If opponent rating does indeed mean anything I'll say this. In standard live chess I have a losing record AND my average opponent is lower than my ranking. That means I've recently improved my play under those time controls. And I do not play higher opponents in this because the system doesn't give me the opportunity to. Currently I am not playing opponents 100 points better than I am in standard live chess because I cannot find opponents 100 better than I - who are willing to play. Maybe this is a fault of the system or maybe there aren't enough players who play standard. Thereby leading to the creation of this forum topic

Just so you know, values like AVG opponent rating only cover games for the last 90 days. So I've read many times on the forums here.

I know in Online Chess you have to include your own rating in the range of opponent ratings. But, the link from above seems to indicate for Live Chess, you don't have to do this.

I would think that setting it from +100 to +200 should get you games in that range. I say this because it seems that many players never bother changing this. So theirs is set to -200 to +200.

I too can find it difficult to get games in standard chess at times. I think the majority of the players like blitz and bullet.

I suppose if Chess.com changed their system to make it easier to get players 200 points above yourself, someone else would be complaining about getting too many opponents 200 points below them. Then everyone would tell them to change thier minimum rating, and, again, you would be in the same position.

Another option would be to make friends with people higher rated than yourself. Then you can challenge each others to games. They might wish to play unrated, but at least you will be playing against someone stronger who may help you.

I would suggest these 2 players(I'm sure there are more, but these 2 I know for sure will play unrated games with lower rated players to help you improve)

Achja

Till_98

Everything you said seems pretty logical I guess the chess.com servers have their limitation on how they can update the live chess page too which restrics to some extent how players can interact.

Anyway, you've been very informative, thanks.