NEWS FLASH Chess.com will soon eliminate all ratings on site.

oh

That would... actually be pretty interesting. It probably wouldn't affect me very much, given who I usually play, but for some people it might make a difference.

I suspect people would be less competitive and a lot of sore losers would stop trash talking after a lost game. On the other hand rating is what people make play better. Without ratings some people would not play their best and/or get annoyed by getting matched with opponents with a way better/lower rating. So at all I think ratings make chess more fun unless it drives some people a little crazy....

Would the cheating accusations stop? And would there be a decline of engine use? That's what I was thinking might happen. Also perhaps members with low ratings would not have to feel shamed when they post or start threads on our forums because their ratings are not made available. Just a thought. ☺

Everything else would not stay the same.  I'm guessing Chess.com would lose half of its members within a year.  It seems like there are a lot of people on this site more interested in getting a good rating than playing a good game of chess.

You'd probably have a lot of idiots claiming to be rated over 2000, 2200, 2500, etc.

But can it be argued that playing chess is it's own reward and chasing after a number is futile considering that you really can't know for sure that your next opponent may be getting some help with his moves. 

If the rating system weren't mathematically sound, and if it weren't practically useful, then it wouldn't be used (it's used not just by chess, but many similar competitive activities). There are some time controls where you're more likely to find cheaters, and they aren't the popular time controls. That said, I think it's very unlikely that an opponent is only getting help with some moves. Maybe 3% of people cheat, and 97% of cheaters cheat on every move. That would be less than 1 in 1000 cheat on some but not all moves.

But yes, it's useless to chase after a number. If you want to increase your performance then worry about what you can learn or correct. Do that, and over time the number will take care of itself.

About cheating. Forget about it. I have played thousands of games and has not detected a cheater yet. I also excpect the cheaters to be much higher rated than us, at least above 2000.

all sports would be pointless without rating systems

You just made my day chin. When I found out that many people cheated playing online chess I was very depressed because I love chess and I wanted to get better. What better way to know if your improving but by ratings. Personally I would not be interested in playing online chess if I did not have my own identity and if the games were unrated. I agree with you chin. Online chess sites need to have ratings. Thank you all for participating in my role of devil's advocate.

That's fine with me.

I've heard also playing the games as it was will be eliminated. Everyone gets a bot assigned who plays against other players (bots) This way the imbalance of current games (user against "likely" user / engines) will be wiped out with this. This is gonna be the best choice of this wonderful site since ya.... .... ... site.

The user then are free of slipping mouse moves, crazy tactics trainer and user who do illegal moves on the online chessboard. They can solely concentrate on the flame wars in Offtopic.

Everything will be fine.

You just need to think positive every day, every second.

Without ratings, you have no clue who you're playing against. Terrible.

Most of my games would be taking hanging pieces from 1200s and stuff (since that's the average rating). 

The whole point of ratings is to make the game fun by not pairing you against people who'd destroy you or who you'd destroy without even thinking. 

You know? I'm starting to think that this idea isn't as half baked as it seemed to be when I started this thread.

No. That would still cause more harm than good, since first I can easily guess an opponents rating based on my rtng change after playing them.

I also want to see the ratings of any open seeks I accept.

I also want to know my opponent's rating, not just know it is +-200 of my own, since that determines how I will play.

After viewing your ratings, I'm not surprised.

Instead of trying to hide ratings for everyone, you should just learn to not be ashamed of your own rating.

No one really shames people for ratings, but for their stupid ideas (chess related), and most of the stupid ideas come from lower rated players.

Instead of being ashamed of my low rating is a GM criticized me, I'd learn from what the GM has to say.