OTB question

I’ve been competing OTB for one year now. I have an established rating. This is the first occurrence where multiple sections at the tournament are occurring and I am the top of one of the sections. My question is: should I select the section where I am top rated player in hopes of winning my section but possibly gaining very little rating OR join the section up where I will possibly have way more losses but have a greater chance at rating climb? Monetary prizes and trophies are not my goal. My goal is to be the best rating/chess player I can be. The section about is 600 rating points higher than I am. Your thoughts?

Do not face people that are 600<, you'd likely be crushed, focus on improving rather than gaining rating and if you want to attend tournaments go for the ones with your rating range. Max 200+ rating difference

Play higher. You learn by getting crushed.

600 point difference is too much. You don’t learn much by cranking stockfish up to max level and playing it classic do you?

“Oh look at that, my mistake is I didn’t calculate this 11 move combination, my bad. Next time I will calculate it better”.

Playing someone 100-150 points higher is much more optimal IMO.

I am curious how ratings OTB work. How much would you gain/lose by a win, draw or defeat against 600+ difference. Is it like here? Are there only two sections? Play against your own rating or higher is what I would suggest.

This.

You won't be facing many opponents rated 600+. With a Swiss pairing system, after losing a game or two you'll be facing opponents not far above your own level.

Don't worry about losses. I had to lose hundreds of OTB games before I became a half-decent player.

You might lose one or two points with a loss. A win would gain you perhaps a dozen times that much.

People have the mistaken belief that the better your opponent, the more you learn. Studies do not back this up. Though chess in particular has never been looked at, other games have, and the result is that learning happens most effectively when there is a challenge that can be overcome, but with effort. Too easy means you learn nothing and too hard means you are overwhelmed and can’t make sense of the situation.

There’s no reason to believe that chess is any different. 600 is a lot, which means your chance of winning any game is about 3%. There’s a really good chance that you will lose every game, and aside from the fact that you may not learn a lot, losing every game can be discouraging and set you back from a psychological standpoint.

Be reasonable.

If there are two sections, an 1800 section and a 2400 section, are ALL of the players in the upper section going to be 2400 strength?

Where will the 1850 and 1900 players be placed?

The OP said in the Original Post that he ranked right at the top of the lower section. That means that some of the players in the upper section would be only a couple of dozen rating points higher than him... just barely too high to play in the lower section.

With Swiss pairings, after losing a game or two he will be facing players rated just a few dozen points above him.

Thank you for all the responses and I hope to see more. I struggle because last tournament Round 1; I beat someone 700 points higher (opening prep and he was obviously having a bad day). Because of this. I naturally think I am better than I am and desire to prove it. I also have played in lower rated tournaments and played well and only gained minimal rating points.

Good bit on my mind and that is why I appreciate the responses.

Most OTB I’ve played in are set at 40 points maximum win/loss. Most point gain/loss is minimal however. To be honest though, my first chess coach trained me to not even look at the ratings of players prior because it will affect your play.

I do that also when I play online chess tournaments. I had no idea wheter it was good or bad, but it helped me concetrate more on the game, not the opponent. If chess coach recommended that, it can't be bad then.

@blueemu - sure, but it depends upon the distribution of players and the number of participants. Sometimes a tournament will have just maybe a dozen players in a section, and a Swiss pairing may get you one or two games against an equalish opponent… maybe, since you don’t play the same player more than once. The shallow end of the pool isn’t usually that deep unless it’s a large tournament. It’s also possible that he exhausts the similarly rated players and is playing opponents +400 or more I n the last couple of rounds.

Based upon your OP, given multiple sections seldom occur,  play as the top player in the lower section.  The experience will be of great value as you must prepare well, keep constant focus, play at your best, defend your top ranking and deal with the additional pressure of the expectation of winning the section.  You will learn a lot about yourself.

After your success (please share), you will not have to ask about playing up. 

Good Luck!

I agree with Nikki on this one. Getting crushed every game isn't very helpful, and neither is easily winning all games. Ideally you should score around 40-50%.

I would check where you stand rating-wise in that 600+ section. If 90% of the players there are higher rated than you, playing there might have a demotivating effect.

 

 

 

Normally i say play up a section(which is usually 200 points).  But a 600 point difference?  i would pass on that and play in your section. 

if you are better than your rating then you can try it..