Quantity Over Quality: How Chess.com League Structure Promotes Grinding Over Improvement.

Hello everyone,

I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to share my recent experiences and observations regarding chess leagues. It's been quite an interesting journey for me, as I only began playing chess seriously about 12 days ago. Since then, I've dived into the world of online chess, quickly learning the nuances of strategy, tactics, and gameplay.

Currently, my rapid rating is sitting at 152. Though that might seem modest, I am on the verge of advancing into the Crystal league. This has left me feeling a bit perplexed. Despite my relative inexperience and the feeling that I still have so much to learn, it appears that I'm progressing faster than I anticipated.

While this progression is exciting, I can’t help but feel that the leagues may not present the challenge I am looking for. As someone who is passionate about improving, I aspire to test my skills against stronger opponents and truly engage in competitive play. I find that having opponents who push me to think critically and adapt my strategies is vital for my growth as a chess player.

I believe that leagues should provide a balanced sense of challenge and opportunity for learning. It’s important for players, especially beginners like myself, to have the chance to face opponents that can help elevate their skills. Engaging interactions and challenging matches are what I truly seek to cultivate my proficiency in chess.

I understand that opinions on this matter may vary among you. However, it's essential to recognize that improvement often stems from learning through our mistakes. When games are overly simplistic, it becomes challenging to achieve that growth. If the leagues and matches provided an appropriate level of difficulty, players would gain valuable experience by competing against more skilled opponents. This would ultimately benefit their development in chess, as they would encounter a wider range of strategies and challenges throughout their journey.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. 

Leagues have never been about improvement or learning

As leagues go on, I feel that they should get harder. As I explained clearly, I started 12 days ago, yet am advancing into the Crystal league. I am not saying that leagues help you learn or improve, playing games do that. I am just saying that leagues should be more challenging, so when you are high in places, you feel better knowing that you worked really hard for that.

Leagues are about playing chess 24/7. There is only a couple of things you can get from leagues:

1. A badge in your profile indicating what league you are currently in
2. Up to 8 stylish PNG images in your Awards section

UPDATE: the OP blocked me

It seems like you're the one that looked this up. These, yes are physical things.

But I am not just talking about physical things. You probably only play for those, but me, I play to gain experiance and to get better.

And like I stated many times, I am not here to argue, just to inform and relate.

I did not make this to try and look cool, but to state a point of mine that I feel is necessary, as others can also relate.

And it's really sad if you only play chess to gain material, and not knowledge.

B

I don't think leagues have anything to do with improvement. Aren't they just about how many games you play? In other words....who cares?

you're the one commenting on my post. I didn't make this to argue, just to state a point, I'm sorry if your views don't align with mine. Go make your own post.

1) You rarely play against players from your league.

2) you can set your range so you can play mostly against players above your rating. (If you don't know how to do that I can show you)

3) I don't think league were created to make you “feel better because you worked hard for that”, nor to add a challenge to the game of chess, nor to make people learn. Leagues are not désignée to make you play against better players.

I don't know anyone who cares about his ranking in his league. Just forget about the leagues, and try to improve your chess and your normal glicko rating. If you want to play against better players, you can as I said change your range in online games, play against higher rated computers, or ask anyone better than you to play. Improving/learning and leagues are just two different things.

Ahem : “Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.”

We won't have any useful conversation if you do not open your mind to what other people say. We are trying to tell you that you shouldn't really care about leagues, and that they are not designed to make you improve, and you keep saying that we are arguing. Please just forget about leagues and keep on your chess journey without caring about them, and you'll still improve.

So ... you think the only people that should post on 'your thread' are those that agree with you and if not, they should go make their own? That isn't how this works. I realize you are new but please accept feedback from others or don't post at all. Nobody here is out to dis you. Truly.

I support the idea of quality over quantity and agree the leagues here promote playing high volumes of chess.

Speaking of nuances, your opinions on the topic at hand as well as chess seem riddled with nuanced conflicts. Not to mention your readily displayed agitation at being presented with view points which are not necessarily conducive to a pie in the sky thread where you get to dogpile those seeking a league win and a trophy through attrition, at any rate, or rating I should say.

I literally only wanted to hear what people think, not to argue, stop putting words in my mouth.

But I am trying to be open minded by hearing what others think, but no one here is sharing what they think, they're just criticizing me. I do understand what you guys are saying, but can you try to understand what I am saying?

The leagues are about how much you play, not about how good you are. Second place in your division currently is @brilliancekinh. He has a rating of 1550. If you ask the site to pair you randomly for a game you will never get a 1500 player (until your rating goes up a lot). A few minutes ago you played a game against moon_girl123 whose rating is similar to yours, but she is in Wood league, not the league you are in. Also you didn't just start playing 12 days ago. You played a lot at the end of September. It takes a week to advance one level in the league. If you were in wood league the last week of January, the best you can be now is Bronze. So many people advance from each division in the lower leagues that I can believe someone could get to Crystal in 5-6 weeks. I looked at a bronze division from last week and found the "last" player who advanced did so by winning 24 rapid games, it looks like. If that's a total of 48 ten-minute games (assuming you win half your games against opposition of the same strength) it would take 16 hours over 7 days.

I think your criticism of the leagues was made a few years ago. To the extent that we are criticizing you, I think it's because we think you are misunderstanding how this works. I think we are trying to explain that we think the leagues aren't designed to give you what you are looking for and the leagues aren't preventing you from playing better players. If you aren't being paired against better players, it's because their settings are such that they don't get opponents with your rating.

Send me a note if you are ever in Madison, Wisconsin.