Ratings

What is the difference between a turn based rating, and the rating given on the most recent game of online chess?  Forgive my ignorance, but I recently looked at a member's rating by clicking on the user name, seeing a 2041.  First thought is that this player is really good, since the average score is around 1400.  But after more recently looking at the player's online rating of 1310, it appears that I may have grossly underestimated myself in one of my previous posts.

p.s.  My time here has been so enjoyable that I'm going to pull out the card next week and become a Diamond member. 

turn based games (also known as correspondence chess) = long games with plenty of time to think on your moves (1,2 ,3 or more days / move) as opposed to live games(blitz, bullet or standard)

Hmm, not sure what you mean by the rating given "on the most recent game of online chess" but there are two main categories of ratings on this site.  Turn based is what they call the correspondence chess (CC) type where you have days to move and live-chess is what they call the live games with just minutes to move.

I think this site attracts more of the turn-based kind.  Some play both, but the majority only turn-based.  This means the pool of players is larger and consequently the ratings are a bit inflated (the average skill is weaker so it's easier to have a higher rating).  And is comparatively inflated even when compared to the site's live-chess ratings (which is a bit odd to me, why not try to balance them?).

So that's why you might run into a player who has a turn-based rating in the 2000s while his live chess is 1400s (although they're usually only a few hundred points difference, 600 is really a lot). 

Some people take a long time with their CC games (increasing their turn-based rating so the gap is bigger) or play hundreds of CC games at once (lowering their turn-based so the gap is smaller).  This player must take his CC games pretty seriously, but in an OTB game it doesn't sound like they'd be an "expert" or the first category player type that's usually associated with a rating around 2000.

Thanks guys, all clear now.  I will not be one of the fans of the CC matches, as I think that the beauty of this "game" on live or blitz portrays ones ability to react under pressure.