Ratings

Can someone please explain to me how Ratings and Points work? eg: I lose a game and I lose about 40 or more numbers in my Rating. And then I win a game in 13 moves and my Rating only increases by 4 (four) ???

Chess.com uses the Glicko rating system whose mathematics are well beyond my ability to comprehend but that won't stop me from trying to explain it.   Basically your rating is determined not only by the relationship between your rating and that of your opponent but also by the number of games each of you have played.  The intent is to quickly find your appropriate rating range.  In the beginning your rating will bounce up and down like a kid on a trampoline.  Later it's more like an old man napping in a hammock.  Your rating deviation (RD) is very high when you first start and then gradually lowers until after about 100 games it stabilizes.  For many much more profound discussions please check out the archived forums I've given you a link to.  Googling  Glicko wouldn't hurt either.

http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=Glicko+RD

EDIT:  Oh and points are just a nonsense # that keeps track of how active you are in the forums and how chatty you are in tournaments.  If you have a big mouth (like me) you get a lot of them.  

Thank you Baddogno   Will check out your link provided.

I add my 2 cents to address your statement "And then I win a game in 13 moves"

Neither Glicko nor ELO ratings (the ones used by FIDE) take into account how you win or loose.

There's no such measure.

Letting down the slight differences between ELO, Glicko and Glicko-2, the main factors that count are the rating of the players and the result of the game (win, loss or draw).

So, if you lose to Carlsen falling into some disguised version of fool's mate, or you last 85 moves and then lose just by 1 pawn deep in the ending, that makes no difference to ratings.