That VS. Computer rating.....

I've been playing against that Vs. Computer and I adjust it to play as an 800 rating since I'm about 950.  I'm not referring to the Computer opponent found on Live Chess.

Kicks my butt every time.  I really think it's rated higher than what it says.

not sure what program you are using but mine cheats as well.  I can set it to 2 move look ahead and it will announce mate in 8 or something.  It also will extract 10 moves ahead from book endings or openings --- have to beat it in the middle game where it will miss a tactical combo.

Its really hard to have a rating slider and get a computer to play at that level.  You really have to learn to set up your own tweaks on the engine so it remains able to beat you more than 1/2 the time yet is not overpowering or moronic.  Takes some time fiddling with the settings to perfect this for each program.

I have the opposite problem.

I set my free Rybka 32-bit to think 4 half-moves ahead and at a 1700 rating so I can play against it. But when I want to watch it play 2400-level chess, I couldn't. No matter what settings I changed, it stays thinking 4 half-moves ahead (maybe at 1700-level). How can I remedy this???

I dunno the details of all engines and board/interface programs into the engines.  Sounds like it is stuck on your custom setting but I do not know how to get it back to max power. 2400 is going to need close to 30 seconds per move at a guess (not totally sure) so maybe its a time constraint? Mine can't get past about 5 deep without long time controls.

I'm referring to the computer here at chess.com.  But not the computers found on Live Chess.  When you hover your pointer over "Play"on the main menu, to the right is an option for "Vs. Computer."