Well said, Pfren!
What is a good rating for a teenager?
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Well, rating for me is the main measure of my progress. Obviously it doesn't always flesh out perfectly, but it's only my steadily increasing number that can confirm to me for sure that I am improving (at least result wise, which is what generally matters most IMO), rather than just subjectively thinking I'm improving. I guess inflation and other anomalies are possible, but not likely to be significant. For example if I have been way above 1500 for years, even after playing numerous tournaments, I can be pretty confident that I am a better player than I was when I was 1500.
My craving to move up now is not any different from my craving to move up when I was rated lower -- we would always prefer a higher number than the one we have.
I think what they mean is in the beginning what's important is setting up a good foundation of knowledge / good habits. This doesn't always translate to increased performance at first. Meanwhile in the beginning you can increase your performance without increasing your knowledge in a useful way (e.g. dubious gambits).
Ok, I agree with that.
Feb 26, 2013
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#46
Elubas, Pfren's comment was about a 16 year-old who is just starting out and is concerned about his rating. It wasn't about someone trying to break 2000 OTB. He wasn't talking about you.
I'm in Ireland. I'd put my real OTB playing strength at about 1600 or 1550, but I don't have anything more than a provisional here (I'm basing that on 15 games I've played in OTB tournaments which give me a playing strength of 1600, but I'm not sure if it's quite that high). Nobody else in my school plays chess, really, but there's a teacher whose father coached the Irish chess Olympiad team one year. He's not bad, supposedly a 1600 but it's dubious considering how easily I can beat him. I get wheeled out for simuls in assemblies all the time, which is a total joke considering I never have to play anybody better than a beginner there and it makes me look great. I started playing 9 months ago, about. :) Wish I was in the States. Scholastic chess looks to be so much more organized.
Everybody's view on what a good rating is is different for everyone. It's not like you can just put people into 2 sections, good and bad.
Checking back on this, like a year and a half later. I can't believe how rating-conscious I was, haha.
I have 16 and 1734 rating !!!!
I'm 17 years old and have a USCF rating of 1837. I think my rating sucks, and it hasn't improved in the past year, but I've also done a lot more work in the past two months and all of my chess.com ratings have gone up significantly, so I suspect I may finally have improved and may be due for a rating increase in the future.
Anyhow, 1800 at 17 years old is not very impressive at all. It's not even top 100 for my age group in the country (a large bunch of my u18 chess friends are in the top 100 for their ages). But maybe, just maybe, I've done enough so far to give myself a shot at my goal (reaching 2200 at some point in my life).
SmyslovFan wrote:
Elubas, Pfren's comment was about a 16 year-old who is just starting out and is concerned about his rating. It wasn't about someone trying to break 2000 OTB. He wasn't talking about you.
Well, it's possible that, one can use their own personal experiences to shed some insight, without being an exact copy of the person being talked to.
I am 14 yrs and you can see my rating 
in chess.com, I live in India. What is the average rating required to get a place in state level?
Here currently my rating is 1631, in lichess it is currently 1698 peaked somewhere near to 1800. Should I participate in state level? I live in kerela.
May 12, 2018
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#57
Don't trust any Elo estimates. They are almost all inflated, and none take the place of actual over the board (OTB) ratings from national chess federations (USCF, for example) or the international chess federation FIDE.
An 1800+ rating is quite good for a teenager. If your goal is to become a semi-professional, you will probably need at least 400 more points before you're 19.
joeyd1 schreef:
I'm 16, and I have a standard rating of 1300. I want to be able to play in tournements someday. So what I'm curious is, am I at a decent place right now for my age? I know I'm not ready yet, but how far am I from tournement play?
Hello Joey,
I saw that this thread is 5 years old and you haven't logged in for quite a while. Your daily rating is now 1552. I wonder, are you satisfied with your progress? Did you study stuff and did you play in tournaments? Or did your ambition wane?
I see that you played a lot of blitz games. In my opinion blitz is very bad for learning. It's just a succession of mediocre moves and mistakes, so the one that blunders the hardest loses.
Anyway, I was interested in your evaluation after 5 years, holding in mind that at 16 interests can change quickly and ambitions in a particular field are sometimes short lived.
hari2017 schreef:
we cant all be amongst first. goes for any sport. even if we all rise to 2500 or more, rating system will morph with that change, and the "top" will be at the same distance for everyone, just as it is today. look at me, im making sure i stay behind , with regular folks, so that the top elite can struggle a little bit less, hehe
You are a kind person and a philantropist. Not many people realise what top chess players have to endure and lightening their load by staying in the lower levels is an act of mercy.
I don't know how long you are playing already, but to be honest: 1300 at 16 is not very promissing, I think.
Forty years back, when I was 13, it took me only half a year to gain a national rating of 1600 (which was comparable with Fide 165O nowadays), after one and a half year I was at 1800 and the next 100 took another year. When I was 16 I won my first regional youth tournament. When I was 17 I played my first large international youth tournament (in Biel, Switzerland). I ended up 5th place (amongst 150 or so); in the last round with black I mistreated an Alekhine defense against Murray Chandler, who won the tournament and became a GM quite soon.
But I have to admit that I studied just as hard at chess than I did with schoolwork. It might very well be that you would improve faster if you would invest more time.
Good luck and success!
I invest quite a bit of time! I play daily, and study tactics and strategy probably four days a week. And I understand what you're saying, but as I stated earlier, I am not looking to compete with grandmasters in Switzerland in a year or two. I'm just looking to be in the pack, and several people said that I'm already there.