Why fake a low rating to win ??

Well, let me throw myself on this little grenade for a moment because I'm "guilty" of this very thing.

My rating has wildly fluctuated during my time here because at times I became depressed or what have you and have been known to resign absolutely every game I had at the time.

So my rating was hovering around 1000 and I recieved an invite from a tournament director advertising a 1100 and below tournament. I knew I had to go about recovering my rating at some point, and I agreed to enter.

I haven't lost a game thus far, and yes, in fact, it has actually been fun absolutely thrashing some of these players. I don't feel like I'm deriving them of fun, it's odd, you know - when compared against the other threads which complain of people not getting the opportunity to play against better players.

I don't think I've done anything "wrong". I've risen back to my normalish rating now, but I'm still happy to be playing these games. Not all are easy wins. I honestly don't know how you can really feel slighted by this persons genuine ability being greater than her rating reflected at the time - how else was she to raise her rating to where it ought to be?

Sounds like sour grapes to me. Are you currently second place in the tourney?

I honestly enjoy playing around the 1200~ rating range. More casual. I might sandbag in the future, who knows. At the end of the day I want chess to be enjoyable.

Haha I can't believe you actually feel slighted, slimcheffy.

I can't say I like slummin for the sake of it, but I do agree that it is a game that should be enjoyed!  If I stress about my rating, I play sober, or drimk more!

First, what is being discussed here goes against the spirit of the game.

Having said that, I am in favor of ratings "floors", that is ratings that a player can not go under.  I prefer a floor of 200 points below highest rating.  So in Rael's post above he would have a floor of just above 1300 which would prevent the worse sort of abuses.

I agree that this is rating manipulation and should be disallowed. What is to be gained is the tournament points and the tournament medals. One could imagine several scenarios - perhaps the system detects "mass resignations of non-losing positions" and bars you from entering chess.com tournaments for some specified period of time? Or maybe they can implement rating floors specifically for chess.com tournaments. Remember, these are the tournaments in which non-paying members can enter as many as they want. This must have something to do with it.

Anyway, I'm just rambling -- what are your thoughts?

Read the comments........you are definitly in the minority here ( thank goodness ) ........I do enjoy playing against better players when they are not misrepresenting themselves........you say you want Chess to be enjoyable, you should say "enjoyable for me" because you don't seem to care much about the enjoyment of your opponents or the true ethics of the game......have a wonderful day :)

I know that on one occasion I withdrew from a tournament because I knew I was going to be unable to move for about three weeks and didnt watn to use vaction time; in an attempt to be fair to the other people in the tournament.  I lost I believe it was 14 games in a row. 

I have received "invitations" to play in Vegas where they divide players into 200 point spread groups with significant money for the winner in each group.  Being around 1830, the chance of my winning in my 1800-2000 group is certainly  not worth the $300 or so entry fee plus fare and hotel expenses.  I have no desire to play in such surroundings, but I "thought" of losing games to get myself down under 1800 so I could play with the B group and maybe have some chance of the $2000 prize.  Cheating for money sometimes gets one into gray areas (padding ones resume etc) Trouble is, everyone (in such an environment--present company excluded of course) probably thinks of doing the same thing, so the great majority must simply lower their ratings and get nothing to show for it.  Golfers often do the same thing with their handicaps. Basically cheating for status. However, their opponents generally know they are doing so and lose respect for them, defeating the purpose. 

It does seem unusally odd to do so in computer chess. Do they want "electronic trophies" to show their grandchildren? 

I believe there is a big difference when it comes to losing games on time and resigning from games that you know that you will time out on. I have actually had someone in the past ask me to lose a game on purpose just so that his rating would go higher and then he could enter a tournament that was going to start around that time. I told the guy that there was no way that I was going to throw the game just to help his ratings, he promptly resigned from the game and I guess moved on to his next target. I also had another person offer a draw in a game that he didn't want to time out in just because he didn't want his rating to go down. I didn't accept the draw because there was still plenty of gameplay left and it was not my problem that his situation had changed so as to prevent him from completing the game in the time allowed. I love playing in tournaments and I try to play in ones that I feel like I will get a very good challenge from all of its participants. This doesn't mean that I get into the tournaments for medals or leaderboard points. I play these games because it gives me the opportunity to play against some stronger players and of course those that are closer to my rating. Playing the higher rated players helps me to learn a few new things and makes me a better player. I would never, ever purposely make my ratings tank just so I could enter a lower rated tournament just to destroy those that are not on the same level that I am at. Anyone who does this is clearly cheating in my eyes and in all reality, has no respect for the game of chess. Chess is considered by many as a gentlemans game (ladies too!) If you don't have enough respect for the game and other players, then you really have no business playing on this site or any other site for that matter.

I was playing a game and suddenly my opponent offers me a draw after 5 moves !! Plenty of gameplay left I think.

I asked him why he did it and the answer was that he won places by a draw. I don't understand why he was playing on this site. When you offers a draw after 5 moves I think you don't like chess and you don't belong on this site.

LOL..that's funny !! I agree with you totally.........it all seems a little bit ridiculous !

Great topic. I try to keep my amount of games at a certain level. Try being the key word. Before the last C.com tourny started, I resigned 2 games. One vs a 150+ higher rating, one vs a 200- lower. I was going to lose both(unless a major blunder) anyway. This put me at 1399. I didn't finish any other games that night. I knew I wasn't going to be competitive vs most 1400's, or probably any of the 1500's. It dropped me like 23 points. I had a good tourny, 2nd in my group.

But I wondered if that was sandbagging. I knew those 2 games were goners, or I wouldn't have done it. Also it was 23 points below my highest rating. I felt ok with it. But I cant picture dropping 16, or even 1 if I thought i would win it.

I dont know if somekind of red flag for resignations could be possible for all tournys, but maybe just for the C.com ones.

Very well said !! I agree whole heartedly, nobody should purposely manipulate their ratings up or down......it's just plain wrong and doesn't do justice to the game we love !!

my ratings will float anywhere from 1300 to1500, that is "normal". I play every game with integrity and to the best of my ability, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose........at least my games are "real".

Luckily the majority of opponents I have encountered on this site do hold a high regard for the game and its code of ethics.........I guess just like in life, there will always be a few odd ones out.

I don't have a problem at all with someone who resigns games that they are losing anyway to achieve either a certain rating, or a certain number of games completed, or getting their timeout ratio appropriate, or whatever. I'm not looking to micromanage other people's business.

I do have a problem with people resigning games they are winning though, to achieve any of the above, and then entering a tournament.

The only cases I can think of where someone could reasonably resign some winning positions are:
1. They know they will timeout in all of the games, and they want their timeout to stay low.
2. They are depressed with chess.com and just want all their games to be over.

In either case, I don't see them turning right around and entering another tournament.

What you did was definitly not sandbagging ! Keep in mind she dropped 500 points in 24 hours and those were all non-tournament games. In all of her tournament games during the same period she seemed to be doing just fine. It was only the "non tournament" games that she somehow lost her mind and was losing terribly.

I have no problem with ratings fluctuating and I understand that everyone starts at 1200 regardless of their ability.

The situation that happened in my tournament was just ridiculous.

I've just reported someone in my tournament who i suspect of a similar thing. The sad thing is, it's the sub-1000 category. What a loser to whip us beginners! Anyway report them to chess.com let them investigate.

I would be upset too. You know, I read lots of forums. And I've come to realize that people on here are the same people out there. Some people just suck! But it's too bad your tourny was ruined.

if she deliberately lost all those games to get into a tournament she thought she could breeze through, that is unprofessional and disrespectful towards her opponents.  but I would want her side of the story (if there is one).

Just because she lost 16 games in a row doesnt always mean she was trying to cheat! For a start she might have had a bad run. I had one serious bad run once, i went from a 44 game winning streak that got me to 2051 and beating 1900+ players easily in some cases to a 1656 rating losing 11 games straight including to a 1300+ player. I still dont know exactly what happen but i know it does happen. Now im 1800+ a bit below what i feel i should be, but i will recover it eventually. Maybe she had one just like that, maybe she didnt. Maybe she just got sick of the games and resigned for whatever reason we dont know. Maybe your right and she did mean to lose them to enter a tournament below her standard to win. If this is the case u should report ur concerns to Erik and team and let them work out if she meant to and just had a bad run....

I've had a serious bad run, but that's playing the games! The person I saw quit the game after about six moves.