initial 960 ratings

Why can't we have realistic starting ratings for new 960 players? My teammates and I are getting a rash of new, "unrated" 960 players in TM's that are really 1800-2000 rated players. This just kills our matches. We are playing opponents 5-6-700 points higher and getting our butts kicked; not to mention unfairly biasing the match. Why can't we have a system that automatically rates a new player at their Online or Blitz rating minus 200 or 300 points just to balance our team matches?

Good suggestion Robbie...yeah and i hopes in future they could consider the points...thanks for the heads up Robbie

Makes sense ,and all new 960 players benefit be getting a more closely matched opponent

:-)........ muahahaha, kind of mean isn't it? Muahahaha

I'm kidding, just playing around. Well it doesn't take too many games for their ratings to start reflecting their normal playing level. I'm now at 1627 after 6 games, by 10 maybe 1800. Who knows?

Edit: also, it works the opposite way too to the detriment of the higher rated player. I entered a960 tournament in Jan and was put in a quad (4 player groups) and you have to play 6 games, 2 vs each opponent. When you're paired with a 1350 or whatever and they're really 1800 level if you beat them its as if you only beat a 1350. So the higher rated player has to work harder just to even get their 960 rating to where their other ratings might be. Just one thought.

Unless you blunder, like I do too often

Thanks for your inputs guys; I normally don't mind playing a higher rated opponent, but in this case it drags down my teammates with me. Hey, in one of the games against an opponent like 4-500 points higher I lasted 61 moves. I thought that was an accomplishment in itself...

i understand your feeling, same problem bothered me before when organizing random chess TMs. although i asked help from CC that time, no solution had been found. still random chess part needs a lot of work to improve.

anyway, to prevent this situation in future, i suggest 1) in TM settings,    set minumum rating as 1201, so that unrated players can't register 2) minimum games set as 10 (20, 30 or 40 even), so that not a newbie genius jumped out from nowhere. however this minimum games only counts the regular games (i am not sure if it is fixed now), so sometimes not work very well, but helps somehow 3) check each of your opponent's both standard and random chess rating before the match start, and discuss with your opponent SA to fix the problem.

Thanks Nikre! Good stuff...I realize 960 is still a work in progress. I think we should implement your suggestions on a team level...

Yeah great stuff...So now you should know how to create a TM for us in future? Lol...

no problemo!!