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Can you LOSE rating points with a win?

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ccc300

Won game (versus lower-rated player) but lost rating points -- see Jan 22 and Jan 26 games.

aromlierbag
ccc300 wrote:

Won game (versus lower-rated player) but lost rating points -- see Jan 22 and Jan 26 games.

Wow. Even clicking on the analysis for the Jan 26 game shows -96 rating change for black. I assume you had a provisional rating because you hadn't played daily in like a month, then you got a huge rating increase from one game and then chess.com rebalanced your rating after that Jan 26 game.

jetoba

Since the OP lists the USA as the country I will add that in USChess play an over the board rated win may result in a lower tournament gain than a forfeit win because of the k-factor (multiplier the is larger if you are playing a shorter tournament and/or if you have a lower rating).  The game itself does not cost rating points but the number of games played in a tournament affects the k-factor and if you are doing well in a long tournament then a round one rated game against a low-rated player can lower your k-factor enough that the gains you get for the round one win are less than the k-factor-related reduction in the net gains you make from the other results.

tlay80

That's from when they experimented with an adjustment to everyone's daily ratings on the theory that they were artificially low. The idea seemed wrongheaded to many, and a couple of days later they backtracked and took the points back.  So you were given a bonus 100 points (which showed up between the Jan 15 and Jan 22 games -- meaning you really gained 15 points with that win -- not 115), and those 100 points were taken away between the Jan 22 and Jan 26 games (meaning that that win gained you 4 points, rather than losing you 96).

Their system for adding the points was slow, and not everyone received them by the time they changed their mind.  So this brief bump only shows up on some profiles (not mine, for instance).

DaGuy12
What is this then 
 
Martin_Stahl
DaGuy12 wrote:
What is this then 
 
 

That game doesn't appear to exist. Those players only faced each other once in blitz and the winner has never had a rating that high.