So I played a ton of blitz chess on this site a year or two ago, and my rating got to be pretty consistent in the 1700-1750 range. Every so often it would spike up to the upper 1700s (peaking at 1808, only made it above 1800 twice) or dip down to the upper 1600s, and this was over thousands of games.
I recently started playing some blitz again after a long break, and I stayed around 1700 for a few weeks, but now I've shot up to 1828, completely shattering all previous peaks, and showing little signs of slowing down. I seem to be winning almost all my games against players who I should have an even record against, judging by my previous rating history.
So my question is: have any long time blitz players noticed a change to the blitz ratings, or a weakening of the pool or something? Or has my sporadic tactics training just gotten my play over some plateau? Or am I just on a lucky streak? I would find it very hard to believe that I've become a better blitz player after a year of inactivity (I've forgotten most of my opening preparation, plus I'm using a crappy trackpad now which can make extremely fast moving really dicey).
Any thoughts?
As you said, looking at your history, your rating has approached 1800 a half dozen times. I don't think that this recent increase is particularly statistically significant.
You should come back if your rating shoots up another couple of hundred points.
So I played a ton of blitz chess on this site a year or two ago, and my rating got to be pretty consistent in the 1700-1750 range. Every so often it would spike up to the upper 1700s (peaking at 1808, only made it above 1800 twice) or dip down to the upper 1600s, and this was over thousands of games.
I recently started playing some blitz again after a long break, and I stayed around 1700 for a few weeks, but now I've shot up to 1828, completely shattering all previous peaks, and showing little signs of slowing down. I seem to be winning almost all my games against players who I should have an even record against, judging by my previous rating history.
So my question is: have any long time blitz players noticed a change to the blitz ratings, or a weakening of the pool or something? Or has my sporadic tactics training just gotten my play over some plateau? Or am I just on a lucky streak? I would find it very hard to believe that I've become a better blitz player after a year of inactivity (I've forgotten most of my opening preparation, plus I'm using a crappy trackpad now which can make extremely fast moving really dicey).
Any thoughts?