pemuli wrote:
Yesterday, I reached a 2000 blitz rating for the first time. I was quite pleased, but I've noticed that many of my opponents have reached their peak ratings in the last month or so. Does anyone know if the mean rating has crept upward and/or if chess.com is using a different elo system?
Your rating has averaged 1900 for years. Perhaps you are on a little hot streak. You should let yourself enjoy it.
It really feels like the player pool has changed.
I used to play some blitz a few years back. Beating 1600 players was quite easy - feeling like 80% wins. But many 1700+ were nearly impossible. They never missed tactics, or even subtle threats, playing incredibly fast - using a minute or two per game and being very well prepared in openings. Computer analyses showing only minor inaccuracies in their games.
Last weeks I played some again, and have beaten many 1700+ players. Maybe 10 in a row. I have now seen 1700+ players miss simple tacics, dropping pieces, getting into time trouble etc. This just never happened before.
I am a worse player than ever. Slower, older, off-shape, not studying chess but rather actively forgetting my opening theory .. been the same patzer for 30+ years. Still my blitz rating is at all-time high.
The players are really different than they were in maybe 2013.
@Fakeniker you may well be right
And yet many of the players I play at my blitz level possess phenomenal speed in performing good basic tactics. I've been beaten up by a 1000 blitz player here very quickly.
It really feels like the player pool has changed.
I used to play some blitz a few years back. Beating 1600 players was quite easy - feeling like 80% wins. But many 1700+ were nearly impossible. They never missed tactics, or even subtle threats, playing incredibly fast - using a minute or two per game and being very well prepared in openings. Computer analyses showing only minor inaccuracies in their games.
Last weeks I played some again, and have beaten many 1700+ players. Maybe 10 in a row. I have now seen 1700+ players miss simple tacics, dropping pieces, getting into time trouble etc. This just never happened before.
I am a worse player than ever. Slower, older, off-shape, not studying chess but rather actively forgetting my opening theory .. been the same patzer for 30+ years. Still my blitz rating is at all-time high.
The players are really different than they were in maybe 2013.
I would like to believe this is true but I think it's all in your imagination as there is no evidence to suggest that chess.com has changed at all since 2013. The default rating has always been 1200 and many of the players you have played since 2013 still remain on the site. The only thing which may have changed is your level due to all the games you've played online and general improvement which a lot of the time goes unnoticed.
For what it's worth I came here with the same question. My blitz rating edges higher--am I improving or is it inflation? Honestly, some inflation would be reasonable since I think the blitz ratings were under USCF ratings (while the standard ratings may be a bit high). But regardless, I'd like to know. To your point about 1200 being the starting point and therefore the pool average, that's fine, but if chess.com has made an adjustment to the algorithm, such that you get 1 point more per win or lose 1 point less per loss (just for example) that would cause inflation. Wondering if it's the case.
Yesterday, I reached a 2000 blitz rating for the first time. I was quite pleased, but I've noticed that many of my opponents have reached their peak ratings in the last month or so. Does anyone know if the mean rating has crept upward and/or if chess.com is using a different elo system?