Yeah, that guy is probably cheating.
Yes, Phoenix Arisen will send you an invite momentarily. Wait a few hours for my request to him to be processed. He's a friend of mine who set up the tourney for me.
I would think your resolution is certainly possible, Shah, just don't play when you can't think straight. You played me when I first joined, and I have been at 1400 before, and I know you are at LEAST 1300.
He just sent it to you.
I received it but I can't join because I'm already in a chess.com official tournament. Basic members can only be in one tournament at a time.
No, the official chess.com tourneys don't count as one for basic members - they are "free" to join. I myself am registered for both the chess.com and FoN, and I have basic membership as well. You can join.
Oh yes. You're right. I meant I'm already in a New Athens tournament.
I have noticed that my rating has (although not good previously) plummetted since I have started playing in more tournaments. I suspect that this is due in part to my genuinely poorer recent play. However, I am left in doubt as to how much of that is due to 'sandbaggers' who resign or deliberately lose a series of out-of-tournament games in order to access lower rated tournaments and then reveal their true playing ability when a trophy is up for grabs.
I humbly propose, that chess.com track in-tournament ratings separately so that that particular method of sandbagging is no longer available and we, the genuinely interested and honest players, have a more reliable appreciation of our level and it's variation over time (and we have fair odds of winning trophys every now and again).
Please comment. I'm eager to hear what others have to say on this.
Yes you are correct!
In every tournament there are 1-2 sandbaggers. But there are 2 types. One is obvious the other is the type of player that plays a couple games against players 300 - 400 high in rank and loses. Yeah they still lose to players at their level. But when they get in tournament they focus 100% and since they are used to playing against players 300 rank pts higher what hope does their opponent have in a tournament.
The key is to recognize them as they are beatable!? Why else would they try as they are lacking in confidence and that is what you attack. The longer the game goes on against them the more likely they will feel they can not win the game. I used that against an opponent here as he laid out several poison pawns for me to take and even got to the point he offered a Minor Piece for me to open up my king side castled position. lol
Ahh, I see shah. Good point, royal - I think you're right! I'll keep that in mind.
Sandbaggers: eat your sand!
Easy solution: maybe it is possible to create tournaments based on highest rating ever, in stead of current rating.
What about those who are new to tournaments?
MJH -- That could also be useful. I'm currently playing a user called "zx7r07876". Obviously a weird user name but what makes me even more suspicious is that "ZX" and "678" are neighbouring keys on a QWERTY keyboard. My thought is that the main reason someone might create such a predictable attempt at randomness for a user name is if they were busy creating many. :-D
Well... after 11 months the guy is still around, and has a diamond membership. So I guess u were wrong.
He might still sandbag though.
Hmm, kind of like the guy in the tournament I'm in who has an overall rating of 1388 but in the tournament has scored a perfect 11 of 11 against opponents with an average rating of 1523 for a performance rating of 2129.
Yeah, exactly - I'm playing a guy in an under 1500 tourney that now has a rating of 1850. I'm sorry, but that's just not possible so fast. It screams sandbagger!
I don't really see the point of sandbagging. There is no monetary or other award for winning a tournament. If you sandbag, you end up playing weaker players and your win is meaningless any way.
Conversely, I don't really care if someone sandbags -- since i don't care if I win the tournament. In fact, I would prefer playing someone stronger because that will make the game(s) more interesting for me. So if someone who is a better player (with a low rating) beats me, I'm perfectly happy since my goal is to improve my play. I don't really care what my rating is on chess.com since it has absolutely no bearing on anything.
I'm not a sandbagger at all, in fact it is a practice I detest. I mean who has the time to lose a game on purpose or really care its not like is for money or something.. However, a while back I had a death in the family, had to travel and what not and just let slip around 20 games.. I just couldn't focus one bit on chess I normally have a time/move at about 45minutes in online and play 20-30+ games at a time all the time. So I will probably perpetuate the sandbagging theory for my first 20 or so online games until my rating gets above 16-1700. So if you see me in a tournament thats just whats what. Should I warn people? I actually thought about it but have had people tell me such and such about their rating and its never the case. In regular online I'm not so worred but if i am serious about a tournament match I will check a persons stats, highest rating what their live rating is ect. . Like anyone else I have a few openings I know well and others I am working on and play accordingly. I know people sandbag in live as I get trounced by rated players I wouldn't normally. As far as 100 point rating swings depending where I'm at on the curve that can easily happen if you play alot of chess. just some random thoughts..
I started this thread ages ago and have been thinking about it since you guys started posting again. I'm not saying that having separate tournament ratings is a perfect solution to sandbagging but I struggle to think of an equally simple approach with similar plausible results.
Next tournament I'm in, I'll probably keep track of how it goes and post back here about how many of my opponents are probable sandbaggers. I rather suspect that the lower rated tournaments have the highest proportion.
playing against better players will improve your skillz
I've had the opposite problem; some of the tournaments go very long, and I've had rounds where, of the ten games I had to play, I win six by forfeit. I don't know if a no-move forfeit affects ratings, but people stop playing a few moves in sometimes. So I end up with a rating maybe 200 points or more higher than I'd deserve. And in any tournament that has a lower rating ceiling, it's likely that the later rounds will have players sporting ratings quite a bit outside that ceiling just because they've had to win a fair number of games.
I'm sure it's possible that people sandbag to get easier tournaments (this baffles me, but it's a reality). I'm just saying it can go both ways.
playing against better players will improve your skillz
No one disputes that, Spocky. What we're talking about is methods for preventing sandbaggers qualifying for a rating range they don't belong in i.e. spoiling things for non-sandbaggers who want to play in a meaningful chess tournament against opponents of comparable skill.
MJH -- That could also be useful. I'm currently playing a user called "zx7r07876". Obviously a weird user name but what makes me even more suspicious is that "ZX" and "678" are neighbouring keys on a QWERTY keyboard. My thought is that the main reason someone might create such a predictable attempt at randomness for a user name is if they were busy creating many. :-D
re:FoN -- Oh! I misread the invite. I though it was for 1400+ players. Yeah. I'll join that one. Sure, get me an invite into this exclusive club if you can. :-)
Annabella -- I thought about it too but actually I care more about getting an accurate idea of how well I'm doing so that I can feel some genuine pride when I make progress. (or feel guilty when I slack off). My New Year's resolution is to hit 1300+ by the end of the year.