Chess ratings are insane IMO

buck65

Hi guys new to this group.
Taught myself chess 5 years ago and after a couple of years started playing in tournaments.
Starting out the results were patchy but held my own in the u1200 sections, even coming 2nd in a local tournament.
I got my first rating points in around the 950 mark, which surprised me because after 20 tournament games I had beaten a 1400 rated player and drew with a 1300 player in my 19th 20th games (aprox) I wrote an email asking how my points total was arrived at and was told it was some bizarre formula that took my first games into account! so it compared my abilty in game 1 with game 20 a year later!!?
Anyway I played away in the 1200 section in tournaments coming 3rd in Galway with all the young kids ( I am early 30s) and wona munster league game against another 1400 player and basically have done ok but was disgusted to see my rating still onnly 1100ish.
So being forced to playin the minor section for another 12 months I decided I couldnt take it anymore and have stopped competing altogether - completely disillusioned with having to face 6/7 year olds who are still learning the game.
I play blitz online at 1400 level and I think over the board I am roughly similar strength.
Really I think there should be a novice section but after 20 games there should be a section for 1000 - 1400 rated players.
I have no problem being beaten by someone with a lower rating but I have a problem with playing kids who are there to make up the numbers. Because I could only play 3/4 tournies a year I couldnt get my rating up sufficiently fast enough.
Anyway thats my rant.Thanks for reading.

Kai

As far as i know the ELO rating takes into account both players ratings at the start of the game and based upon that works out how many points either player will increase/decrease if they win or lose. If your a 1200 player playing a 1400 player and you win you stand to earn more points than the 1400 player would if he won. This is because the 1400 player is expected to win as he has the higher rating and is supposed to be the better player.

Ive never played in a tournament but i play on redhotpawn.com and i have a rating of about 1240 at the moment. I have also beaten 1400 players and earned a lot of points but ive also lost to players with 1000 rating and lost a lot also. I feel my chess knowledge is steadily increasing and my rating seems to correspond with it.

I only started playing about 6 months ago but i think its a pretty fair system as its based on a mathematical formula derived from your previous performances against other players which also takes into account their rating and yours at the time you played.

Trampas

buck65 wrote:

Hi guys new to this group.
Taught myself chess 5 years ago and after a couple of years started playing in tournaments.
Starting out the results were patchy but held my own in the u1200 sections, even coming 2nd in a local tournament.
I got my first rating points in around the 950 mark, which surprised me because after 20 tournament games I had beaten a 1400 rated player and drew with a 1300 player in my 19th 20th games (aprox) I wrote an email asking how my points total was arrived at and was told it was some bizarre formula that took my first games into account! so it compared my abilty in game 1 with game 20 a year later!!?
Anyway I played away in the 1200 section in tournaments coming 3rd in Galway with all the young kids ( I am early 30s) and wona munster league game against another 1400 player and basically have done ok but was disgusted to see my rating still onnly 1100ish.
So being forced to playin the minor section for another 12 months I decided I couldnt take it anymore and have stopped competing altogether - completely disillusioned with having to face 6/7 year olds who are still learning the game.
I play blitz online at 1400 level and I think over the board I am roughly similar strength.
Really I think there should be a novice section but after 20 games there should be a section for 1000 - 1400 rated players.
I have no problem being beaten by someone with a lower rating but I have a problem with playing kids who are there to make up the numbers. Because I could only play 3/4 tournies a year I couldnt get my rating up sufficiently fast enough.
Anyway thats my rant.Thanks for reading.

What about the ratings you draw and lose to?

As you gain points for draw games if the rating is high but lose if they are below or Unrated.

You should join a club and play leagues as you need to play alot of rated games to get a proper rating 30 - 40 games.

I use to have the formula how they worked out how your rating changed but I no longer had it.

My advice is don't get to hung up on your rating as most young players do.

Just play tourneys and win them. With that your rating will go up.

Join a club and play the leagues

Abdiel

I know for provisional ratings that your rating performance for the league or a tournament is directly related to the average rating of all competitors in that competition - so in say an under 1200 section, there will probably be loads of 700, 800s etc so they will actually lower your rating performance even if you beat somebody who is 1199 or something. I think in competition terms to actually getting decent rating you would have to be in the >1200 section as then the average rating would be better...

Trampas

Here is how to calculate your rating

http://www.icu.ie/articles/display.php?id=3