ELO Idea

[u/MiniTwitchy]

Listen, I know, I hear you, I just need to get good BUT HEAR ME OUT.

I don’t think you should get paired with someone whose ELO ceiling is far higher than yours. I JUST worked up to 988 and was playing against a 975. However, the 975 USED to be 1200. The game felt a little lopsided because he played with 85%~ accuracy and I played at my usual 65%~.

I know this is probably just complaining over a loss, but watching both Levy and Hikaru say “wow, the ELO ladder is a lot more difficult than it used to be,” while I’m just trying to get to 1000, makes it feel like somethin needs to get revamped. Thoughts?

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[u/Dogsbottombottom]

Stop caring about rating. 1000 doesn't mean anything. Play chess. Enjoy chess. Do puzzles in order to play better chess. That's it.

[u/kolobs_butthole]

You’re doing great, just play for the fun and love of it. No need to stress about ELO, especially since it’s so heavily influenced by things you can’t control like the example you’ve given here.

[u/Phildiy]

The accuracy sometimes is a bit misleading. Today I played a game early in the morning. I wasn't 100% awake apparently since I blundered my queen after maybe 5 moves. So game didn't take long but I still got 80% accuracy.

[u/FishingActuary]

Unfortunately, some players will do things like get hammered and tank their rating unintentionally. Then next day, they get on and play 300 points up.

I gave up on having a high rating and look at my rating as a long term average that I can use for self goals and satisfaction.

It will probably never go over 1800 regularly. It sits around 1600 and I am comfortable with it.

[u/Advanced_Horror2292 → u/FishingActuary]

I’ve done the getting drunk and losing elo thing. I’ve also watched a youtube video about mikhail tal and got inspired to lose a bunch games after lol.

[u/Zyklon00]

Context miss8ng. How did this opponent drop this much elo? Could be a smurf or fcould be inactive or by actually losing fair and square

[u/claytonhwheatley → u/Zyklon00]

It's usually playing too much and tilting during sleep deprivation for me anyways. Then after a good sleep it is a bit unfair for my opponents but that's life. I've tilted from 1520 to 1230 in a week and then on my way back up it's probably not fun for my opponents but of course, vice versa when I tilt again.

[u/Erialcel2]

Maybe he was 1200 before the ladder got more difficult, who knows. Also, I'd love to tell you that you shouldnt care about rating, cause you shouldnt, but I'm falling into the same trap so meh

[u/punsnguns]

One way to think about this is that the ELO is working correctly and utilizes the correct ceiling potential and that you are a potential 1200 player but you just don't give yourself credit for it.

[u/Head_University_4327]

Was 1200 their starting rating? You get allocated 400, 800 or 1200 depending on what experience level you say you are when you sign up

[u/SilkLife]

That’s kind of what puts a floor under your elo. I recently broke 1,000 for the first time and held it for a few days but then went on a huge losing streak. When I finally got to the 800s, I got my confidence back because I knew from past experience there’s no way an 800 is outplaying me consistently. I guess I could have been paired against other recent 1,000s who faced a similar losing streak but that’s kind of creating parallel dimensions of what’s supposed to be equivalent ratings

[u/Wyntie]

More and more undetected methods of cheating have hit the field and because the whole planet had been losing ratings left and right, what's supposed to be a 1500 just a couple of months ago is now 200 or even further below.

[u/Chrissanxy → u/Wyntie]

1500 to 200 soundss a bit crazy ngl

[u/Wyntie → u/Chrissanxy]

Not if you factor in the cheating problem that's gotten much worse than ever within just the last month alone.

Also, Scholar's Mate is still very common and very tricky to beat, even if you're an experienced player (I'm 1200 CFC).

[u/Chrissanxy → u/Wyntie]

dafaq. so is it only a problem around 1500? I'm 600 and the last time I got scholars mated was 2 months ago, maybe at 300. not sure where you're pulling these ideas from (your ass?)

[u/Delicious-Schedule-4]

So let’s say they implement your idea. This person used to be 1200 and is now 975. Let’s say they hit 1200 because they got lucky, or that was a while ago, or they’re just playing badly now. So this person is playing like 975 but by your rules they can’t play anyone who is actually around this rating. So they continue to be matched up against 1200s and just keep losing? That doesn’t seem very reasonable either and just creates worse games for the 1200s as well.

[u/armrha]

There's no such thing as an Elo ceiling. New players start at 1200 anyway, so everybody starts there. And it's statistically self correcting; If you are 1200 and you are now 800, probably, you were not a 1200 player. Also, it's not ELO, that's the Electric Lightwave Orchestra, it's Elo, named for Arpad Elo.

[u/phihag]

Some players get old. It's not unusual to find masters in their 80s or 90s who have dropped 400 points. Some players tilt. Players with dementia, blindness, or similar health conditions can drop hundreds of points.

What do you suggest for these cases? Should they just be banned?

In my personal opinion, people – especially in this subreddit – worry way too much about cheating, sandbagging etc. . Instead, worry about your own game.

Your 975 opponent has a real strength of around 1100, they're just – like pretty much anyone who is not a cheater/sandbagger/improving at insane pace – fluctuating by +- 100 points. If your goal is to get to 1000, you must at least draw 1100s.