Just curious if this is a real issue or if it's all in my head : )
I played on chess.com for some time and reached ~1250 rating, then took a few months hiatus. Now that I'm back on the site again I expected to get crushed back into the 1100 range since I feel rusty from not playing. But actually I'm not doing so bad and in fact am beating some opponents above me already.
I had this theory that if chess.com is continually flooded with new players, it may lead to "rating inflation" where numbers keep getting pushed higher and higher as newbies fill in the lowest spots. Is this accurate, or does the rating system take this into account and I'm just having a lucky streak?
You may have, first of all improved in some ways, inspite of the rust. I personally feel time away. relieves anxiety and stress that can cripple ones ability to calculate/visualize the positions correctly.
Also, there is a variable in the algorithm for figuring your estimated rating, stated by the exponent "rd" .This variable in the algorithm controls how much your rating can change from a single game you play, It is contingent upon the basis of the opponent strength, but takes into account the last time you played and how many games you've played. This is a consideration of how accurate your current rating is, how much you could have improved or gotten worse, and this in turn will give your rating, if you haven't played in a while ,the potential to seem as if you are doing better than you thought you might, if for example,you beat one opponent that was your level, but lost to two others who were rated higher than you.
I realize this might be tough to understand, but if you look up the forum for how Chess'com's rating system is determined, it can probably illustrate it better than I was able to.
Just curious if this is a real issue or if it's all in my head : )
I played on chess.com for some time and reached ~1250 rating, then took a few months hiatus. Now that I'm back on the site again I expected to get crushed back into the 1100 range since I feel rusty from not playing. But actually I'm not doing so bad and in fact am beating some opponents above me already.
I had this theory that if chess.com is continually flooded with new players, it may lead to "rating inflation" where numbers keep getting pushed higher and higher as newbies fill in the lowest spots. Is this accurate, or does the rating system take this into account and I'm just having a lucky streak?