Different levels of skill in Blitz ratings 800-2000+

*my opinion* but tried to make it general one. Notice i did not spend much time editting or checking if everything i had to say is there or correct, Is on my memories year ago when i played thousand of games in all category overall bullet including, so some words said might be not that thruth for blitz.

700-900 - Quite surprizingly strong actually... They know stuff. Those are not typical beginners, they have played thousands of blitz games. And is quite hard to climb rating ladder for them - many of them are underrated and usually way stronger in rapid. For example you won't be able to checkmate them with usual 1.e4 Bf4 Qh5 combo unless the guy don't pay attention which often happens. For example you attack his queen, he sees it and moves it to safety. Next move you are still attacking his queen but he does not see it.. And if you play anything out of the normal for example 1.c4 or 1...c5 with black they are out of book and mistakes happens almost every move.

950-1100 - Many of them are new players , most of them with not big experience, casual ones. Just playing game here and there from time to time. They happen to have higher rating than first ones, because of the free wins they often get from new beginner accounts and less games they have played which indicates less sandbagging for example i suck lets resign next 20 games.. which i saw many of 700-900 do. Definetely not stronger. Infact random moves are more common here. 

1150-1350 - Ah the sweet spot of Sandbaggers. Yes-yes. I remember when i was 1500 then started fresh and lost dozens, dozens of games of "legit" 1150-1350 rated players who happens to be around 1600 but never managed to climb higher and just want games were they are in "full controll" and do whatever they want vs low rated. Many players are stuck at that level and now you know the reason.

1350-1450 - Still have sandbaggers but not so much. . This level for me is very very interesting. You might face players with OTB rating but they are "bad" at blitz.. and therefore you might think they are way better for their rating, because of sound play,  but usually they are terrible at time trouble. If you play them in 3 min and hardly win.. they will smash you in 3+2.

For normal ones they know the typical basic tactics - often times they manage to beat higher rated players but lose to some 1150 for above reason. But they are not consistent. He might see a tactic but 2 moves later he forgets about it and loses. But it shows they put some work on their chess. Some plays one system and for a beginner they will seems very strong..

1500-1600 - The easiest level. I am serious. You will face a lot of beginners here. Mostly online players who reached that level by just plenty of blitz games.. no study.. Typical Patzers. Losing a lot to simply tactics. They are really addicted and need help.. You will be surprised how you won so easy vs 1600 than vs 1350. 900 rated playing his pet opening will do better than some 1500 rated i am serious. I can show you games witch each category but i am lazy, but i assure you they are terrible. No plan, not seeing opponent plan. One move attack, agressive, still going for checks, wanted that quick win.. positional mistakes everywhere.. sacking pieces left and right for nothing..Getting on tilt mode. Like somehow they escapre 1400 level or something..  terrible endgame . No wonders i climbed quite fast that level if i remember. On rapid on other hand they are quite good there. Opponent rating matters a lot - they might seem very strong vs lower rated, but they play nervous and unstable vs higher rated. 

1700-1800 Those ones beat easily the previous ones. Those are "veterans" with really high amount of games. Sometimes on good day they can go 1900 and almost glimpse whats beyond and playing 20 games vs high rated opponent and improving.. but somedays they can go down to 1600 until they start to win a lot vs the "patzers". In General they have "normal" board vision, somehow sense of danger, but nothing special. Sometimes still moving same piece again and again and if you just hold with the expected check or agressive move just for one move they will blunder and you attack will become much stronger. Typical online players. They still lack a lot of chess knowledge , they know some openings - but the shitty ones - grob etc. But they are not scared of higher rated opponents unlike the previous levels.

1800-1900 Still half relying on  opening principles in openings they dont know. Not much of a plan. Just moving developing pieces, but not that much droping stuff. Believe it r not they can actually play a game without major blunders. Wow. And there is other half.

At around 1900+ you start to face club tournament players who actually have real OTB rating. You will notice imidiately the difference. They play with more confiedence, more fast and quite good moves. Big level difference right here.

2000+ While from time to time i can watch GM Simon Crushing some 2200 like they are nothing and ofcourse some are overrated, but a lot of strong players here who can be 1935 today and 2160 next day. We play Title players here often. We play a lot of games vs same opponent and real oppenings as well. Because of the higher level of concentration and skills, sometimes we make silly blunders.  Because you have to watch for so many stuff.. And you will be punished, something 1700 wont do even if you offer him free piece he might thing is a trap.. But still 1700-1800 rated is cabable of beating some 2050. Because the lower rated dont play sound and its more dificult to focus on their mess and punish them and sometimes we blunder too and lose a game.

...

Not a bad characterization.

I've had a number of accounts here over the years (I'll delete one, then a month later I find my way back to the site and make a new one and the cycle continues)

When I make a new account usually the first thing I do is play around 20 blitz games, and that was also my experience: that blitz players 800 to 1400 are better than expected. Sometimes I've wondered if maybe I'm just underestimating them? Or maybe it's that your first few games are always harder? But then other times I warmed up with some blitz before my first few games. And of course later accounts I realized I couldn't expect them to drop pieces everywhere, so I don't think I was going easy on them.

Sometimes, in my first 3 games, I'd have a draw or loss... and then go on a 20 game winning streak against all these guys 1400-1900. Certainly 1400 is not greater than 1900... but some of those lower rated guys were tough.

Sort of like OP said and Argammonchess is saying now

There seem to be some good players that are bad at the speed aspect of blitz.

So I win a pawn quickly or something, but they play a lot of sensible moves and never completely fall apart. But some 1600 guy for example, maybe all they can do is attack.. and once it fails they shuffle around aimlessly and you can win with almost no effort.

I don't take rapid or  Daily chess serious. In rapid i often get distracted, i go to kitchen, toilet, watching tv/music listening;  playing on bus on phone. Just casual. Or i use my real board and often i lose on time or i dont see some easy move because of the 3d.

Blitz is i stay focus all game unless is unrated.  Often i am too  lazy to think and still move fast on rapid. Also is way more common for players to use help.

Is well known blitz is well more played and it's well stronger and respected pool/rating. Strong players care more about their blitz rather than their rapid or daily.

Maybe something else is going on? Like if you're rated much higher you're unable to estimate their strength? Maybe a GM would always think players around my rating are underrated just because the GM is impressed I'm not blundering every other move?

I don't know.

Yeah somehow they don't panic also if they face 2000, while 1600 will piss his pants.

I don't agree. Rapid/longergames is what chess is all about. You learn chess through longer games, and then you become better in blitz. At least that's what I believe in.

Why play 10 blitz games to learn 1 concept, when one rapid game can teach you the same in 1 game and less time?

I think he means on chess.com.

Of course OTB is respected more. But between cheater's paradise and blitz, for online ratings players tend to respect online blitz more than online standard.

That's my impression anyway.

I am  1344 when writing this. I am middleaged and slow and play 5+5. OTb I am ca 1400 fide and gets very disappointed if I fail to beat a 1650 in longchess.  Inconsitency is my problem. I often stear my games, but some days I stear them to the ditch. The problem is when playing 1300+ and stearing I underestimate my opponents. Busy attacking I forget that they have poison. Maybe its because I too often meet less strenght and that I am not used to those poisonous counterattacks. The inconsistency also are good and bad days. My tactics are some days brilliant, and other days half blind or lazy. Caps score can be everything between 30 and 99.

I have not learned to play for a draw yet. Is either win or lose.

I am ambitious. Made comeback november 2014 (competed one year as a teenager before quitting chess). I want to become CmallMaster  (CM) at the age of 93  

Losing on time now and then, and also taking risks testing if some ideas works keeps the rating down. If I am curious about an idea, and dont have time to fullcalculate, I go for it and see if it works.

Blundering a pawn in blitz is not as big a mistake as blundering a pawn in rapid.

Notice my opinion is based Mostly on 3 min chess no inc including 30% at least bullet chess .. 3+2 5 or 5+5 or 10 is different story.

You don't have enough games played - at least play 100 to see where is your blitz rating 3/5 min.

1300 blitz is stronger than 1300 rapid , but 1800 rapid here are like 2000 blitz. It's a big difference rapid rating is a mess. I have seen GM with 1950 rapid rating (2550 blitz) and i can show you video him playing against 1900 rapid and making a draw and the last one played fair. Again strong players dont take online rapid serious and less players are playing it compared to blitz pools anyway.

I have been 1850 rapid and i have defeated 1950 rapid.. if i play serious i will be again there or higher rated. 

Master no, but i became strong player faster than someone with same time if he played only slow games.

When playing rapid, to get a high rating you need to avoid cheaters - abort the games if there's anything suspicious, like a 1100 blitz rating and 2000 rapid. 

Note that computer-impossible is only 2100 rapid, due to all the engine users, when IMs and GMs would have trouble scoring 50% against it (judging by some masters who played against it on youtube in rapid time control). 

But yeah, if you can get some real games, they aren't too tough. 

1800-1900 blitz, which I used to think was strong, I actually find quite easy, since they make tons and tons of tactical blunders, and now I can score about 90% against these players (assuming I'm not playing them in multiple games at once, where my score goes way down...)

Not really . It's my provisial rating based on 5 games or something. I lost a game that i shoud have won , but was late more than half hour on clock.. Then lost a +5  winning game against 1950 i was asked to stand up and help a girl  board away and got serious distraction and blundered later. Then lost to underrated kid with medals from previous big tournaments...  

I care more about 1 min chess than daily chess to be quite honest. I see more chess skills in bullet than 3 day/move. Daily chess is a joke really.

Well, established bullet players are pretty much guaranteed to be non engine users, since automatic engines (bots) are easily caught. 

So that's what means probably by showing real "chess skills". 

Obviously a well-established OTB rating negates all online ratings. 

Daily chess is not real chess  and has nothing do to with a game played with a clock and without books, tablebases, and 3rd party help during a game and moving pieces on board while thinking..  Just not the same. It's puzzle like type of game. And many players spend like 10 second/move having dozens and dozens of ongoing games with no memory of what they have played 3 moves ago etc. Also many games are won/lost on time without really having any game..