Lower Rated Players Are Better

Whether I’m playing blitz or rapid, the lower rated players I play are better. Not slightly better, significantly better, specifically on Sundays. This defies logic. It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. I’ve evaluated over a thousand of my games and lower rated players make fewer mistakes and blunders and more great or brilliant plays. They play at a higher accuracy and are more likely to make 10 top engine moves in a row. Level of play also correlates to the day of week. I win more games than I lose 5 days a week, Wednesday’s I lose slightly more. I lose Sundays, as in every Sunday, bar none. I became curious about this 2 years ago because my rating would climb during the week then plunge on Sunday. It was difficult to track because I was improving and improved play skewed any analysis. Now that my play has plateaued, my opponent’s rating is constant. This pattern is undeniable. Can anybody explain this? I’m reasonably certain I know the answer.

Yes I think it’s generally accepted that your rating would be almost 300 points higher if not for cheaters. A lot of cheaters on here for sure.

Yeah it is out of control and an existential threat that needs to be kept under the rug 🤫

hello Llama, while I agree with you in general, your first way of explanation has a flaw in the data to support your conclusion.

Idk what you guys are yak’n about but my account has been zeroed out twice, I have no clue why. I’ve played over 30K games on this site. I got reprimanded last week for stalling or quitting games. I NEVER quit games, EVER. I defy them to provide a game in which I did.

I think its just when you are playing a higher rated player, you just focus and you play better. However, when you are playing lower rated player, you are more relaxed resulting in worse play. Just a guess

@booklover834 Not a chance. I have looked at thousands of my games. I lose on Sunday, 106 Sundays in row to be exact. This is outside any statistical anomaly.

If you live in America and you play a game on Sunday evening, you will often play a player who lives in Russia and those dudes are beasts when it comes to Chess.

The ones from russia has like a blank flag right?

Yes but it is easy to change players flag, so we cannot tell if they really are located to that country.

...no?

they only refund for some games

and besides this just adds the points back into the system

I am better than most elo 500 players on this site.

The pool of players available on different days of the week may vary. Perhaps Sundays attract a different set of players, including those who are more dedicated or experienced.

Your own mindset and psychological state can affect your performance. If you approach Sundays with the expectation of losing, it might impact your decision-making and play.

Well, I just played one game, and my opponent hung a piece being a 1520. I guess it's Just bots or busy people not playing seriously.

@tmartincentrisinfocom I'm finding the same thing. I used to have a 1100-1200 rating and now I've dropped to into the lower 900's. I am continually being paired with sub-900 players that are beating me, and then in game analysis they played a "1250" rated game! And this is not just once in a while, seems to be more often than not - this is more than "by chance" that low-rated players are playing 1200+ games. I'm apt to believe that with the general release of ChatGPT and GenAI this year, that something strange has happened in the chess community that might be related.. ?

I think it's just their newbies like me who think their intermediate and started at 800

Part of this may be due to you getting placed in a separate pool of users considered "bad sports" and only matching against them. It might be the case that you only see "bad sports" now and they are for whatever reason all making extremely strong moves. Moderators have confirmed that this is the practice of this website - accounts are auto-flagged by an AI into that pool. They would /could not reveal the "extent to which these accounts are matched with each other."
I'm suffering from the same thing, this site turned into 100% garbage shenanigans overnight for me and I lost 300 ELO. I'm on my way to min rated because literally every 300-600 is stronger than the 1500-1600 I meet in any arena. These people play random/garbage/trap openings, then all top 2-3 engine-recommended moves. For whatever reason. These games are not fun, educational, or anything like playing actual chess. I'm probably closing my account, since there seems to be no remedy available.

Sadly I have exaclty the same experience as the OP. I was around 1200+, once dropped below 1050 - 1100, it went down the drain. Crazy players, even at 850-900 rating, fast, no mistakes whatsoever. This is sad and it has nothing to do with my becoming bad all of a sudden.

I guess it is time to switch to another chess website.

Where exactly have mods or members of the staff confirmed there's a shadow pool on this site?

@25

"Crazy players, even at 850-900 rating, fast, no mistakes whatsoever."
++ If those players are so fast and make no mistakes, then how do they stay at 900?
It must be a conspiracy against you:
they make no mistakes against you and plenty of mistakes against everybody else to stay at 900.