What approximate rating level has the most opponents playing blunder-free?
Around the time I was 1800-1900 on chess.com blitz, I noticed my opponents stopped blundering more, and often I would have to push for a win positionally in order to force my opponents to blunder.
When most games have zero blunders and zero mistakes, you are generally looking at at least an NM level player, if not higher.
That's only in your games.
I estimate an average of 5 blunders per game in my rapid games.
I would expect players of 2500 rating and above on this site to almost stop blundering pieces in a rapid time control.
I regularly make blunders in my rapid games.
(By rapid I mean 15|10, 25|0 and so on, excluding 10|0 which I still consider as blitz even though it's classified as rapid on this site)
In slow format games, blunders fade out as a players advance through class A level (1800-2000). Mistakes disappear through the expert / master level. (2000-2400) Exceptions to this would be statistically too small to count. Of course even the best human players make blunders and mistakes. Also this is subject to definition.
An expert in statistics could come up with some very precise estimates following the ELO formula. I did some rudimentary number crunching on this topic some years ago and decided the question was best expressed as a function of mistakes or blunder likelihood per move. Beginners will make weak moves or blunders at a rate of about 0.8 to 1. (Four out of five moves are weak or blunders). Mid level players will make mistakes, or blunders at about 0.1 to 1. Top level grandmasters make "game threatening" mistakes about once every 100 to 250 moves. And top level engines are closing in on a mistake or weak move every 100,000 or so moves with ELOs in the mid 3000s. Of course, mistakes at all levels are modified or moderated by mistakes by an opponent in any given game. I propose this way of thinking about the issue as food for thought.
'We all hung pieces gallore, only Fischer did not hang a single pawn.'
- Tal on the 1970 Herceg Novi 5|0 blitz tournament.
Zero mistakes and zero blunders?
That would be Stockfish NNUE.
Or AlphaZero.
Zero mistakes and zero blunders?
That would be Stockfish NNUE.
Or AlphaZero.
Nope, inaccuracies are quite common by grandmasters, which is why in classical they are so detrimental and influences the majority of the game's outcomes.
"Mistakes" is more like a positional mistake where you miss a chance for a superior position, not like blunders. It's more to the equivalent of losing a pawn.
I posed this question because I had always thought game play of zero mistakes and zero blunders would only routinely be encountered somewhere starting around 1800...maybe as high as 2000. As a guess (with a few years of play under my belt) I didn't think that to be too far off the mark. Instead, at 1300 I have ran into plenty of opponents playing 0/0 games. Lots of games with no blunders and only one or two mistakes. I match this performance from time to time. But to already be seeing such strong play a good deal of the time at the lowly level of 1300 means my guess (as well as others') was/is off considerably. Relatedly, I easily dispatch 1600/1700 level bots. Not sure what's contributing to the disparities. Was wondering if anyone has experienced the same?
