Your starting Rating

Hi

Can I request that my rating starts at say 2500? to see I can play alongside the best. I've started playing chess again after a long layoff and think that it will take me forever to get my rating that high even if I beat everyone I play against. Or supposing I am a chess genius (I don't think I am but you never know lol)  then my talent might never be realised as my rating starts so low.

Also if I were a GM, then would my rating from the outside world immediately be the same on chess.com - I'm assuming so as Gary Kasperov has played 0 games on chess.com but he is rated 8th in chess.com.

Kind Regards

Matthew 

I believe the 3 choices are: 800, 1200, and 1800 to start.  

I think that the answer will most probably be "no", for obvious reasons.

yes grand masters will want to get a fair match against a titled player and also it tskes years to get that good if you have had a layoff it is best to start small and if they gave a 2500 option then there would be no GMs here because everyone would choose 2500 and the GMs will have really easy matches.

Only on v3 and the app, and I think there are a couple more levels. Also, since the OP already has an account, that isn't an option.

Thanks Martin.

It doesn't matter what rating you start at. It will quickly adjust to whatever strength you are. I started at 1200, I'm 1840 rapid after just 8 games. If you were 2000 strength or higher, getting there would be no trouble no matter what rating you start at.

Its my own personal belief that may players who are say 1600-1700 play most of their moves at a 1900+ level. So if my belief is correct, then a player who has the potential to get to 1800 will find it very hard to get higher than 1600+. That player may have a good winning streak against players at his level but if he suffers 1 defeat in 5 then he will be back to square 1 again. When I first joined chess.com I found that my rating suffered very badly even if I won say 5 games in a rown and then had a bad game losing to a very good lower rated player. My rating sometimes went down by at least 30-50 points - I'm now evolving my game by only playing players who are graded about the same but every now and then I come up a very good lower ranked player and get beaten - something seems wrong to me about how your rating can drop so dramatically.

This may well be true. If you play most of your moves at a 1900+ level but some moves at a 1200 level, it will average out to 1600-1700. 

The starting rating doesn't really make a difference in the long run—the more opponents you play, the more your rating will adjust to match your relative strength.

So if you're a 1500-strength player, for example, it won't matter if you start at 800 or even at 2800—your rating will eventually level out at 1500, regardless of where you began.

simply put

The site uses Glicko for rating. As you play more games your Rating Deviation (RD) drops and your swings should decrease. As long as you play consistently; taking a break will cause your RD to increase with a resulting larger set of rating swings.

It's easy to get to invested in a rating. Many people do to some extent, but ultimately, your rating will reach a fairly stable level at some point. If you have a particularly good/bad string of games it may rise/drop but will eventually go back to your normal level, in the absence of improved playing ability (from eliminating weaknesses).

If you make the hypothesis of a player whose level never increases nor decreases and the value of the elo being stable over time, his rating will still have a volatility factor though its average will be his true level.

So don't be surprised that your rating reaches downs from time to time. It will most probably be only temporary.

Thanks guys - I probably need to give it more time (and practice) really

Cheers

Matthew

It would makes sense if people that aren't very good are starting out at 1500 or 1200.

I play 800s and get a good game, I get to 1100s and the games are soooo easy.I can only assume these players are on their way DOWN.

Then again 800s cheat a lot. Or so says my message box.

Ahhhh HA! I had to check this out. I wondered why I was getting fierce matches at 700-900 levels, getting brutalized by people with 800 rankings. But as I progressed, I went thru the 1000-1100 players like a hot knife thru butter.

My only assumption was I was playing NOOBS who started at 1200 and I was catching them on their quick downfall.

Also, how many players tank games or their ratings to get into the 800s just so they can dominate weak players??? Or maybe they were all cheaters??

I gained rating from 1100 to 1650 in about 3 months. I'm still increasing. It's of course exhausting knowing im better than 1650 but it will take time for me to reach 2000 which I think is appropriate for me