Actuarial Chess Club

Playing in those long tournaments is a lot of fun. Did a few when I was in college. Usually the 3 or 4 day schedule.

My ratings are inversely correlated with the time control:

Daily 960: 1425
Daily: 1693
Rapid: 1951
Blitz: 1878
Bullet: 2059
Puzzles: 2157

I’m curious what my actual skill level is. What does that even mean? OTB? I think probably in the 1800-1900 range, but having hard time reconciling that, my daily rating and my bullet rating (I play a lot of daily and bullet games).

If I see an 1800 in a bullet game, I know I am going to crush them. If I see an 1800 in a daily game, I’m playing from behind (mentally). I know I just need to concentrate more when I play daily, but there should not be that big of a delta.

My bullet and blitz ratings are terrible on chess.com I end up playing on my laptop on the touch pad and feel like I lose too many because I’m slower than playing with a mouse. But with a mouse I doubt I’d be much higher.

Actual skill I don’t know what it means either. I don’t think someone who is 2000 in one time control and 1600 in another time control is any better/worse than someone who has them switched. I guess there is more glory in slow time controls but lately there’s been a surge of online bullet chess streaming on twitch which is fun

That’s what I would probably guess, but how easily the chess.com rating translates hinges on a few things. Like your mouse speed and how often you flag you opponent compared to being flagged or if you play dubious opening lines to try and catch people in traps, since at stronger levels those don’t work as well OTB when you have over an hour for the game.

Daily rating is weird too since some people play fast, some play slow and think, and it tops out around 2100s range on the site. Cheating is also a lot easier and I suspect more rampant in the daily chess world.

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FWIW chessgoals has a rating converter for the different time formats

Played in an OTB 3-game tournament on Saturday. 55 minutes with 5 second delay. I had 2 wins (against a 1615 and a 1585) and one loss (a 1455 rated teenager). I could tell I was really rusty. There were 7 players rated 1700 or higher and in that first round 5 of us lost to players rated <1600. I think ratings are kind of in flux right now with the pandemic since no one has been playing any officially rated games.

50 people played in the tournament and it felt great to be back. Vaccination proof was required for everyone there. Devlirox also played as well with his first ever USCF rated games - he also played in the U1900 section with me and finished 0.5/3.

The U1500 section was almost entirely unrated players, a ton of new faces in their 20s and 30s. It was great to see.

My club is returning to weekly rated in person games in August again, which will be nice.

Really looking forward to some OTB play.

What kind of tournament has 50 people in a 3-round setting? Just sort of a “hey let’s play” thing? Were there any prizes?

There were three sections (open, u1900, u1500) which helped to split those 50 people up a bit, but yeah not enough rounds to get to a sole winner. So everyone that went 3/3 got paid in our section.

It was the first local OTB tournament since the shutdown by the club so I think they wanted to try out a 1-day event and just play as many games as you could get in one day.

Leveled out my bullet rating at a solid place, and wanted to work on my blitz rating. Currently:

Puzzles: 2255
Daily: 1716
Chess960: 1453
Rapid: 1951
Blitz: 1947
Bullet: 2057

Puzzles: 2255 - This is my high here. Just recently started doing these again and have jumped up 100 points or so.

Daily: 1716 - This one is the one that bothers me most. High was 1867. At least I’m up out of the 1600s now, where I was for a bit. I wonder if this one gets hurt by entering random tournaments and playing against 1500s that are just starting on chess.com (actually much better) or cheaters? I don’t know, but I join random tournaments to try to get this up, and still struggling to do so.

Chess960: 1453 - This one also bothers me, because it should be much higher. But don’t play frequently and ratings here are skewed, I think, since most people don’t have many games in the variant on chess.com.

Rapid: 1951 - Barely play this. Don’t have the patience for it. Will probably leave this rating here.

Blitz: 1947 - High was 2037, but recently was as low as 1750 or so. Really been focusing on this one, would like to get it back over 2000.

Bullet: 2057 - This one is my best time control. Got it up to 2150 or so, but can maintain >2000 pretty well. I enjoy this variant the most, too.

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Interesting.

Chess.com: 2200 blitz, 2150 bullet

Lichess: Peaked at 2400 blitz, sit at 2300. Peaked at 2300 bullet, sit at 2200. 2200 rapid.

USCF: Haven’t played rated in 20 years. I want to remedy that next year and get back to playing live. Maybe NM is theoretically attainable with some significant work.

For comparison to the NM goal: My chess club met online during the pandemic and we have 4 NMs - 3 of them are rated in the high 2300’s blitz on lichess, though they are on the older side. One younger one who is a strong NM and going for FM is rated 2600 blitz on lichess.

Obviously blitz <> classical, but seems you are close to the right strength to make a push for it.

Yeah, my biggest issue is concentration on long time controls. I probably need my ADHD diagnosed/treated first, unless I want to do what I did for actuarial exams and take 500+mg caffeine every day :wink:

I’ve beaten my fair share of lower rated NMs/FMs online, but usually when I look them up, they’re older masters who are 20 years from their prime. I’ve beaten a handful of IMs and one active GM (2500 FIDE) early last year. That was my peak before I started sliding a bit.

Look who’s here! It’s me, and I’m ready for the next tournament!!

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Welcome!
I’m ready for the next tournament too …

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A couple of month ago I connected with a college student (i think) on LinkedIn, and we ended up playing a game on chess.com. when the next league starts, I’d like to join and if we can give that guy an invitation I’ll forward his username or some kind of connection.

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Been kinda dead around here. Please count me in.

Devilrox was asking me when the next tournament was too, so I think everyone’s getting ready :slight_smile:

I’d be in this time. LususNaturae0 on chess.com. I’m rather inactive (mostly play at lichess right now).

Lusus would be group A, fyi.

I’m interested in chess tournament
Chess.com will create account as alvinaki

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