ratings question

kpeters · Post by **kpeters** » Mon May 15, 2006 5:59 am

hi,

let me apoligize if this has been asked before, im new here and have just finished my first 2 games. the first one i won and my rating jumped up 300+ points. i also won my second game (against the same opponent) and while i didnt expect it to go up by that amount again i certainly didnt expect it to drop. ok it was only like a 3 point drop but still.....

anyway my question is this, is this typical? how does the ratings system here work compared to other sites like gameknot or scheming mind? also how does the ratings system work compare to the USCF of FIDE? is it just me or do the ratings overall seem a bit inflated?

thanks in advance for your imput.

mluka · Post by **mluka** » Mon May 15, 2006 6:44 am

I believe this topic addresses your question:
http://www.slowchess.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1023

Post by **gmiller** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:06 am

Provisional ratings are based on your performance against the average of the ratings of all of the oponents you've played. So it's pretty typical for your rating to go down if you've won every game but are playing players rated 400 points below your current rating. This effect goes away once you get a mix of wins and losses and have several games under your belt.

The ratings here for active players are inflated over USCF or FIDE ratings. That's mostly because this is a free site and we get a lot of people who sign up for games and never play them.