Another Question For the Red Hot Pawn Vets...

In general, do you all think that most people on this site are more concerned with their ratings than actually enjoying the game of chess, or do you all see it as being flipped the other way around.

As usual, I'm just curious. I would imagine that there are plenty of both sides.

One thing I've noticed is that quite a few people refuse to play people who are ranked lower than them. Now, I'm not totally sure how the rankings work. Let's say I am 1500 and I play someone at 1300. Even if I win, does my ranking go down? Or does it stay the same? Or does it not go up as much as it would if it was someone ranked higher?

I understand that if someone is 1800 or something, playing someone 900 or something probably wouldn't even be enjoyable. I totally get that. However, I would hope that is the reasoning rather than the possibility that their awesome ranking would actually fall LOL...

Anyways I'm off on some other tangent. I just wondered what you all thought about my original question?

Originally posted by TaLi RodrigueZ
I would imagine that there are plenty of both sides.

I definitely think there is a balance, and it's probably about 50/50. Many people are here for the conversation and just play people who like to chat. Others are here to improve their game, regardless of rating. Others are here to try out new styles, and still others want to see their name in lights. Me personally, I'm definitely all about the rating as you can see from my essentially flat rating of ~1200 in the 2 1/2 years I've been playing here 😉

Joe

and there was me thinking this was another thread started from the euthanising animals discussion....

mark

Originally posted by TaLi RodrigueZ
One thing I've noticed is that quite a few people refuse to play people who are ranked lower than them.

i think its both.... when someone first gets on this site its like finding new friends or going to a new school, you want to be with the cool kids...cool kids = higher ranked so you might even cheat to be with them but after a while ,like in life, you will except where you are and if you dont you will try to improve...what i think we are all out for because i honestly never meat any person who wanted to be worse at one thing!

Me personally, my rating is important to me, just because I am trying extremely hard to improve in chess and all that. But I also play chess for fun so I play anyone of any ranking. Right now I am playing a range of players anywhere from 900 to 1800+. I'll play anybody.

Originally posted by mmanuel
and there was me thinking this was another thread started from the euthanising animals discussion....

mark

I would have to say, I do both. I really want to get a high rating (say above 1350) but know that is near impossible, so I play for fun. If anyone knows a way I could keep playing for fun and get myself good enough to beat David Tebb can you please say.

Thanks.

David

I think both matter to most people. I think it is on a spectrum of sorts. On one side you have the people (few) who care ONLY about there rating and either cheat or make decisions based on that (time outs etc.) On the other side are the people (also few I believe) who care absolutely nothing about their rating and are here only for the conversation or to experiment and improve their game. Everyone is in this spectrum w/ a leaning toward one side or the other. I primarily want to improve my game and I use my rating as a guage as to how I'm doing. Therefore my rating is important to me. I also makes me not too inclined to play people below 1200 or above 1700 because I don't seem to get too much out of those games either w/ rating points or w/ learning.

I tend to play people of all levels. I too want to continue to improve and use my rating as a gauge but I too was once rated 1200 so I like to give everyone a chance to play. I usually ask in my open invites for pawn stars only but usually put Any Rating. I'll usually play even if the person doesn't have a star as they have to get used to the site somehow.

I also like the conversations and feel that I've made some real friends here.
Bryan

I can understand using the rating as a gauge of how you are improving. Nonetheless, I don't think my rating going up would tell me that I was getting better. I'd know if I was getting better because I wouldn't find myself in as many horrendous situations or I would be making moves that make me proud (more than my normal 1nce per three games). I'm all for a good rating. Maybe someday I'll make it to 1200 or something lol.

My rating is less important to me than it was a while ago. I got to 1320-ish, then lost a few games, went down to 1270, and was quite annoyed. Purely because I was briefly the highest of my peer group🙂 I've since relaxed a bit about it. I'm currently playing too many games and my work commitments have about doubled over the last week, so I turn on and I've got like 20 games waiting and 10 minutes to make all my moves, so I'm pretty sure that my rating is going to take another tumble, but I don't really care that much now. I do still feel that I'm getting better, and the Tournament that I'm in is allowing me to play people who are better than would normally accept a challenge from me, so that's good. I think that once things calm down after Christmas I'll concentrate more and might win a game. Hurrah! But this site is mostly about relaxing away from work for me, so I don't worry too much about my rating. I like to play a few games, post a couple of long-winded rambling statements😀, and get on with it.
Gary

personaly, and unfortunately I think that I have successfully found my average rating. I am not ashamed of it because I am playing alot of the same people in the same place, and I think that we are getting better but we just cant tell.

Originally posted by TaLi RodrigueZ
I can understand using the rating as a gauge of how you are improving. Nonetheless, I don't think my rating going up would tell me that I was getting better. I'd know if I was getting better because I wouldn't find myself in as many horrendous situations or I would be making moves that make me proud (more than my normal 1nce per three games). I'm all for a good rating. Maybe someday I'll make it to 1200 or something lol.