Great, just great, now what? CT-ART thinks I'm a

I am playing a demo version of CT-ART, and on chapter one, it gave me an ELO rating of none other, then 2565! Then on chapter two, get this folks, it gets even better, I have an ELO of 2623! And this is taking the tests immediately with no practice and no clues, just simply white or black on move. These mating tactics (well, most so far were mates) are so obvious it's not even funny, and so overated. If CT-ART is really so accurate, then how come I'm not playing like a 2600 ELO GM? Instead I'm a 1600 little weak miser. I guess in my games, I can trully say these tactics never come up, or I'm I missing something? I guess the question is, now what? How does a player like myself improve, or, ugh, what should I improve on? Obviously I am doing something wrong in the games themselves, and my calculating ability is better then I expected.

Should I quit playing boring positional stuff and instead have a little more faith in my ability to calculate complications? What, CT-ART is confusing me!

BTW, I'm not kiding, the first time I tried CT-Arts first few chapters, I solved all the tactics in under a minute and it gave me an ELO rating from 2500-2600, sheesh. I'll let you know how I do on the other chapters later, this is interesting, stay tuned.

Originally posted by mateulose
I am playing a demo version of CT-ART, and on chapter one, it gave me an ELO rating of none other, then 2565! Then on chapter two, get this folks, it gets even better, I have an ELO of 2623! And this is taking the tests immediately with no practice and no clues, just simply white or black on move. These mating tactics (well, most so far were mates) are so ...[text shortened]... heesh. I'll let you know how I do on the other chapters later, this is interesting, stay tuned.

Originally posted by Grayeyesofsorrow
Im sure you increase the sale of shotguns.

I, too, have been a little mystified at the estimated rating the demo version of CT-ART puts out for me. I suspect it has to do with the very limited sample. Perhaps after you've solved 400 problems, you'll get a more accurate rating.

BTW, I am rated ~2300 at another correspondence site, although my USCF rating is considerably lower than that. Ratings are only of real value when they are based on a large number of games, and for comparing your performance to others in the same playing pool. Even USCF ratings can be deceptive. An IM who visits my town about once a year has stated that he believes the actual strength of most players here is about 100 higher than their ratings, for example.

Originally posted by mateulose
I am playing a demo version of CT-ART, and on chapter one, it gave me an ELO rating of none other, then 2565!

Well, in case anybody is interested in seriously considering why CT-ART might be giving abnormally high ratings...

What pops into MY head is that it's a demo version. When I downloaded the demo version of ChessTiger, it would only play 20 moves before it would say, "ChessTiger is now switching to Easy Mode, warning, it will now make really stupid moves". And it did. After 20 moves, it started playing like a drunk moron.

So maybe the CT-ART demo version is *intentionally* designed so as to give what even the most clueless patzer would have to realize is a completely unrealistic rating--maybe it's only designed to give you a feel for how the program would work if you decided to pony up the bucks.

Because otherwise, they know that people are going to use their demo version to give themselves a chess rating, and then go around telling everybody what their rating is. So it's like Austin Powers "kajillion dollars"--they made it purposely bizarro. If you go around telling people that your rating is now 2560, when before it was 1600, they're like "I don't believe that" because it's obviously wrong.

Any book or program that offers to give you an "estimated rating" is dubious at best. Just take the program for what it's worth, tactics training.

Originally posted by ChessMom
Well, in case anybody is interested in seriously considering why CT-ART might be giving abnormally high ratings...

What pops into MY head is that it's a demo version. When I downloaded the demo version of ChessTiger, it would only play 20 moves before it would say, "ChessTiger is now switching to Easy Mode, warning, it will now make really stupid moves ...[text shortened]... when before it was 1600, they're like "I don't believe that" because it's obviously wrong.

Originally posted by !~TONY~!
My thoughts exactly. I was also thinking they wanted to make you feel really good about yourself so you would buy their crap.

i wouldn't consider ct-art to be 'crap' though, despite the bizzare elo ratings it's actually a very good tactics training program.

Originally posted by mateulose
I never thought of that, consider the fact on chapter 3 it was pretty complicated and I only got a whoping 40% of it right, and they gave me an ELO of 1850 for that chapter, sheesh. I doubt a 40% failing grade is worth an ELO of 1850, no matter how hard it is. They probably want to drug you up thinking this tool will make you become Gary Kasparov by buying it, whatever.

in the non-demo version, the ratings it gives are completely logical.

Originally posted by diskamyl
in the non-demo version, the ratings it gives are completely logical.

ah the memories. we all miss mateulose, don't we?

too bad most of you are too young to know him.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
An IM who visits my town about once a year has stated that he believes the actual strength of most players here is about 100 higher than their ratings, for example.