Please call the International Red Cross for me

Hi Jan,

Do you think playing on this site has improved your OTB chess at all? I noticed that you had a Dutch rating of 1517 this time last year. Has it gone up since then?

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Hi Jan,

Do you think playing on this site has improved your OTB chess at all? I noticed that you had a Dutch rating of 1517 this time last year. Has it gone up since then?

Yes, playing on this site did help a lot. Especially various openings.
I played a lot of thematic tournaments in a few clubs which was/is very instructive. Now I have to improve my middlegame.....

My Dutch OTB rating is now 1664.

Originally posted by jankrb
Yes, playing on this site did help a lot. Especially various openings.
I played a lot of thematic tournaments in a few clubs which was/is very instructive. Now I have to improve my middlegame.....

My Dutch OTB rating is now 1664.

what is a Dutch OTB rating? i see your rating is 2100 on RHP what is you OTB? and who are you?

OTB = Over the Board. i.e. a real rating and not an online one.

There is no reason why OTB ratings, whether Dutch, USCF, FIDE or whatever, should be anything like RHP ones.

Originally posted by tim88
what is a Dutch OTB rating? i see your rating is 2100 on RHP what is you OTB? and who are you?

My Dutch OTB rating is my rating for OTB games according the Dutch system.
I started 4 years ago in a club and after some years also for a clubteam against other clubteams. Those games count for the Ducth rating system.
Some tournaments in Holland are also marked for the rating system.
I haven't played so many games which did count. So my rating is raising slowly. I hope to pass the 1700 line this year....

On RHP I played over 6000 games and I have to say, I also did it some time in the "Skeeter" way. Which is: play a lot against lower rated persons and take 1 or 2 points per win. Play as many games as you can and you will become a page one player.

Originally posted by jankrb
My Dutch OTB rating is my rating for OTB games according the Dutch system.
I started 4 years ago in a club and after some years also for a clubteam against other clubteams. Those games count for the Ducth rating system.
Some tournaments in Holland are also marked for the rating system.
I haven't played so many games which did count. So my rating is raising e 1 or 2 points per win. Play as many games as you can and you will become a page one player.

So you're about the same rating OTB as me.
Basically a slightly below average small local club player.
Then you come to this site, and from the security of an internet connection have 100 odd games in progress, beating OTB players who have FIDE ratings in excess of 2000 Elo.
Taking that with your early patzer games & losses vs sub-1400 players a few years ago and you can imagine why most of the folk on this forum think your account is an engine-driven joke.
If you were 10 years old when you started on this site then a rapid, sustained improvement might be quite reasonable. I'd expect that to be mirrored in your OTB rating too.
I don't think you're 16 or 17 years old now, are you?

Originally posted by Zygalski
I don't think you're 16 or 17 years old now, are you?

No sorry, I am 25!

Originally posted by Fat Lady
OTB = Over the Board. i.e. a real rating and not an online one.

There is no reason why OTB ratings, whether Dutch, USCF, FIDE or whatever, should be anything like RHP ones.

I have a friend on the site, Norm Meintel, who is very strong in correspondence, and also very strong at our local club- unless you put a clock next to the board.

He plays like an 1800 player at the club, but when we have tried to use him as a sandbag in team events, or even in regular tournaments, he gets obsessed with the clock and loses. I think his OTB rating is in the 1400's, which is ridiculous when compared to his "real" chess strength.

People who get funky about ratings here vs OTB ratings just don't get it.

I just meant that the different ratings don't necessarily correspond with each other. For example I believe USCF ratings are higher than FIDE ones. So a player with, say, a USCF rating of 2000 might only be able to achieve a FIDE rating of 1900.

The only thing I know about Dutch ratings is that Heinzk, who used to play here, has a Dutch OTB rating considerably lower than 2000 but seems to have the chess ability of a player I'd associate with a 2100+ FIDE rating when I watch his games on playchess.com.

Although some people are obviously better at correspondence chess than they are OTB, what I find difficult to understand is how someone can play more than 100 games at once and yet manage to find very impressive ideas and tactics with, presumably, very little thought - how much time can you spend on a particular game if you've got 100 on the go?

As an example of what I would expect to happen, look at caissad4. She is a pretty strong OTB player (certainly much stronger than jankrb) but I think she underperforms on this site (even though she won more tournaments than anyone else!) because she has so many games going on at the same time.

A 100 games is possible, when you play different timecontrols and when you have plenty of time.
I prefer not to play 0/1 or 3/0 or x/0 games. The majority is 3/7 and 7/7.
I am so fortunate that my wife is working more hours per week than I do.
So I can play chess for hours per day and I like it....

Originally posted by Fat Lady
I just meant that the different ratings don't necessarily correspond with each other. For example I believe USCF ratings are higher than FIDE ones. So a player with, say, a USCF rating of 2000 might only be able to achieve a FIDE rating of 1900.

The only thing I know about Dutch ratings is that Heinzk, who used to play here, has a Dutch OTB rating consid ...[text shortened]... ty of a player I'd associate with a 2100+ FIDE rating when I watch his games on playchess.com.

I'm with you- in the US there are significant differences based on geography, even under the same system.

The timing and frequency of play also factor in.

One of my other friends on the site, Ocean64 (who is my Monday morning study partner -he talks and I listen!), has a 2205 FIDE rating from when he played in the Novi Said Olympiad in 1990, but his current USCF rating is in the 1800's due mostly to health reasons. He's very strong for one game a day, but weekend tournament schedules wear him out. He is much more up to form in this format.

Jankrb has no reason to stress as site admins does not care about cheating here.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Although some people are obviously better at correspondence chess than they are OTB, what I find difficult to understand is how someone can play more than 100 games at once and yet manage to find very impressive ideas and tactics with, presumably, very little thought - how much time can you spend on a particular game if you've got 100 on the go?

As an ex ...[text shortened]... on more tournaments than anyone else!) because she has so many games going on at the same time.

One thing I can say is that Jan's play does show some evidence of hasty play. I'm 4 wins 3 draws and 10 losses against him. Two of the wins have been games where he carelessly dropped material, including a game we just finished in Oct 2012. On the other hand, I, too, marvel at Jan's ability to play a lot of games, especially since most of the games I lose against him have been tactical oversights on my part.

As Fat Lady mentions, tactics are usually the thing that falls apart when you play a lot of games. For example, I'm 2 wins and 2 draws against caissad4. In both wins, I out-analyzed her in endings (endings are all tactics) where I had only a slight advantage.