Originally posted by Ropespierre
How is this rating determined?
I read in the faq that provisional ratings work differently, but it still doesn't make sense that my rating would go [b]down after winning a game ?![/b]
Losing rating points for beating much weaker players when your rating is provisional makes perfect sense. It prevents rating inflation.
If you win your first game, your rating will be your opponents rating +200.
If you lose, your rating will be your opponents rating -400.
So if you play a 2400 in your first game, your rating will be 2000 (assuming you lose). And then in the next 19 games you could beat players with a rating of less than 800. If you didn't lose rating points for beating those players you would have a 2000 rating, where is the justice in that?
Here is a link that explains how provisional ratings are calculated.
http://www.playchess.de/rules/rating