I finally got a tournament rated and I am surprised at my rating jumping up 52 points off of a single win. Is there a maximum point increase from a single game? No, I am not a provisional player. I thought it used to be a max of 32 points.
They have implemented a complicated bonus system, so it is correct.
I’m also puzzled with the rating changes. My 8 year daughter made a jump on her rating this summer. She’s rated 324 by the end of school year (May). During summer we visited several out-of-state tournaments, and had some lucky streak so by July she is rated 764, and by the time school starts she’s rated 823. It looks like that when she’s winning +score (say 2.5 of 4 rounds) her rating will increase a significant amount, but when she lose -score (say 1.5 of 4 rounds) her rating did not went down as much.
The rating formula has some built-in features that allow young, rapidly improving players to gain rating points quickly. Otherwise, they would be under-rated for a long time, and would drag down the ratings of their opponents and others in the rating pool.
Not only are bonus points awarded for performances way above the mathematical expectancy, but also, young and lower-rated players have huge K-factors, i.e. huge possibilities for rating changes.
It is much easier to gain 400 points (in actual playing strength, not just published rating) when you are rated 300 than it is when you are rated 1600. The rating calculation algorithms used by USCF’s software reflect this, to combat rating deflation caused by the learning process.
Bill Smythe
Doesn’t this bonus just inflate our ratings? I mean if you play well for one game does that really show that you are playing overall better? 32 points i can understand, but bonus points that add up the increase to a quarter of a class just does not sound right.
The bonus points for stronger players are much weaker. When looking at Chess MaMa child going from the 300’s to the 700’s is not much of a problem. The bonus points are much lower the higher your rating becomes. Players that are 300 and double the skills or tripple the skills would only have a rating of 600 or 900. Have not meet a person with a established rating of 1500 double their skills, as never looked at a USCF rating of 3000. Have seen a player double there skills from 300 to 600.
At one time the rating department was going to give bonus points of two points for both players, only if the tournament had 4 rounds or more. Well this year did have over 200 rated games: if that policy was in place you could be looking at a master then a class C player. Sure me and the guys could have had 500 games each with each other, that would have been a total of 1,000 games for each of us. That idea was rejected before it went into effect, as how silly my rating would be with 2,000 bonus points added to my 1500 quick rating.
The learning process is deflationary, bonus points are inflationary. The second is designed to compensate for the first.
Bonus points are harder to get the higher your rating is. For players rated below 1000, a quarter of a class is not at all inappropriate.
Bill Smythe
Doug, you wouldn’t actually see a 400 point gain if such a rule was in effect. You’d gain less and lose more as time went on because your rating would be higher. Thus while more rating points would be put into circulation, the only way anyone would see any significant change would be with a match of incredibly long duration. Even that gain wouldn’t be retained for long if the player remained active.