real ratings and online play are the breeding grounds for cheats
Getting back into the online scene, with so many servers already operating, is a bad idea that will fail again. Online chess is not USCF’s forte.
As for critical mass: What does it matter if someone plays exclusively at US Chess Live or ICC, but plays no OTB games? You can pretend you’re still holding on to them as members, but the community and camaraderie are absent. Eventually they’ll drift over to PlayChess or wherever.
Every so often, somebody makes a really intelligent post like the above. And then, everybody ignores the logic, goes back to the original question, and asks once again “why doesn’t USCF have an online server?”.
As a famous curmudgeonly professor once observed on this forum, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, next semester, with the same professor.
I must admit that when I first heard the USCF was trying this, I thought they were crazy. It wasn’t until I saw this argument that I thought there was any hope at all for this venture.
If this server is focused on creating closer relationships among people who play OTB chess then maybe it has a prayer.
(I’m still dubious, but it could, conceivably, work.)
There isn’t as much overlap with online and OTB play among adults. I have several friends who brag that they have never played a game online. Younger players have many other online “social” distractions, and as has been pointed out numerous times they tend to drop out of the chess scene when they reach college age.
This is an idea in search of a demographic, with lots of high-quality competition.
I know lots of people who play both. However,as I said, I’m still pretty dubious.
When it comes to the pure competition for online Chess, I can’t see USCF beating chess.com. It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with USCF. It’s just that I don’t see much room for improvement on chess.com. It’s easy. It’s cheap. It just works. It’s darned near perfect. I can’t see how a latecomer will improve on it.
I have this feeling that some within the USCF must think that the USCF online rating will be somehow more “real” than the chess.com rating, and that that will attract people to the USCF server. If that’s what they are thinking, they will be sadly disappointed. One won’t be any more significant than the other.
The USCF has cornered the market in the US for OTB Chess. If they can somehow create a tie-in to that strength, so that online Chess and OTB Chess are somehow connected, then maybe they can make the online server work. Unless they can do that, though, I can’t see how this ends well.
I don’t think the purpose of USCF online chess is to beat chess.com; initially, I think it should support correspondence chess and a special rating for online USCF chess play. That would be a big plus IMO.
Also, I see more and more unrated OTB chess play, especially for scholastics, and recently for adults as well. Unfortunately, some of these unrated OTB events are not organized by USCF members.
I’ve heard that opinion expressed, but I don’t get it. Why would anyone care? I already have an online rating. Why would I need a “special” one?
Well, I must admit, I don’t really understand the whole rating obsession of most USCF participants, so I could be the oddball here and this could make sense to everyone but me. I guess we’ll find out.
Interesting. I know I would attend unrated tournaments if anyone held them, and I do get some occasional interest in the unrated sections I hold at my events. So far, though, I just don’t see any significant interest in unrated events. Maybe that will be a trend.
On a scale of 1-100, if I value my “slow” OTB rating at 100, and my Quick rating at 20, I would assign a value of 2.7 to an online rating. You can’t accuse me of being a Luddite, as I’ve played >50,000 blitz games on ICC over the last 15 years.
Online chess is fun, but the ratings are completely untrustowrthy. I would not register for USCF online play even if it were free. I already have ICC and Playchess.
I think it may be less that the ratings are untrustworthy, and more that ICC Blitz/Bullett is more impacted by good/bad days.
If I have a good day OTB – you know, one of those days where you see everything and you calculate quickly – it may impact 2-4 games. Similarly if you have a bad day.
But if you have that on ICC playing bullett – maybe 50 games later you’re 45-5 and your rating shows it. The next day you can’t do anything right, and in short order you’re back where you started from.
I think the shear quantity of games allows for greater rating fluctuation.
It’s a multivariable function. The number and the speed of ICC games play a big part in the ratings fluctuation.
So much of it - especially if you’re playing the same player for several games or more - often depends on whether you’re playing openings you’re comfortable with, or if there’s stuff going on around you, or even if you are using a different interface.
I play on ICC using three different interfaces. Blitzin on my home machine is different from ICC on the iPad, which is different from ICC on the iPhone. I play on all three, and by far my worst results are on the iPhone. (And all of these are different than ICC on my old Droid Charge, which I used before switching.) Even though I fat-finger moves regularly on the touch screen interfaces, I use them anyway, because they’re convenient and I like to play on breaks at work. Don’t care so much about what happens with my rating. Then, when I get home and play on my big laptop, I score better, and sometimes get accused of cheating. Doesn’t bother me, though.
I agree. I’ve gone from 2100 to 1600 in less than two days on ICC!! Some nights after two drinks I go 20-2; other nights 2-20.
However (you knew that was coming) how do you explain a relatively good day, playing whatever my rating happens to be that day, and losing 10-11 games in a row to someone rated in the 1700s? How about being ahead in time, 30 seconds to 3 seconds, with an overwhelming position, and not only losing on time, but the opponent miraculously shows 13 seconds at the end? A good chess buddy, who is something like 1-15-2 against me (including a mercy draw in which I stupidly refused to let him resign) has a slow server rating of 2300. My USCF rating is 1890 (and about 1910 on that server), which this player cannot dream of achieving OTB. Gimme a break.
There’s just one word to describe these phenomena. It’s bad sportsmanship to say it but I’ll say it anyway: They’re either using a program, have hacked the ICC computer, or have a much higher rated friend/relative playing for them.
Even if I’m totally wrong, 100% all wet, the fact that I’ve never had an OTB incident of this nature but am suspicious when it happens online illustrates the potential for bad feelings when online chess is given any official status.
That’s true for the American public at large. If the American public as a whole read Great Books from 1700 through 1970, 1/3 of our daily news stories would fade into oblivion.
I would enjouy being able to play correspondence games online with some of the people I have met over the board. The rating woudn’t matter to me, but it would be nice if we could play USCF rated correspondence games.
For me, I think it has more to do with community than competition between servers.
Yes, I can play USCF rated correspondence tournaments on a web server, but I have not been able to find any information on the website about which web server, and how much extra that would cost in addition to the USCF membership I am already paying and the entry fee I would have to pay.
Yes, I could make arrangements with players I have met OTB to play at Chess.com, if we both have an account, but I must already have excahnged contact info with that player.
I would like to be able to log onto a USCF web server where I could find a community of other USCF players. I could join tournaments, or contact an individual for a game. I could put my name on a list for others to challenge.
By way of analogy: Why do we come to this USCF forum? There are lots of other forums out there that talk about chess. Many of them are much better than this one? Why should the USCF spend our membership money supporting this forum? Why is the USCF trying to compete with the other forums?
Ah, I see the problem. You just don’t know how. Perhaps I can help with this. First, go to this web page http://main.uschess.org/content/view/7523/397/ This will enable you to sign up for any USCF rated tournament that we offer.
You’re probably most interested in the Walter Muir E-Quads, which are conducted on the ICCF server, and the Lightening Matches, which are conducted via email. There is no charge for Alex Dunne to set up your ICCF ID and to use the ICCF server, although there are apparently plans to transfer that over to a proprietary server, as well as all the email chess. In any event, all that is covered by your entry fee. As an example, I have played in three of these quads, and was convinced to sign up for the 5th ICCF Webchess Open Tournament which is free to unrated ICCF players (including you, I assume). Beware, this tournament allows computers.
For the Lightening Matches, if you enter with another player’s USCF ID, you’ll be matched with that player and play two, four, or six games all at once by email. I haven’t actually done this, but I did in the old postcard days, and I assume it works the same way.
A lot of people prefer server chess over email chess due to email viruses.
Sign up for an e-quad. It’s only $7, and you might enjoy it.
