At the bottom of this spiel for playchess.com, we see the following feature: a rating graph which automatically keeps track of your progress over time:
But then I starting thinking, “Progress?” Clearly, the phrasing and picture are designed to get you psychologically excited about seeing your skill increase. But then I made a chart of my “progress” since restarting tournament chess, and determined…yeah, that’s not so much necessarily the case:
Do you ever play at FICS? I play several games there each week.
Why is your graph upside down?
@Tomn: I have a handle, but haven’t played recently. I’m preparing to move and haven’t had time for much chess. (In fact, I still need to play l3rucewayne!) Starting November, I’ll be on once or twice a week.
@Blunderprone: Shhhh! I’m trying to trick people into thinking I suck.
:: rubs his hands and prepares to take advantage of situation by playing some practice games. ::
@l3rucewayne: Mentally preparing for the beatdown…
Donnie, I play on playchess too and my rating bounces from highs of 1750 or so (when I’m fresh and eager!) to lows of 1450 (when I’m drunk and brash). My graph looks like the electrical signals from the brain of a paranoid schizophrenic…