Questions tagged [elo]

Use when the question is ABOUT the Elo rating system not when it mentions Elo

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1 answer
115 views

How many games would Magnus Carlsen need to win to get an ELO of 3000?

For the purposes of this question, assume that he wins every game. Go according to his current schedule. Assume the opponents keep their current rating. If you run out of schedule, assume the rating ...
2 votes
0 answers
84 views

Which websites have a ranking and/or a rating list for correspondence chess without engine help?

I am looking for websites that have a ranking and/or a rating list for correspondence chess without engine help. Which ones do exist? For example, lichess.org has correspondence chess without engine ...
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7 votes
3 answers
180 views

Could you raise your score arbitarily high by only playing against much weaker opponents?

Obviously the community would accept or acknowledge such a hack ... but mathematically would it work, or does the Elo system have something to prevent this? My impression is that, very roughly ...
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0 votes
2 answers
110 views

Is your actual Elo rank integer-based or decimal-based?

I'm sure that the published rankings are reported rounded to the nearest integer! But for the purposes of the calculation of the next rankings are the Elo ranks of GMs considered to actually be those ...
  • 587
2 votes
3 answers
159 views

Is the decline in chess strength in a GM as they age similar to their ascension or different?

I mean, given that GMs or other strong players (I choose strong players because their peak rating vs low has "more data" than that of weaker players but it probably relates to weaker players ...
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5 votes
1 answer
170 views

Fide Ratings Commercial Use

Can I use fide ratings data for commercial use? I am specifically asking about the ratings list fide publishes every month. Also wondering if I scrape individual player-opponent statistics from fide ...
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5 votes
1 answer
182 views

Is it possible to obtain the GM title directly without going through norm process in 2022?

I have seen people get direct GM titles especially in Zonal tournaments. Here for an example achieved the GM title after winning the 2016 African Chess Championship. Wikipedia page for the Grandmaster ...
  • 1,600
6 votes
1 answer
199 views

How rating changes happen for tournaments starting near the end of the month?

For simplicity I will try to explain my question with a real example. The 28th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival - Masters was held from 2022/08/17 - 2022/08/25 and therefore the ratings changes ...
  • 1,600
1 vote
2 answers
5k views

What is Stockfish 15's FIDE calibrated Elo rating?

Elo rating only makes sense based on the population of players. So I wonder, has Stockfish's Elo been calculated in a pool including humans or human-calibrated engines? Related: How accurate are chess ...
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5 votes
1 answer
491 views

Are cyborg (human+computer) players really better than the best chess engines?

I saw this rating score chart recently: Is it true that cyborg chess players are (that much) better than the best chess programs by themselves?
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7 votes
0 answers
464 views

What Elo rating does The Chessmaster 2000 have?

A recent agadmator video pitted The Chessmaster (NES) against Stockfish 14 NNUE. What is more impressive to me is that this chess engine, released originally in 1986 and written by David Kittinger in ...
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2 votes
0 answers
164 views

"Variance" of Elo rating

What is the quantitative predictive value of Elo rating for tournament performances? (Or, same, what is the natural strength variabitity of an average player, measured in Elo?) A quantitative version, ...
4 votes
1 answer
154 views

How Universal Ratings can become much higher than FIDE ratings

From what I understand Universal Ratings takes into account all Standard, Rapid and Blitz to give a universal rating. But I don't understand how it can be much higher than any of the FIDE ratings. For ...
  • 1,600
10 votes
4 answers
3k views

Is it possible to estimate my ELO without joining an organization or anything?

I would like to know if it's possible to get a rough idea of what my ELO is and how accurate those methods are. For example, I did one of those "chess tests" and the results it gave me didn'...
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3 votes
1 answer
114 views

What do we know about the statistics of 1-vs-team chess games, like Kasparov vs The World?

Kasparov vs the World was a chess game where Gary Kasparov played against many people on the internet. Gary won. I am basically wondering if 1-vs-many chess games have been done systematically, and if ...
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1 vote
2 answers
289 views

Chess.com ELO weirdness

I was rated 1140 in rapid, playing against an 1145. Chess.com said 8 points were at stake, so a win for should put me at 1148 and my opponent at 1137. I won and my ELO did become 1148, but my ...
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2 votes
1 answer
177 views

How does a single player have 2 different FIDE accounts

When searched Yu, Yangyi you get 2 results. One is the top Chinese super GM. The other is an unrated player with Blitz rating 2544. Both have different Birth days according to FIDE but when I checked ...
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10 votes
2 answers
4k views

How is it possible for a player without 2500 ELO to obtain the GM title?

I recently came across a GM who has a peak rating 2495 and has obtained the GM title after completing three norms. From my understanding, in order to become a GM one must Achieve a FIDE rating of ...
  • 1,600
3 votes
1 answer
292 views

Why are unrated players counted as rated players in this FIDE rated event?

I came across this event where unrated players are also counted as rated players. Below you can see that every player has a rating of 1824 but when you view the tournament there are a lot of unrated ...
  • 1,600
7 votes
1 answer
2k views

Elo disadvantage due to one pawn move in Indian Chess

In Indian chess, the pawn doesn't move two squares, however in the western chess, pawn can move two squares. Now, since the pawn can't move 2 in the Indian style, the fianchetto is a natural square to ...
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4 votes
2 answers
149 views

An abstract Top 1 player rating vs time

How the highest Elo rating has been changing over time? Is there such an abstract data? Preferably FIDE rating. I've been trying to find a graph or a table, but all I can find is a list of peak ...
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5 votes
2 answers
379 views

Distribution of Elo ratings

Danger! Only for math buffs! As we all know, Elo is Gaussian. In theory. Except it isn't. But my question is not about that distribution. Your Elo might also list a second number: the number of ...
4 votes
1 answer
320 views

Rating system (glicko, elo, etc): is 'predict the outcome of games' the same thing as 'reduce the number of upsets'?

From Lichess page 'Chess rating systems': Question: Which rating system is best? Answer: The purpose of rating systems is to predict the outcome of games. Therefore, they can be objectively better ...
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4 votes
1 answer
289 views

Rating effect on no-show

In a long time control (90+30) team championship game I showed up on time but wrong city and lost the game - will this affect my rating? I arrived at the wrong location and missed the game.
17 votes
2 answers
9k views

Why is Magnus Carlsen's Elo rating not higher, given that his win rate is so high?

Magnus Carlsen's Elo rating is about 2870, and according to this quora answer, he hasn't lost a game in 100 games at the time of writing. Assuming that his win rate hasn't changed since then, and ...
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1 vote
3 answers
252 views

What sets the absolute value of players' Elo rating?

I understand that the way the Elo updating process works, if player A has a 66% chance of beating player B, then A's Elo rating will converge to be 100 higher than B, and so forth for 74%, ... etc. ...
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-2 votes
1 answer
207 views

Why is 'Elo' sometimes capitalised to 'ELO'? [closed]

Why is 'Elo' as in Elo rating system sometimes capitalised to 'ELO' when it's a last name and not an acronym? I notice people don't say GLICKO, for example. Some (heavily downvoted) reddit posts: ...
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1 vote
1 answer
93 views

Why Aimchess rapid 2021 match results do not contribute to rapid ratings?

I used to check player ratings updates on https://2700chess.com/rapid which is usually promptly updated, often within few minutes from the match end (at least during the last FIDE world cup this was ...
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0 votes
1 answer
328 views

What is the mean and standard deviation for men's and then women's standard FIDE ratings for those 2000 and above?

From this answer, the unconditional means and standard deviations are Female Mean = 1505, standard deviation = 339 Male Mean = 1675, standard deviation = 346 What about the case for ratings of 2000+ ? ...
  • 1
5 votes
1 answer
662 views

At what age do master level players (2200+) reach their peak?

We are surprised that players like Boris Gelfand and Vishy Anand can/could still play with the best in the world in their 40's and 50's. Are we right to be surprised? On average at what age do strong ...
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4 votes
1 answer
431 views

FIDE database used for calculating current ELO

Is there somewhere the database FIDE use for calculating ELO rating of players? No need for PGN of games just game result, date, and players. Reason: recalculate players rating by using Gliko, with ...
2 votes
1 answer
159 views

Is it possible to measure play strength by analysing games of a player?

I am thinking on a way, most ideally on a software tool, what could get one of more games of a player, analise them, and gives an estimate on his play strength (as Elo/Glicko rating). Is it possible? ...
8 votes
1 answer
382 views

Why do you see peaks on the elo distribution?

I was observing the elo distribution in Lichess and noticed peaks around rounded numbers elos ratings for medium to high rated players. This is consistent in Bullet, Blitz, Rapid games and not so much ...
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6 votes
1 answer
600 views

Can a 2000 Elo rated player teach me middlegame play properly?

I have reached 2500 in the chess.com tactics trainer while I haven't study theory and my FIDE rating is 1637 (I reached 1930 in rapids a year in France). I want to study with a coach and there is one ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
876 views

How many 2200+ FIDE rated players are there?

Are there any sources for the recent numbers of players rated over 2200 byFIDE?
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

Why do women have a lower Elo requirement to obtaining (women) FIDE titles?

As well as FIDE norms, you need a certain Elo to obtain a certain title. Women need around 200 points lower Elo to obtain the analogous women's only title: Grandmaster (GM) 2500+ International master ...
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
626 views

Why, in online chess, is it that the shorter the time control, the higher the world leading elo is?

I noticed on lichess.org that the shorter the time control, the higher the world-leading elo is. Is there a simple explanation for that? I also noticed that, in the meantime, the shorter the time ...
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28 votes
5 answers
7k views

Are chess players getting better, given the same rating?

Chess ratings are a relative thing at a particular time, just like boxing. It is not absolute, compared to weightlifting for example, in which the records keep getting broken. How would say a 1700 ...
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4 votes
4 answers
3k views

What's PlayMagnus age 10 Magnus' true elo?

I do realise that a similar question might have been asked before; however, all intel about the topic that I have managed to gather to date seems to be outdated: almost everywhere I search, it is said ...
  • 179
2 votes
1 answer
145 views

How relevant is historical performance for Elo rating?

How far back are results of matches relevant for Elo purposes? If a player wins a few early matches then they will earn less points for later wins that if they'd lost those early matches. In the end ...
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7 votes
3 answers
620 views

Historical motivation for the 1200-1800ish rating average

Although there is some variation in rating systems (in chess), most systems put the starting value and the mean of all users somewhere around 1500. Some pools are higher, some are lower, but most have ...
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5 votes
3 answers
4k views

Lichess vs Chess.com ELO system and player strength

So I usually play on Lichess now a days while my friend plays on Chess.com. He keeps telling me that Chess.com is harder and has more players and more serious players, therefore the games are harder ...
  • 960
2 votes
1 answer
509 views

limit stockfish 9 to a specific range of ELO rating

I am using stockfish 9 for our chess game project, and I want to limit the ELO rating of the engine to a range. I saw attributes like movetime and depth are used to limit the engine skill level, but I ...
9 votes
3 answers
4k views

Elo distribution

In some online chess platforms you can see the Elo distribution of the players. It usually has Gaussian form. Is there somewhere where you can find the distribution of the classical Fide Elo?
12 votes
4 answers
5k views

Are Elo Ratings Zero-Sum?

Are Elo ratings a zero-sum system in chess? In other words, if I gain +9 points from a game, does my opponent necessarily take a -9 point loss? If so, would it make sense to say that Elo points are a ...
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6 votes
1 answer
858 views

Initial FIDE rating below floor, what happens?

I'm curious to know what happens in the following scenario: I play a Swiss tournament and meet 3 rated players, I score at least half point but do badly overall. Then I play another Swiss tournament ...
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28 votes
8 answers
6k views

Would an ensemble of chess engines beat the best one?

In many areas such as prediction and classification, ensemble methods tend to outperform individual methods. This made me wonder if it would make sense to pick a few of the top chess engines and work ...
4 votes
4 answers
369 views

Absolute strength and stability of Elo

Not sure how to phrase this... I am aware that Elo measures the relative strength of players. Let's assume for this question that there is such thing as an absolute strength in chess and that players ...
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4 votes
1 answer
756 views

By how much does being told what piece to move improve one's Elo?

Here is a (rather humorous) game in which a 900 player is told by a much higher rated player only which kind of piece to move (e.g. along the lines of "bishop", not "light square bishop"). Is it ...
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7 votes
3 answers
29k views

Is there a list of approximate ELO ratings for each Stockfish level?

I want to create something that will select an appropriate Stockfish difficulty setting automatically given the player's rating. The straight Stockfish v11 that I've downloaded has 20 difficulty ...
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