Monday, April 04, 2005
Nursing my ChessMaster ranking
The other day, in spite of how few chess games I've played recently, I gathered my courage and played a ranked game against ChessMaster 8000. I lost. Then I played another, accidentally choosing blitz game instead of the slower game that I prefer, and lost again. After a few losses, choosing weaker opponents each time, and knocking my rating down a ways, I got to a level where I could beat the computer fairly consistently (playing a bunch of blitz games, by the way--my blitz rating was looking pretty sad and needed a boost!), and played enough games to get my ranking a little above where it had started.
It was interesting to observe how it felt to lose to a computer player that I thought was a little beneath the rating I was capable of playing at, and how it took a little while for me to consent to playing an opponent I believed I was clearly stronger than. It felt like I was cheating to boost my ranking. But I decided that I'd hurt my ranking by playing opponents that were too strong, so in fairness, I should have the opportunity to boost my ranking by playing some weaker opponents.
The formula for calculating a game's impact on one's ranking ensures that you can't cheat by playing weak opponents--at least not much--because at some point, your rating isn't going to increase unless you play stronger players. In fact, if you play opponents that are to weak, you could drop your rating even if you win! Thinking about that made me feel better.
In the end, my rating against the computer matters to me mostly because it gives me a sense of what level of human player I'm prepared to face. When I start playing human players in ranked games, then I'll really stress over my rating! ;-)
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It was interesting to observe how it felt to lose to a computer player that I thought was a little beneath the rating I was capable of playing at, and how it took a little while for me to consent to playing an opponent I believed I was clearly stronger than. It felt like I was cheating to boost my ranking. But I decided that I'd hurt my ranking by playing opponents that were too strong, so in fairness, I should have the opportunity to boost my ranking by playing some weaker opponents.
The formula for calculating a game's impact on one's ranking ensures that you can't cheat by playing weak opponents--at least not much--because at some point, your rating isn't going to increase unless you play stronger players. In fact, if you play opponents that are to weak, you could drop your rating even if you win! Thinking about that made me feel better.
In the end, my rating against the computer matters to me mostly because it gives me a sense of what level of human player I'm prepared to face. When I start playing human players in ranked games, then I'll really stress over my rating! ;-)
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