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Chess.com ratings have massively deflated since 2020

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JankogajdoskoLEGM
seberta wrote:

I have had the feeling that it has been getting harder to beat players with the same rating. I have been around the same rating for many years now, and so I wanted to do an analysis on my own games using the accuracy rating of chess.com . I could expand the analysis but wanted to hear some feedback on what you thought about the approach:

I looked at 711 Rapid games I played between 2017 and 2024 and calculated my average accuracy per year, as well as my average rating. I excluded games less than 20 moves as they seemed less relevant in terms of accuracy. I also excluded 2018 and 2021 because I hardly played any games these years.

Then I calculated the ratio of ELO rating per accuracy point by dividing the two, and here is the data I got:

As you can see my accuracy increases over time in the past few years, while my average rating stays similar, leading to a decreasing ratio that is lowest in 2024.

If I expand the analysis to include my opponents, the table shows similar data:

This would indicate a rating deflation, as it gets harder to beat an opponent of a similar rating.

Game is rigged my dear friend

nklristic
seberta wrote:

I have had the feeling that it has been getting harder to beat players with the same rating. I have been around the same rating for many years now, and so I wanted to do an analysis on my own games using the accuracy rating of chess.com . I could expand the analysis but wanted to hear some feedback on what you thought about the approach:

I looked at 711 Rapid games I played between 2017 and 2024 and calculated my average accuracy per year, as well as my average rating. I excluded games less than 20 moves as they seemed less relevant in terms of accuracy. I also excluded 2018 and 2021 because I hardly played any games these years.

Then I calculated the ratio of ELO rating per accuracy point by dividing the two, and here is the data I got:

As you can see my accuracy increases over time in the past few years, while my average rating stays similar, leading to a decreasing ratio that is lowest in 2024.

If I expand the analysis to include my opponents, the table shows similar data:

This would indicate a rating deflation, as it gets harder to beat an opponent of a similar rating.

Accuracy was changed in 2021. or 2022, I am not completely sure. So the results will not be great.

As a result, everyone gets higher accuracy now, especially for bad games. I had games with 20 something accuracy before the change, and when I review the game now, it shows 50 or 60 now.

I am actually surprised that the spike is not bigger in your games, though it makes sense that this would impact novice players more drastically than it affects you.

They did it obviously in order for lower rated people not to feel bad about their games. What it actually did is that it probably increased suspicions of cheating.

https://support.chess.com/en/articles/8708970-how-is-accuracy-in-analysis-determined

There are less people with high 90s now (though of course compared to the amount of other games, those are marginal), and a lot less people below 60.

Or, in other words - everyone is beautiful here. grin.png