Is it just my impression, or has the level of play in blitz on Lichess significantly grown recently? I am mostly referring to players rated above 2500, as my opponents are mostly higher rated. It is true that I have been playing there RELATIVELY poorly or slowly recently, but it seems to me that many other strong players have also lost a lot of rating, even great players like @Vladimirovich9000. I understand that ratings oscillate a lot and that there are many rating winners as well, but still it seems that the competition has become fiercer than before. (Given that the games have been saved, perhaps this hypothesis could even be tested empirically, but it would require a lot of time and energy.) It would be particularly interesting to hear the opinions of other similarly rated titled players.
The "competition has become fiercer," huh? There's a euphemism if ever I've heard one. ;)
Educated guess: there are more and more (really) good players who play anonymously due to certain reasons. Maybe there are even world class players with more than one public account.
PS: I play almost solely anonymous. :D
PS: I play almost solely anonymous. :D
Some bot grabbed all the Taylor Swift tickets and rating points. Darn Middle schools kids.
@Sarg0n said in #3:
> Educated guess: there are more and more (really) good players who play anonymously due to certain reasons. Maybe there are even world class players with more than one public account.
>
> PS: I play almost solely anonymous. :D
In fact, I also play anonymously for some reasons. (I want to avoid the opponents' preparation in OTB events, do not want my colleagues to know that I am playing more than I should, take the losses easier when playing anonymously and so on.) That said, my results on the local anonymous account are not particularly great. As for my official account (this one), I have some ups and downs, as well as in OTB chess. In my previous local tournament I played really poorly and slowly and fully deservedly lost above 50 points. It is easy to lose a lot of rating when being overrated. That said, I have watched the rating dynamics of a decade or two of strong GMs (2600+) and it seems to me that about 6 months ago we have been doing better than now. (It is not convincing from a statistical point of view, though. And those issues can be tricky with ratings affected by berserking or non-berserking.)
> Educated guess: there are more and more (really) good players who play anonymously due to certain reasons. Maybe there are even world class players with more than one public account.
>
> PS: I play almost solely anonymous. :D
In fact, I also play anonymously for some reasons. (I want to avoid the opponents' preparation in OTB events, do not want my colleagues to know that I am playing more than I should, take the losses easier when playing anonymously and so on.) That said, my results on the local anonymous account are not particularly great. As for my official account (this one), I have some ups and downs, as well as in OTB chess. In my previous local tournament I played really poorly and slowly and fully deservedly lost above 50 points. It is easy to lose a lot of rating when being overrated. That said, I have watched the rating dynamics of a decade or two of strong GMs (2600+) and it seems to me that about 6 months ago we have been doing better than now. (It is not convincing from a statistical point of view, though. And those issues can be tricky with ratings affected by berserking or non-berserking.)
People have far greater access to knowledge than they used to. With instant access to postgame analysis with engine and excellent openings resources, people can obtain a near world class repertoire quickly and easily. I can utilize the lichess study feature instead of using Chessbase too. I even found an app to use Leela fairly cheaply (NCM). Chessable and lichess deserve some credit as well. So the tools to get very strong in a time efficient manner exist more cheaply and are far more accessible than even a few years ago. Perhaps some aspiring young players even benefitted from COVID lockdown in a sense they had some time to study chess.
I'm not titled so perhaps what I think isn't interesting but I think it's natural.
Chess is becoming a “video game” and so mouse athletes are getting their shine.
I’m not going to go into it in detail but I think the whole fiasco that we’re going through over the last few months is mostly about that. Young people are starting out with computers and so they’re developing their “feel” with engines. I’m sure many of them can’t explain it any better than Nakamurra. He was asked how he’s so fast in his last podcast with Lex Fridman and he didn’t have an answer but just said that after so many years you develop a feel. I think that feel is why young people are so good and why the gap between their play and the older generation will continue to grow.
Chess is becoming a “video game” and so mouse athletes are getting their shine.
I’m not going to go into it in detail but I think the whole fiasco that we’re going through over the last few months is mostly about that. Young people are starting out with computers and so they’re developing their “feel” with engines. I’m sure many of them can’t explain it any better than Nakamurra. He was asked how he’s so fast in his last podcast with Lex Fridman and he didn’t have an answer but just said that after so many years you develop a feel. I think that feel is why young people are so good and why the gap between their play and the older generation will continue to grow.
This is somewhat of a stretch, but it could be that there are some players leaving causing the rating pool to shift.
The loss of players is natural, given that chess was booming during the pandemic and naturally many amateur players as well as beginners took to lichess, so the rating pool shifted upwards for those who've had had some experience previously.
Now, given that your rating is pretty high and thus your opponents rating will most likely be of similar strength, it might have taken a while before this rating "deflation" reached you.
A lot of weaker players leave, thus the stronger players will most likely face other stronger players again and will have to work a little harder.
However, given that I am not on your level (obviously!) I can't say if that really is how it feels. On my level however I've noticed this change.
The loss of players is natural, given that chess was booming during the pandemic and naturally many amateur players as well as beginners took to lichess, so the rating pool shifted upwards for those who've had had some experience previously.
Now, given that your rating is pretty high and thus your opponents rating will most likely be of similar strength, it might have taken a while before this rating "deflation" reached you.
A lot of weaker players leave, thus the stronger players will most likely face other stronger players again and will have to work a little harder.
However, given that I am not on your level (obviously!) I can't say if that really is how it feels. On my level however I've noticed this change.
@RealDavidNavara
The obvious answer (just my humble opinion) is that there are programs that people can switch on in difficult positions that highlights different engine suggested moves at the board. I believe such programs/bots are increasing in use amongst young players.
I’m not a good player, around 1600 fide. Whenever I play online blitz, I win some and loose some and I have no chance to get above 2000 lichess rating. I am now around 1900-1950). So often (every day I play) I see in some of the games that when I am in a superior position, where I am up a piece (even a queen), then the opponent suddenly start to make moves of highly better quality than before, where it suddenly gets so hard to benefit from my previous better position where I also have more material. And in the end I break and loose. In many of those games I am sure the opponents switch on the bot/program, in attempt to try to avoid loosing. There are in my opinion so many that can not handle to loose in chess/loose rating, so they cheat a bit to avoid such «personal disasters», especially if they are under cover of beeing an anonymous online player.
The obvious answer (just my humble opinion) is that there are programs that people can switch on in difficult positions that highlights different engine suggested moves at the board. I believe such programs/bots are increasing in use amongst young players.
I’m not a good player, around 1600 fide. Whenever I play online blitz, I win some and loose some and I have no chance to get above 2000 lichess rating. I am now around 1900-1950). So often (every day I play) I see in some of the games that when I am in a superior position, where I am up a piece (even a queen), then the opponent suddenly start to make moves of highly better quality than before, where it suddenly gets so hard to benefit from my previous better position where I also have more material. And in the end I break and loose. In many of those games I am sure the opponents switch on the bot/program, in attempt to try to avoid loosing. There are in my opinion so many that can not handle to loose in chess/loose rating, so they cheat a bit to avoid such «personal disasters», especially if they are under cover of beeing an anonymous online player.
It's not just blitz. I used to be 2400 rapid and could easily beat 2300 players. Something has definitely changed.
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