Optimism
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.
Reply to TomnWhy is your graph upside down?
Reply to Blunderprone@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.
Reply to Donnie:: rubs his hands and prepares to take advantage of situation by playing some practice games. ::
Reply to l3rucewayne@l3rucewayne: Mentally preparing for the beatdown…
Reply to DonnieDonnie, 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…
Reply to Shazgood