I prefer the OTB kind. Two draws today. In each case I slipped up when holding a slight positional advantage, and let my opponents in for a perpetual. In the second one, I had 3 mins left against 33, but I had an extra passed pawn, and both kings were exposed. I considered a rook sac to expose his king even more, but hadn't time to analyse it: later, in the post mortem, it looked to be winning. Pity, but I shouldn't have used so much time.

I didn't realise my rating had dropped to 1600!!!!

The chess world is full of ratings snobbery, which I think is ridiculous. One reason I've beaten a few 2100+ guys recently is that some of them play quickly, expecting an easy win against "a 1750". But not every 1750 is the same.

As an example -- when I started playing again a few years ago, they gave me a 1900 rating -- roughly what it had been in 1990. A friend of mine who came back round the same time was given a rating in the 1500s. He used to be a lot higher -- but he didn't care much about ratings so he didn't argue.

We played in a tournament then, and drew. At that point I was over 300 points higher. Now he's back up to 2150 where he belongs, and I dropped to 1750. But we're still roughly the same 'strength'.

A big factor in ratings is which events you play. I play in a regular open swiss, full of 1100s, and sometimes get careless and lose to one. Ooops, there goes a pile of points.

Other people 'protect' their ratings by only in playing in events which have no low-rated players.

And i know exactly what you mean about rating's snobbery, but i really did think that handle was around 1750 but iv'e just checked and some people have done the following to me in rated games-

I make a move as white, say in a 60 minute game, and they just don't reply!! So even though no clocks are ticking, thay know i'll give it 5 mins tops before just resigning, so i can actually play someone who does want to play..

So iv'e lost countless rating points doing that!!

And then there are guys who's clock miraculously adds 10 minutes of time once it gets down to the last few minutes!

And of course people who just disconnect when they're losing, and the only way to have the game adjudicated for rating points is to contact FICS itself by email, which i just can't be bothered doing!!

On good day's iv'e beaten quite a few 2200+, on a bad day i'll lose to a 1200.. I'm not consistent enough..

And as for chess clubs, i can't imagine how i'd react if i brushed a piece with my elbow or something, and they held me to touch and move, or called a TD over in a tournament!!!

Like iv'e said in my bio, i can't understand it when grown men do things like that, and *thats* when i really would lose my temper..

Obviously I'm used to rejection.

actually, there's a variable you can set, which effectively says that you only want to play players who also have that variable set - and its meaning is that disconnection counts as forfeit. it's called "noescape" ...

olga is from ukraine, but lives in norway these days, only a 3 minute drive from my house. hence, i sometimes drive her home after team games, like today.

wgm olga is about the same level as her little sister wim kateryna (or ekaterina), but she's got the nicer title. :o)

Thanks. Not just that, though: I reversed my usual pattern, by scoring a win and two draws with white. I even varied my openings a bit -- in one game I began with (gasp) 1.d4 ... it's been a very very long time since I last played either 1.e4 or 1.d4 ... but this time I'd prepared something in the Pseudo-Benoni (without c4). An innaresting line, can be like a Trompowsky if White plays an early Bg5, as I did.

Then I reverted to the English in the last round. But I'm starting to feel happier about trying new stuff as White.

I lost twice as Black, though: neither was a French (one Bird and one Kangaroo) and my zoology-killing opponents were rated 2250 and 2150.

How is that possible??

I'd ask the admins, but.....well we don't really get on, and they wouldn't rush to do me *any* favours!!!

I don't understand, they're hardly going to reward *me*, of all people!!! (multiple exclams!!!)

It happened to me once, actually. I'd won about a year's worth of premiumship in the annual quiz, but then noticed my expiry date was two years away. I thought they'd made a mistake, so I naturally kept very quiet and didn't ask questions.

Much later I discovered it was one of those good angels.

You *could* ask CG, but if the donor wants anonymity, they couldn't tell you.