USCF ratings are flaky for new and infrequent players.  Ratings measure past performance, not current ability. Certainly not intelligence.

Wikipedia is a good place to start for clarifying issues of chess rating.  The basic idea, of course, is that as you play opponents with various ratings you can eventually estimate the ratings you will beat and those to whom you will lose.

The accuracy of your calculated score in relation to the chess playing public depends on how frequently you play and on how frequently your opponents test themselves against others.  The quality of everyone’s play fluctuates on any given day.

As with any complex activity, we must play a lot against many people before we have a good estimate.  Beginners in particular will have rapidly changing averages, depending on their study and/or playing frequency.  Nobody rides a bicycle well at first; takes practice.

If our opponents have played 1000 games this week to achieve a rating, I might believe it’s an accurate measure of their actual strength. Generally players play very few tournament games, so their official USCF rating has more to do with taxidermy than with the state of the living organism that a chess player is. An active chess player – playing a rated tournament a week – has a significant adjustment 3-4 times a year.

The biggest value of ratings to us should be as a measure of how far we have come and how far we have to go. What matters in a game is the quality of moves we play, not the players’ ratings.  Ratings are more valuable as milestones than as goals. They measure where we’ve been, not where we are or where we’re going.

While ratings can be a wonderful tool for assessing our progress, they can also become a barrier to progress if we forget the difference between being a 1500 or 2000 player and having been a 1500 or 2000 player.

The more often you play, the more meaningful your rating is. DO NOT quit playing to protect your rating – PLAY MORE to make sure your rating represents your strength.

Let your chess rating be a by-product of your pursuit of excellence.

The last step for any player to becoming a real player is achieving consistency. If you feel compelled to count anything, make sure it’s the number of rated games you play. To me, that’s the real red badge of courage.

-Don Maddox