Understanding Rating Increases: What +100 Elo Actually Means

Most chess players have rating goals.  We want to gain rating and hit some nice round numbers: 1000, 1500, and 2000 are frequent milestones.  I distinctly remember starting out online and getting a rating of 1400 ...which soon fell to the 1300s. I was young and distraught, so I created a new account ... and immediately fell back to 1300.

I played a bunch of games against the same pool of players and started improving, eventually hitting (and staying) over 1400.  Despite this, I still lost games to those 1300 players.  A lot of games, in fact, and this rankled me.  I've improved, I'm the better player, I have the higher rating, why am I still losing?

Fundamentally, I had a mistaken understanding of ratings, one that a number of people share.  I've written previously how ratings are merely predictions, not objectively statements about you and your chess. Today I want to tackle this from a different angle: what does gaining +100 rating actually mean?

You Are Not Your Rating

In chess, we frequently say, "I am a 1500 player," or whatever your rating is.  When meeting another player, it's one of the first questions we ask.  When we ask questions online, we invariable include our rating.  We celebrate when it goes up and mourn when it goes down.  We place great weight on this number, to the point it often becomes the defining feature of us as a chess player.  "I am a 1500 player."  The very words we use show how we identify with our rating... though everyone also thinks they are underrated.  I may be 1500, but I deserve to be 1800, that sort of thing.

I want to push against this.  Telling me your rating tells me almost nothing about you, to the point that "I am a 1500 player" becomes empty and almost meaningless.

Yes, this is a hot take, and yes, I am exaggerating for effect ... for only slightly exaggerating.  Our ratings certainly tell us far less than we might think, though, and I want to give a gentle reminder that the number next to our name is not the be-all and end-all.  I've written on this topic before, but it deserves a deeper dive.  Let's go.