Are ratings very inflated today compared to 25 years ago? If so, how much? I keep hearing that they are but I can’t find any information on it.
I don’t think so, at least at the low end. I had retired by 25 years ago (October 1990), but when I started 28 years ago, any result against a player rated under 1000 was treated as though the player was rated 1000.
I do know that the ratings committee tries very hard to keep the meanings of a particular rating constant.
Alex Relyea
In fact, I believe that, until recently, ratings were showing deflation rather than inflation. The rating committee has been charged with tracking rating inflation and deflation and with keeping ratings consistent with the levels of the mid- to late-1990s. (I’m afraid I’m doing this from somewhat faulty memory, so I am being imprecise.) As I remember, the rating committee regularly monitors the ratings of active players with ages between 35 and 45. The committee recommends changes to the bonus threshold, B. (Bonus points are awarded when a player’s rating gain in an event of N rounds exceeds B times the square root of N, where N is greater than or equal to 4. It is possible to earn bonus points in three rounds, but for this case, N is still treated as 4.) Until recently, the bonus threshold had been set as low as 8, meaning that bonus points would be awarded one-for-one for any rating gain of more than 16 points in four rounds. Currently, B is set at 12, as the committee has been successful in its mission to return ratings to their mid-1990s profile.
Again, though, I am not a member of the rating committee, so one should not treat this information as reliably accurate.
(Edit: correct typo “game” => “gain”)
Moderators: Please free to delete this post, as the error has now been corrected. (The forum won’t let me delete it myself, probably because other post(s) now follow it.)
I think you meant gain, not game.
Bill Smythe
Thanks guys. It appears that the consensus is that they are roughly the same. There are just more stronger players now than before.
It’s all those Russkies.
Your memory is essentially correct.
Bonus points are one of the better ways to fight against deflation, since they inject points “directly where needed.”
OP - you may find this thread of interest: Understanding Inflation/Deflation