Growing level of play in blitz

I am reacting to what @george_mcgeorge said in #8.
Yes, I agree with you. I won 100 rating points due to Beth Harmon some time ago, as she brought there new players and this helped the top players to increase their ratings. (I guess that the rating structure might have a shape of a diamond, with its upper part being thinner and taller and the lower part being broader and shorter and the broadest part being around 1500.) When many new players came there, the top of the diamond (top ratings) became higher. In some variants there are fewer players and therefore the top ratings are also lower. It is also true that when many less experienced players leave, while many titled players use more than one account, it can shift the balance and many people can lose ratings without really playing worse.

I am reacting to what @Psyamb said in #9.

I am afraid that this is one of important factors, along with a few others mentioned there. The number of unfair players might be the same as before, but it seems that they have become harder to detect. That said, it is not the best topic for the discussion. If Lichess is interested, I might share my views with them. It is not about concrete names or games, rather some general observations.

The increased strength of opposition here is mostly due to me not playing much chess this month.

Sorry about that.

- Zug

Art the Mustache dude who streams on twitch has lost like 300+ points. Down from 2500+ to 2200+.

The computer assisted player is now the norm.

There was a thread on these foums from a 15 yr AWS ML expert and he laughed at lichess's ML anti-cheat.

@RealDavidNavara said in #1:
>Well, between my head not being into place, sleep deprivation and a lot of work, i fell from high 2000 to high 1800. Almost 200 full points. I have been struggling with 1900 and it took me like 3 months to get back to low 2000's and im not out of the woods yet.

Yes, I also feel the players are improving, but also im getting old.

@PF_DSOTM_1973 said in #14:
> Art the Mustache dude who streams on twitch has lost like 300+ points. Down from 2500+ to 2200+.
>
> The computer assisted player is now the norm.
>
> There was a thread on these foums from a 15 yr AWS ML expert and he laughed at lichess's ML anti-cheat.

Which mustache dude?

My first statement about Art is incorrect. I confused his classical and rapid ratings :(

There are so many players who have the computer script running and only using it for a few moves.
It is unfortunate that this beautiful interface is 40% populated with dishonest players.

what a waste :(

Well yeah my blitz rating is skyrocketing and i dont know why

Good topic for discussion- having read the thread I think the two most probable causes are

1. Rating deflation - due to players leaving after the chess boom. (Speculation of course - perhaps Lichess could shed a light on active users now vs 6 months ago?)

2. Programmes like the recently discussed rocket chess etc - and using it for a few difficult positions etc to avoid detection.

I stick to faster time controls to avoid cheating online. I think option 1 warrants further serious discussion with some stats.