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New Rating Categories For

Hi all,

In Lichess, we have 3 rating categories based on the time control, but they all very short:
0--Bullet--3--Blitz--8--Classical--300
|=======|======|===========|

But what if I want to play longer time controls? There is no category for that. Of course, I can play 2 hour games and it will account for my classical rating, but then if I participate in a 10+0 tournament then this rating will quickly flush away, so there is no point in playing both 10+0 and 120+0.

It’s evident that our categories are too shortly divided when we compare to other chess clubs:

FIDE:
0--Blitz--10--Rapid--60--Standard-->
|=======|========|==========>

USCF:
5--Blitz--10--Rapid--30-60--Standard-->
|=======|=========|============>
PS: games between 30 and 60 min affect both the rapid and standard ratings

Chess Tempo:
0--Bullet--3--Blitz--15--Rapid--60--Long-->
|=======|=======|========|=======>

ICC (chessclub.com), FICS (freechess.org) and Playchess:
0--Bullet--3--Blitz--15--Standard-->
|=======|=======|==========>

Thus I’m suggesting the creation of a forth category. In my humble opinion, the division of ChessTempo seems the best from all above. But we don’t to move the 8 min division, and it would be so nice to have a Hyperbullet category, were we have so much activity, so maybe we should innovate with more categories. Why not? After all, Lichess is the #1 in innovation. So it could be like this:

0--H.B.--1--Bullet--3--Blitz--8--Rapid--25--Standard--90--Classical--300
|====== |=======|======|========|===========|===========|

How about the migration of current ratings to this system? How can we split the rating of one category into two or three? Technically it’s not a problem. Since Lichess has the full history of games from everyone, developers can create a one-time process that chronologically re-calculates the ratings of everyone, this time divided into corresponding categories. By the end, Blitz rating will be the only one to remain unchanged. Other ratings will get split. Each player will see both increases and decreases in his ratings.

Votes?

As an experiment, Lichess could perform such calculation for everyone (just an estimate, no real rating change) and then send out a voting pool for the addition of new categories. Users who respond to the first question will be granted access to their calculated new rating, and then will be questioned again “Did you like your rating change estimates?”.

Variants? For the variants, we might don’t have enough game activity to fulfill six categories, so we might want initially to divide in just three categories, like 0-3, 3-25, 25-*
The problem is, with too many categories it gets confusing.
I see the point with it being confusing but I also agree with the point above. 10 minutes is a LOT different compared to 2h so at least one additional category seems fine.
Like Bullet (0-3), Blitz(3-10) (yes, i think up to 10 is better), Rapid(10-30), Classical(30-...)
The difference between 30 and 2h is still big but not nearly as big.

In variants I think one rating is enough since otherwise you double or triple the number of ratings has. One more rating in normal looks good, but don't make TOO many.
No. The player pool in each category would get way too diluted. The time control categories are good where they are now. In fact, it should be like this on every chess site.
A Classical Rating achieved by playing 8+0 games all the time is not that classical to me in case of many people want to have a good comparison to FIDE Rating.

I dont an adding of more categories, I want to have Classical category on a minimum of 15+0.

Another Idea I like is to creating fix pools which are related to FIDE Tourney Time controls.

Bullet: 1 minute
Blitz: 3 minutes + 1 seconds
Rapid: 25 minutes+15 seconds
Classical: 90 minutes + 30 seconds (forcing to move within 10 minutes every move to avoid opponents "let the own time run out to hope he gets offline meanwhile")
I strongly think that there should be a rapid category from about 10 mins to 30 mins games and a classical category for long games. all the rest seems perfect. I thinks its a good idea!
Good idea. Very good. One additional category is necessary. Classical could be 8-30 and new one - let's say "Long" 30+.

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