New improved rating system implemented!

During the past few weeks, we have been analyzing game data and trying to determine the best rating system for ChessJam. Although there are a few standard algorithms out there, there is not a consistent way of implementing them. As you can probably tell from our recent leader board enhancements, we are all about making ChessJam competitive and fun so it's important that we implement a rating system that works well.

This morning, we recalculated everyone's rating based on our new system. The recalculation went through the entire game history of every player from day 1.

Here are a few facts:

• Everyone's rating starts at 1500. Some other sites use 1200, some modify it based on age and other factors, others use 1500 or more. We decided to go with 1500.
  
• During a player's first 20 games, their rating changes more dramatically from game to game (higher kfactor). The intent is to get them into the right range within the first 20 games. This algorithm replaces the averaging we were using before which was resulting in some confusion.
  
• Rapid/Blitz/Bullet games get a slightly higher kfactor which results in the game counting slightly more than a longer game.
  

Everything is based on the ELO rating system.

If you go to the STATS view and click GAME HISTORY, you can see how your rating has changed since your first game. If you see anything odd, let us know in the forums.

Stay tuned for some major new features this week!