Hope people don’t take this post too seriously! If so, please forgive me in advance for being long winded!

The critical point if all of this ranting is rankings and ratings. Some people value their ratings and see it as recognition of their abilities. In this sense, some people will go to great lengths to ensure they get the highest ratings possible, like only playing white. I personally have no problem with this, if they are so tied up in their self worth that they must play white to get their ratings high, they have bigger issues. I typically invite using 2 games, so we both get a chance to go first and thus make it even.

The "problem" as some might see it, is that when people do get high ratings and then don't allow for a fair and equitable means of "validating" their ranking/rating. If the person is ranked number 1 (or 2 or 3 or whatever) and decides not to play anymore, it makes it difficult for someone else to try to claim that spot. This hasn't happened here but as it grows and people decide to not play anymore for whatever reason (too busy, not interested in games anymore, lobotomy, etc... whatever) there will need to be a means of resolving this issue. As an example, you can't have someone be ranked #1 forever if that person hasn't played for years, right? Correspondingly, you wouldn't want someone ranked #1, who just plays white all the time. Does he/she deserve that ranking? For example, I just challenged someone in Spider Line and he had a 2100+ rating and he's only lost ONCE! Must be good, right? Well his record of game play was that he only played black once and lost! Other than that he has only played white. I only use this as an example and have no ill will or negative feelings for that person. To each his own.

As someone astute person mentioned earlier, this site is for fun and I think most view it as such. If that is truly the case, then people ranked at the top should have no problem if their ratings go down, right? But there are some that do care, and they want to “protect” their rating.

Like Dimitri mentioned no one would be FORCING anyone to play anything. They don’t have to play if they don’t want to! If they truly are here for fun, they will play, and if they decide not to, their rating goes down a bit, but if they are here for fun it will be no big deal right? Why would anyone have a problem with that?

I like to measure myself against better players, and it does pose a problem if I can’t play them, or if they really aren’t “better” players per se. The basic premise of challenges exists in all levels of competitive/casual game and club play. It’s not a new concept, and anyone that was on a chess team in school would know this.

For me personally it doesn’t make too much of a difference, I just mentioned it earlier as a means of suggesting a solution to resolve a “problem”. If I never make it to a top 10 position, I won't lose any sleep over it. IN any case, I hope I haven’t offended anyone and hope people do not misinterpret this post. Happy gaming everyone.

Cheers,

Scooter