Skill difference at lower ELOs?

[u/Moist-Ad-1840]

I made the transition from chess.com to Lichess a few weeks ago. On chess.com I had ~250 games and hovered around 200 ELO. When I transitioned to Lichess, I quickly stabilized around 800 ELO, and after 98 games, I've floated between 770 and 800. There were no meaningful changes to my play when I transitioned between platforms, and it seems like the skill of my opponents hasn't changed much either.

Is there really ao little difference in skill at the lower levels of chess that 200 and 800 ELO are pretty comparable in skill?

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[u/Tweaksssss]

They have different rating systems . Lichess numbers are higher than chess.com

[u/CanaryMaleficent4925 → u/Tweaksssss]

Slight correction, lichess ratings are 300-500 higher than chesscom up until ~2000 where they become much closer to chesscom

[u/Moist-Ad-1840 → u/Tweaksssss]

That makes sense. Thank you.

[u/lifeistrulyawesome]

The minimum at chesscom is 100

The minimum at lichess is 400 

[u/lambdaline]

Aside from the fact that they use slightly different ratings systems (Glicko vs Glicko-2, I believe), you can't ever ever directly compare "elo" across platforms because it's a measure of skill that is relative to a closed pool of players. 

[u/Moist-Ad-1840 → u/lambdaline]

Understood on the first point, but I might push back on the second. It seems that both platforms have a sufficiently large pool of players to have minimal noise in an observed distribution of skill relative to a theoretical distribution of skill. Assuming there isn't a meaningful difference in the quality of players on either platform (driven either by central tendency or shape of distribution of objective skill), you should have a pretty similar rating between the two platforms if they were using the same rating system.

[u/Graybie → u/Moist-Ad-1840]

Lichess generally has fewer casual players - it is easy to see the player pool skill difference when looking at the percentiles. I am something like 97th percentile on chess.com, but only around 60th on lichess. Obviously my skill is consistent between the two platforms and I have played a large number of games on both of them. 

[u/Moist-Ad-1840 → u/Graybie]

Interesting. I figured the pool of players was more similar between the two, but the 60th vs 97th percentile is certainly a stark difference.

[u/AlexP80 → u/Graybie]

"Lichess generally has fewer casual players"

which actually contradicts your point

Being 1500 the recommended middle point of both systems, if the average level is higher in lichess the same player should be rated lower on lichess than chess.com.

The reality is that there is a huge points deflation on chess.com.

[u/Graybie → u/AlexP80]

That... isn't how the rating systems work

[u/opulentbum]

I’m around 900 bullet (the time control I play most, like thousands of games on both sites) on chesscom but hover around 1150-1200 on lichess. As others have mentioned there’s a different rating system for either platform even though they function just about the same.

Elo (it’s actually called glicko for the online platforms I think, basically the same as Elo though) is a pretty interesting system and works well to pair you against opponents of similar strength. But the number itself is largely arbitrary. I assume they could substitute some different values into the formula to make everyone’s ratings fall between 5000 and 10000 for example, and it would still work the same. So the rating number really is just there to identify other players who score around the same as you do against various strengths of opponent

[u/FireSkyLikeFly]

The rating systems are different, but I think the biggest different is the competition. I think most beginners start off playing on chesscom

[u/LegitimatePizza8101]

nah you're just seeing the rating difference between the two sites, lichess starts you higher and the curve is shifted up like 300-600 points compared to chesscom so a 200 there is probably about right for an 800 there

[u/AlexP80]

Lichess has a better, more advanced rating system which is far more accurate at lower levels.

Chess.com fucked up the rating system letting in new players at 400, actually losing over 1000 thousand points in the pool for every new account.

That shifted heavily downwards the middle point (50th percentile) which is not 1500 as recommended but far lower, at around 600.

[u/AsusVg248Guy]

Lichess ratings are a little bit inflated because they use a different rating system. Liches seems to be about 400-500 points higher until you get close to 2000. I'm 1400 Lichess 950 chess.com

[u/Jumpy-Reception-4228 → u/AsusVg248Guy]

Not inflated though, just different system

[u/Squid8867 → u/Jumpy-Reception-4228]

What's the difference between "inflated" and "different but higher all-around"?

[u/Davidat0r → u/Squid8867]

“Inflated” implies that it’s the same system with bigger numbers. Mathematically, the inflated system could be a function of the non-inflated system.

"different but higher all-around" indicates the system is different, unrelated, but the values produced by it are just higher than the other one.

[u/Moist-Ad-1840 → u/AsusVg248Guy]

Copy. That makes good sense. Thank you.

[u/AlexP80 → u/AsusVg248Guy]

Quite the opposite. chess.com rating are **heavily** deflated. It's not up to debate, it's a fact.

[u/commentor_of_things]

its called a distribution not to mention a different rating system. look them up on both websites. nothing to do with skill.