They aren't even universal within the same federation. A 1600 in New York City/Long Island/Los Angeles is stronger than a 1600 in Syracuse. A 1200 from a HS student who only plays other HS students is stronger than a normal population 1200.

Update fo Val:
1159->1171 today
Goal for tomorrow: 1250

Btw Clown has all July and August to reach 1500 on the chess tactics sever, the only condition is that he has to have a RD of uner 50.

RD is around 28 currently, I'll do +15 a day or so and cruise to the win

what is RD?

standard deviation, it basically means clown needs to have a big sample size when he reaches 1500.

Data to support this leap of faith, from when I was playing in the 1980's these "types" New York City/Long Island... are pretty weak. An expert from the city was just about a free point.

However more likely I think it's random and player dependent, if you look for patterns you'll find them even if they don't truly exist. Or it could be that I lived in an incubator for strong players, 10% of our USCF base was over 2200.

Update for Val:
I'm currently at 1200 on the chess tactics server but think I won't be improving fast going forward. 1300 is the goal for the end of the month.
I randomly googled and found this site:
http://www.chessmaniac.com/ELORating...s_Rating.shtml
I took less than two minutes per problem and it told me my rating was 1400, I'll spoiler the moves I put (assuming it's not dynamic with randed problems):



Edit: Doesn't seem to be random.

semi spoiler, take the test first....




7) d7->c5,

You've got good ideas you just need to understand the foil to the concept.
A good move is only a good move if there is no counter to it.
The knight can't be maintained at c5 due to b4, so do you want to move the a pawn to a5 to secure the Nc5? Would be fine but it's already at a6 and we can't move a pawn twice right, waste of time, we can find better things to do. Besides the center for white is very secure, if you can't take the center you can look to the wings...
So instead maybe we move the other knight back to h7 so we can expand on the kingside, and white bishop starts to look silly yes?

Take another look at you first plan,
1) c5-d4, excellent concept but are you ready for it?
If not, what can you do to make yourself ready?

One more.. take a look at number 4 the bishops can dart around here and there, so let's pretend that they don't exist. What does a won king ending look like?
What key squares to white always have control over?

Sometimes in chess you must work with the pieces on the board, sometimes it's easier to remove them and look for a solution with few men.

Yeah I've discussed the first four or so with amp in pogchat and at least I seem to be thinking along the right lines. Alas, it can't hurt to calculate through a couple of the moves :P

Mostly, I was lazy but I'm kinda happy with the progress I made so far. Gotta do waaaaaaay more tactics problems.

heh, estimated me at 1615, i'm only at about 1325 on the tactics server. my moves:

ship me 1760

1580

Anyone know what the theoretical max ratings is?
I just did a quick survey and it seems like some of the problems might be more positional choices and may not have conclusive answers.

Doh forgot results..

2250 within 25pts of my FIDE rating but not sure where this thing tops out.
I'm not thrilled with all of my choices, some of these positions are "not my kind of game" so it feels fuzzy.

1810, I don't think the quiz is great because sometimes there are numerous winning moves and one gets scored way higher than the other

update clown? finally at my end...

You've solved problem p37674 in 2.7 seconds. ( Result 1.00 : 0.00 )
Your new rating is 1401.24 (+2.50).

bump for clown.

I'll update on 31/8 (8/31 for the US folks)

Grunch:

IMO the biggest difference between poor players and average players is the opening. learn the king's pawn and queen's pawn openings and just hammer them over and over again until you cannot lose anything in the opening (when those openings are played). be aware of the powerful forking potential of the knights in these openings - a lot of poor players don't see potential forking plays until it's too late. even if they prevent the fork they give up position in return - which severely hurts their chances of winning when their opponent is competant.

besides that - i think one mistake beginning players make is that they focus on a plan - and get too singleminded in pursuit of that plan. if the opponent counters they become frustrated. focus on pristine defense and position first and wait for your opponent to present an opening you can attack. remember- one pawn or a small advance in position is extremely valuable.

i'm no master- i'm rated about 1650 to 1750 on yahoo and pogo and facebook and other sites with what i assume is poor competition. but i beat below average players pretty much 100% of the time, because they are inferior in openings and defense.

after skimming some of this thread- what does "tactical" mean as compared to "positional"?

Tactical = combinations
Positional = strategic = "the grand masterplan"