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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
For one issue of Chess Life, many years ago, my rating was 2002. Now it is 1765! That is the lowest that it has ever been. My first rating was in the high 1700's. And I was never provisionally rated, as my first two rated tournaments were back to back 12-round events (1971 North American Open and U.S. Open). My previous tournaments were not rated. Recently, I was wondering just how low my rating could go. I am beginning to realize that there is no limit. There used to be a floor (as it is called) below which your rating could never drop. This was done to artificially inflate the ratings. Otherwise the average rating of all chess players gradually drops. Apparently some people entered a few tournaments, took away a few rating points (raised their initial ratings) and dropped out forever. As my lack of practice dropped my rating, I wondered what my rating floor was. I was performing an unintentional experiment. Sometimes I found myself experiencing a kind of perverse amusement when I lost a game. Would my rating now bottom out?
This is all a little depressing. I'm not sure what they did with my floor (as the old cliche goes?). But I should be a killer 1765 player. Rating prizes, here I come. I should be a ratings vampire, sucking rating points from every neck in sight. I wondered why I didn't like garlic, yuck!