Rankings

How do I choose my ranking?

All of my progress depends on my ranking. Since I don't plan on entereing the USCF or any chess clubs anytime soon, my ranking will have to be primarily by online chess.

I've looked around and the best online chess community is the Internet Chess Club. Not only have I played it before, but it offers a great deal of value for the money. One of the things that I like the best are the live games with real audio commentary by top ranked chess players.

I go by the handle 'forethought', stop by sometime, maybe we can play a game. Here's some helpful commands:

finger forethought (see my ratings)
tell forethought Hi! I visited your website! You're my hero! (Don't be a stranger)
rank (see your ranking)
rank forethought (see my ranking)
best (see the top 20 players or so in each time class)
stat (see the average ranking of the different time classes)

You can play real tournaments and you can actually play grandmasters too. I can't think of anywhere else that will let you play a real grandmaster without forking over some cash.

If you haven't tried it before, I suggest that you signup for the free 7 day trial at Internet Chess Club.



I chose which online chess community to use, I know that I'll be playing 'standard' games (over 15 minutes). But how much over should I do? Honestly, it doesn't really matter what I choose, as long as it's consistant.

I haven't any idea what to choose, I don't want increments only because being forced to move 30 seconds per move could be stressfull if it comes down to the wire.

I know that I could play 30 second increments, but that's playing a very slow blitz game and there's a reason that your blitz rating is lower than your standard rating. It's the same reason that your bullet rating is lower than your blitz rating. You play better with more thought on each position.