Rymester,
Don't worry too much about it.
There are a few players who claim they are better than there current
ratings; let time prove them correct. Currently Dustnrogers rating has
just crossed the 1400 barrier, but I see little evidence that he's
manipulated the ratings to get there.
1) The few heavy game players I'm familiar with (hi vaknso, hi
rookie5 !) also have their ratings jump around rapidly. I think it goes
with the territory of playing many games, doesn't it? And Dustnrogers
has over 120 games going. (At that rate, he'll be a contender for the
MAP some day!)
2) Yes Dustnrogers is Nikki's brother - Nikkis player profile says so! I
see nothing sneaky there. Maybe Nikki isn't into internet
correspondence chess, and so went away. Maybe Nikki's at summer
camp, who knows? Had dustnrogers taken the t/o's BEFORE the
tourney, wouldn't that be artificially inflating his ratings? In other words
they give him points he didn't "work for".
3) In looking at his completed games (post May timout melt down), it
looks like some 1300 and all 1400 players are holding up fine against
him. He's beaten some, and others have beaten him. Looks to me
that he's about right on target for where he should be. Maybe in time
he will go up, but he ain't there yet!
I don't see evidence that he, for instance, resigned games to drop his
ratings. Also, I think (I may be wrong) that he signed up pretty earlier
for the tourney; if so, that wouldn't have given him much time to
manipulate his rating.
There are always going to be players on the borders between
categories; whether tourneys start when they are in the higher or lower
is going to be the luck of the draw.
I think we need Kirks prayer for this tournament NOW, rather than
later. I'm excited about the tourney, and hope to play slow and careful
chess in it, to do my best. I am also looking forward to more of the
comraderie the last tourney instilled. Bummer to be starting this with
accusations and recrimminations.
Maggoteer wrote:
1) The few heavy game players I'm familiar with (hi vaknso, hi
rookie5 !) also have their ratings jump around rapidly. I think it goes
with the territory of playing many games, doesn't it? And Dustnrogers
has over 120 games going. (At that rate, he'll be a contender for the
MAP some day!)
Rhymester answers:
1) Yes having a lot of games on the go can cause one's rating to
jump around but Dustin says 'I lost all my games because of time-
outs'.
Maggoteer wrote:
2) Yes Dustnrogers is Nikki's brother - Nikkis player profile says so! I
see nothing sneaky there. Maybe Nikki isn't into internet
correspondence chess, and so went away. Maybe Nikki's at summer
camp, who knows?
Rhymester answers,
If you read my post again you will see that I never said games 95770
& 95771 were timeouts. These were both games between Dustnrogers
and Nikki Rogers with only three moves made in each and which Nikki
resigned.
All I'm saying is that Dustnrogers has found himself with an artificially
low rating (due to timeouts) and has chosen to take advantage of this
to play in a lower ranking group. Once logged into the tournament
tactics like those above have boosted his rating back to more like
where it should have been.
Rhymester
True, I did missread some of your points. Sorry about that!
I guess my only point is that he does looks to me like a high
1300/low 1400 player, which is where he is playing at. There are a
whole bunch of folks in that boat. Whether he, or anyone else in the
same range, ends up in the 1400s or 1300s on a given day, I think
they will have tough competition; I don't feel he's a ringer for the
1300s, definitely not in the 1400s.
I'd be right behind you agreeing that something fishy was up if he had
purposely dropped from 1500s down to high 1300s just to get into the
tournament at a lower rating. I don't think he did that; his huge
number of timouts were back well before the tournament was even
announced.
I guess, as a 1300 player, I'm a lot more worried about the OTHERs in
the category... Pawnking, shougi, belgianfreak, fekkorn, YOU!!!, and
all the rest I know from either games or forums. Everyone I see in
the category seems capable of giving a good game, The competition
will be tough, and fun, and Dustnrogers may clean up - or he may get
knocked out real fast. I've got no reason to believe that folks in the
1300s can't handle him! Some decent players here.... you being one
of them.
Good luck in your games!
Hopefully, a maybe final word on the subject. I got a challenge from
dustinrogers. I have also played Nikki, and Dustin was frank and
open that he was playing his sister's handle. I played on anyway and
had a good game, but lost. Her rating was the higher rating. When
he challenged me under his handle, which was lower, I deleted the
game and offered my explanation that it was a confusing set-up
where he may be the better player playing with a lower rating. I
suggested that he send over a game in Nikki's name since it was
more reflective of his rating which it is. OK, let me digress into
theology as I am tournament chaplain. Multiple "nicks" are the root
of all evil. There I said it. Now, let's go play chess. Kirk
