I recently made a post in this forum about a hypothetical situation where if I was rated 2600 but got a provisional rating of 1800 and started playing in casual pools I could easily beat 90% of the people in casual as you only play people rated +/-500 rating points. Now in this scenario, lichess knows that I have beaten players rated 2300 90/100 times which means it's clearly knows that I'm definitely rated higher than my provisional rating of 1800 but it would still pair me up with players +/- 500 rating points bracket for 1800, which I can even adjust to my liking from both ends, which means I can intentionally only play players lower than my rating. This, in rated games, is called sandbagging which means that you have intentionally deflated your rating to play players in lower brackets, and this is not allowed in Lichess according to their TOS, however in casual pools many players do this, they don't play rated games for years and years but are insanely active in casual pools.
In my honest opinion I don't think it's wrong to use this strategy even though I would never really do this as it's just not my thing to play like this but I wouldn't care if someone else was doing this so to get other people's opinion I posted on this forum and a few people pointed out this was a form of "trolling" and shouldn't be allowed here. This clearly is a loophole as lichess would probably know about this and is letting this happen.
Now before you say that it's just casual games who cares, I'd like to point out a few things.
1) Players who do this know exactly what they are doing, they want to play lower rated players to increase their win percentage for reasons unknown.
2) Many people, including me play casual games to improve their chess by playing higher rated players and then moving into rated to see how much we've improved but even here lichess sets a bar that no one can play people rated +500 points so there's always a limit and you more or less know what to expect but when you see a player with a provisional rating it's like playing anonymous chess against a player who could be rated 2800 for what you know so it's not a learning experience as if someone wanted to play a random guy with no rating wouldn't they just play anonymous section of lichess? It's a waste of time for someone who actually takes time out of their schedule to practice chess.
3) I know you might think that these players are also trying to improve their chess by playing casual with deflated provisional ratings, but what would you learn by playing lower rated players and even if they are playing higher rated players in casuals they never play a single rated games to get their rating established, so clearly their motive is not to improve their chess.
4) "Big deal people want to play lowers rated players let them do their thing, why do you care so much?" Well it's a little unfair to people with established ratings, as we can only go lower by 500 points so I guess having a provisional rating and sandbagging in casual has it's perks.
Now, I don't think this a huge problem as you only play a few of these type of players but it sort of takes the fun out of casual chess. I don't mind playing higher rated players but not knowing you're playing someone 600 points higher rated than you never helps you to play better, it becomes a game of hope chess where you hope you are actually playing someone your own strength.
Last time someone mentioned a few changes that can implemented where this can be improved. For instance, lichess could ask you to play atleast ten rated games before allowing you in casual pools if you have a provisional rating like it's in tournaments or it could just simply ask you that "would you like to include players with provisional ratings?" Or lichess could just simply notice that the player with a provisional rating is improving so they could get a 1800?+/-100 or something like that for their rating so when they play casual they get paired with higher rated players untill they actually are playing with players their own strength even if they have a lower provisional rating. There are many options that can sort out this issue.
Tell me what you think about this.
In my honest opinion I don't think it's wrong to use this strategy even though I would never really do this as it's just not my thing to play like this but I wouldn't care if someone else was doing this so to get other people's opinion I posted on this forum and a few people pointed out this was a form of "trolling" and shouldn't be allowed here. This clearly is a loophole as lichess would probably know about this and is letting this happen.
Now before you say that it's just casual games who cares, I'd like to point out a few things.
1) Players who do this know exactly what they are doing, they want to play lower rated players to increase their win percentage for reasons unknown.
2) Many people, including me play casual games to improve their chess by playing higher rated players and then moving into rated to see how much we've improved but even here lichess sets a bar that no one can play people rated +500 points so there's always a limit and you more or less know what to expect but when you see a player with a provisional rating it's like playing anonymous chess against a player who could be rated 2800 for what you know so it's not a learning experience as if someone wanted to play a random guy with no rating wouldn't they just play anonymous section of lichess? It's a waste of time for someone who actually takes time out of their schedule to practice chess.
3) I know you might think that these players are also trying to improve their chess by playing casual with deflated provisional ratings, but what would you learn by playing lower rated players and even if they are playing higher rated players in casuals they never play a single rated games to get their rating established, so clearly their motive is not to improve their chess.
4) "Big deal people want to play lowers rated players let them do their thing, why do you care so much?" Well it's a little unfair to people with established ratings, as we can only go lower by 500 points so I guess having a provisional rating and sandbagging in casual has it's perks.
Now, I don't think this a huge problem as you only play a few of these type of players but it sort of takes the fun out of casual chess. I don't mind playing higher rated players but not knowing you're playing someone 600 points higher rated than you never helps you to play better, it becomes a game of hope chess where you hope you are actually playing someone your own strength.
Last time someone mentioned a few changes that can implemented where this can be improved. For instance, lichess could ask you to play atleast ten rated games before allowing you in casual pools if you have a provisional rating like it's in tournaments or it could just simply ask you that "would you like to include players with provisional ratings?" Or lichess could just simply notice that the player with a provisional rating is improving so they could get a 1800?+/-100 or something like that for their rating so when they play casual they get paired with higher rated players untill they actually are playing with players their own strength even if they have a lower provisional rating. There are many options that can sort out this issue.
Tell me what you think about this.