David and Goliath

I started and finished some games a few weeks before I made this entry. Somewhere along the way, I got the impression that I will get more playing with players rated higher than me. For one, the Glicko formula used in Schemingmind to compute ratings actually encourages one to challenge stronger players, since the impact on your ratings losing against someone higher than you is much less than if you lose to someone with similar or lower rating than yours. Which is just quite logical. Also, there is the opportunity of learning from those who are better rated, which in most cases would mean those that play better than you. Especially in the Glicko system, where one's reliability of rating is reflected in the RD or Rating Deviation, which goes down after so many games, indicating increased reliability of the rating, having been tested several times. Which I should hasten to add, RD increases again once you start playing or finishing fewer games in a given period. (I hope I gave enough hint for you to check out Glicko for yourself)

I said "opportunity", since the ability of learning from a game still rests with the individual. It takes discipline to be able to distill the lessons from a game, as well as understanding the basis for a set of opening moves. Learning the lessons can be affected by a number of factors, which I discuss extensively in my Discipline in Correspondence Chess series (see sidebar for the link).

So, game on!