On other sites I played blitz 5min or 10min no increment, and was rated around 1200. I liked the way Lichess looked a lot better (much cleaner), and made the switch. Not wanting to just waste a lot more time on blitz games, I opted for classical 15+15 games instead. After 13 games, so not that many, I'm rated 1818, and the site says I'm 93.5%.
Now, I'm no fool. There's no way that's representative of the population of the chess community, among whom I know I'm very low rated. Is it just that the better players prefer shorter time control games, or that not many people opt to play classical games period?
IMO, the faster time controls reduce the amount of cheaters. In a small number of case, the quick games fit with a break in the day's activities.
It also only ranks you among players who have played in the last week.
@jonesmh For me personally, I love blitz, but I find that I don't improve past a point with it because I never get the opportunity to really think about my moves.
@ChesswurmOTB I noticed that it's just one week's players, yeah. But still, with a group of ~65000 I can't help but feel there wouldn't be a huge difference if you expanded the interval to last month or last year. It just seems like higher rated players don't play classical much online, but of course I have nothing but supposition with no real proof.
I would agree, it seems higher rated players stick more to faster time controls but the reasoning is due to cheaters. The likelihood of playing a 2200+ opponent who is NOT a cheater can be slim
@ChesswurmOTB That would definitely make sense. Fortunately at my skill level there aren't any cheaters (or I'm so oblivious I'd never know :D ). If someone's going to cheat, they're going to go for a rating that they can seriously brag about. haha
I don't think cheating is what keeps people away from longer time controls. It's just more fun to play quicker games.
@lovlas Thanks for the answer, helps to get perspective from titled players.
You get in a lot more bullet than classical. Classical is boring and too slow for me.
I've seen more improvement in faster time controls.
About your original question, as you get higher rated, the frequency of similarly rated players drops. Plus, your rating is provisional, so it's not 100% accurate.
Still, there are a lot less people who play classical than bullet.
Cheating is not a huge issue, even in longer time controls. <-- theres my opinion.
I used to play longer games regularly here. I ran into 1/7ish games that were flagged for abuse. The mods are good enough to catch them... the points are refunded.
