Chess is not a game like pinball where you can improve significantly in a week or so learning just when to nail that flipper and how hard

It takes years of chess to improve your game to such a high level as a 1200 ELO and no matter how many times you play, you will never be able to beat dweebs with higher IQs who have been playing with their daddies since they were 5

So in summary the 1200 ELO online achievement is easily the most ridiculous achievemnt for the XBOX 360. What in the world were they thinking with that one?

Challenging ? Yes.  Impossible ?  No. 

For one thing, a 1200 rating is nothing in FIDE or USCF (Class D) - very average at best.  The reason it's harder to get in CM Live is that every started at 900.  But sooner or later the median value of the ratings pool should be elevated as the more elite players bring up the average. And also, since who you wind up being matched with on CM Live is random, once you reach ELO 1000 or so, usually you get matched with lower-rated players so progress towards 1200 becomes pretty slow. 

Sure, it takes a fair amount of practice and an aptitude for chess to get the 1200 achievement.  If you're willing to put in the time to play enough games on Live to encounter higher-rated players and beat them, you'll get there.   The investment in time may or may not be worth it to you.  If not, that doesn't render the achievement itself ridiculous. 

 

Dude, a 1200 is a ridiculously high ELO

That is the bottom line

An ELO of 1200 is mediocre in FIDE or USCF rated chess.  Check the Classic Chess leaderboards for CM Live.  A few have figured out how to boost themselves into grandmaster territory, 2500-2800.  In other words, 1200 is nowhere near the potential maximum. 

The problem is the bar for beginning players got set too low at 600 ELO.   Presently, the pool of players rated over 1200 is very small.  It's just going to take time to increase the numbers who have reached that level. But if you keep playing, sooner or later you'll get a chance to beat a few of them and that's how you get yourself to 1200.

I don't deny it's difficult at the moment. Maybe Ubisoft needs to patch the ELO calculations to give more of a boost for winning until the whole population is raised to a level where the CM Live ELO rankings equate more closely to FIDE/USCF.  But given how long it took just to get the no-move cheat fixed, don't think we'll ever see anything.

 

Personally, it doesn't bother me.  If it's a concern for you, pick up the rest of the achievements first and then getting screwed out of your potential 200 will carry more weight.

  

And you know another thing alot of these freaks must hack the system because they have a 2 or 300 elo and they sometimes beat you easily

But yea look at the leaderboards only a handful have a 1200 elo or higher they should have made it an even 1000 online that would be alot more plausable

 wizdum790 wrote:

But yea look at the leaderboards only a handful have a 1200 elo or higher they should have made it an even 1000 online that would be alot more plausable

Agreed.  I figured the ratings would continue to inflate since the game was introduced.  Haven't played in quite a while, I was surprised when I logged in last night to check the leaderboard to see just how stagnant the overall ratings average has been. Makes me wonder if most of the > 1200 players just quit playing once they get the achievement.

This game really lacks for a ratings filter when you create a match.  The search might take quite a while to find somebody online worth playing, but on the other hand you wouldn't have to waste a lot of time getting hooked up with low ELO players who barely know the moves.

An ELO of 1200 is nothing in real live chess tournaments. Its pretty high on chessmaster live because you start out at 600. If you play internet chess you useually start out with an ELO of 1200-1400 or sometimes 1500.

Starting at 600 ELO isn't unusual. In rated chess (USCF) I believe you begin with 500 points. The reason 1200 seems high is that there aren't many high-ranked players using Chessmaster LIVE once they reach that 1200 point.

I think part of the reason for this could have been alleviated if the Veteran achievement had been made for playing 100 games in single player or online. I have the Glorious achievement, but not the Veteran achievement, so I have been playing single player games since I earned Glorious.

Given a choice, I would be playing my 100 games online, but because of the achievement structure I will finish Veteran first and then consider going back to online play. I wish that Chessmaster LIVE could update this achievement or, at minimum, release downloadable content that encourages online play. This is one area in which achievements seem to hurt a game's longevity - getting to 1200 ELO on Chessmaster LIVE seems to take many people a large number of games so that by the time the earn the achievement, they are burned out on chess. Wouldn't you be?

I think one reason there are few high ranking players is because there is no way to filter your opponents. Good players want to play other good players. Chess takes a long time so you don't really want to be stuck for 40 minutes with someone that doesn't know the moves.

And the solo play mode is a bit frustrating when the AI just sits there and times out, but if you play on hourglass mode it works much better.

It's amazing how bad the AI is really - a decent chess program can easily come up with a grandmaster level move in less than a second so the timing only needs to be faked to make it seem more realistic.

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 BillyTheKid790 wrote:

So in summary the 1200 ELO online achievement is easily the most ridiculous achievemnt for the XBOX 360.

Nah, it can be a bit tricky, but there are plenty of MUCH MORE ridiculous achievements on the 360 trust me.... 

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Im a solo musician trying to be heard, please add/listen to my Rock/PostGrunge style songs: myspace.com/jeromebartlesmusic

Like what?

I'm glad you asked. Below is a list of games (not completely up to date with recent ones but nevermind) that show the brutality of what some games have to offer.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62678

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Im a solo musician trying to be heard, please add/listen to my Rock/PostGrunge style songs: myspace.com/jeromebartlesmusic