Sandbagging is a real problem at 1500

I have recently been up against opponents whose highest rapid rating is 1700 or even 1800 while I am a 1500. They of course win the games, I report them, nothing happens.

So I have started aborting games if I see that the opponent has previously played at a 1700-1800 level. I have no chance of winning, it's unfair that I am coming up against these players. Unfortunately, I'm worried I will soon be punished for aborting games.

Why is sandbagging not taken more seriously by chess.com as it ruins the experience?

They're probably tilted. 🙄. They've gone through ups and downs. Please stop accusing someone based on that

You can't tilt 300 points of elo that's ridiculous. The only way to do that is to not try for ages, which is basically sandbagging.

Not titled. Tilted.

yes you can

try to stay up all night; just playing rapid

or play after something really bad has happened to you

You'll see how you can easily drop 300 rating

How is it fair for a 1500 player? A 1500 should be playing other 1500s. If youre tilting 300 points then smashing 1500s that is surely against chess.com rules.

Life isn't fair.

I've tilted 200

9, You can tilt much more than you think.

It's pretty common for players to have 300 point Elo swings. I know I've had a few. And there's constantly threads on here from players complaining that they lost 300 Elo. One memorable one was a user who thought he had sudden brain damage because he lost a few hundred Elo. In truth he was just playing more often causing less quality games due to fatigue.

The question of sandbagging is a tricky one, because it ranges from players who outright throw games to keep easy opponents, to players who just finished rating climbing to an all time high and are now playing more casually again for few months before doing their next rating climb. Chess.com does check for players throwing games immediately, but I don't think it's programmatically (or even manually) possible to detect that someone blunders their queen on purpose (or because of a lack of effort) on move 30 once in a while.

I wouldn't let it bother you, and I definitely wouldn't be abandoning too many games because that will get you banned as it's against the rules, as well as rather annoying to the many non sandbagging players you could be abandoning games on out of suspicion. If players could decide to not play people who haven't previously peaked higher, they could also decide not to play people currently rapidly gaining Elo, or freshly playing their first game of the day. I know it sucks when the Elo equation underestimates your opponent, but if you care about your Elo you'll have to accept it's fundamental limitations.

At least your getting stronger players sandbagging a problem at most levels (including mine )

Keep enjoying the game, focus on improving your skills and trust that fair play measures will catch up with those who try to exploit the system.

Does anyone 1600 and up want to play a one day game, it’s hard to judge performance playing the same rated computer generated opponents.

No, for example let's just stay I am 1500, but I belong at 1600, but I am constantly getting beaten by sandbagging 1800s.

Or your just tilting even with sandbagging you should stay around your elo I get sandbaggers not consistently but occasionally even when I was 1600 and I still got up to my "supposed to be " elo

I'm staying at my elo. I noticed that whenever I play a fellow 1400-1500 player I win, the only reason I don't gain elo is because of 'highest rating 1700-1800' profiles.

There is very little difference in skill between players of those ratings. Perhaps it's psychological. Don't look at the ratings and try to assume they are equal to you as you are playing. If you automatically think you will lose to higher rated players, then you WILL most likely lose. Positive Mental Attitude.