The deflation continues
The real world has experienced a raging inflation and interest rates have gone way up. In chess we have the opposite problem: Ratings are deflating. The exact reason is not really clear but it transpires that the influx of strong players who start with a too low rating is the main reason.
We can see that Danish juniors generally do very badly when competing internationally because they are getting rated much earlier. At the moment you will need something like 2642 to be in the top 100. There are currently only two players above 2800 – when it was at the highest level (and people where talking about inflation) there were 5 players above 2800. 32 players above 2700 – 5 years ago there were 40 players.
In order to combat the deflation FIDE (the international chess federation) has given rating to players below 2000 after a special formula. They are trying to establish a lower bound for the rating level at 1400, But this could backfire – what happens to the players that are just way weaker? Will they never be allowed to get to a level where they can also win games?
