What is a provisional member in chess and how long until it goes away?

Question

chess yahoo games

Answer 1

20 games or something I think.

Answer 2

20 games until it goes away.

For the first 20 your rating is covered by a different formula that averages ratings of people played.  Technically your rating can go up with a loss.

Say you play and lose to a 1200, 1100, 1300, and a1200.

A player 400 points less will usually lose, so it was assumed you are 800, 700, 900, and 800.  Average those out to 800.  Then he loses to a Grand Master rated 2700 and we throw a 2200 in the mix. 800+700+900+800+2200 = 5400.  5400 divided by 5 = 1080.

A regular rating does not do that.

It is the Elo rating system, btw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_...