This section was first written on 21 June 2006 and I’m simply reposting the original text of that article here until I expand it at a later date.
When Atomic was added onto FICS around Feburary 2003 after a long wait, I decided to make a duplicate account in order to play atomic on FICS as I had “retired” Chronatog with his 6×2002 and 3223 ratings. That account was Wuf. Now at the beginning, only the players that played at FICS and had played atomic on MEWIS or elsewhere were any good… everybody had blank ratings which meant massive eeking was bound to occur.
How massive? Well after going 65-1 in one day as Wuf and reaching an atomic rating of 2513 with a RD of 93.5, I was banned. This was easily the highest atomic rating on FICS at the time and it remained that way for quite a while. But more to the point, everybody was eeking for the first few days, to such a degree that Marv was number one on the first atomic best list:
Feburary 16, 2003’s Atomic best list at FICS:
Atomic
1. Marv 2031
2. bash 1961
3. Senkath 1895
4. DanTilkin 1892
5. Fitzcarraldo 1890
6. maxtasy 1876
7. Opapa 1856
8. Stockholm 1836
9. RDropa 1821
10. jkoss 1799
11. AustinPowder 1777
12. PawnEater 1729
13. aiv 1719
14. UngerMeister 1505
15. Treekiller 1465
Only fifteen people even had hit a RD of 80.0 or lower at this point. But an explosion of players was inevitably bound to occur. Here’s the best list for the current crop of FICS players (with many people being inactive):
June 19, 2006’s Atomic best list at FICS:
Atomic
1. Sordid 2358
2. WildKiller 2329
3. Pallokala 2300
4. ComboKid 2281
5. strippedpuls 2278
6. MoltenThinke 2216
7. Francisko 2194
8. MillzesChess 2186
9. wbapi 2185
10. Rekursiv 2151
11. KidKibbitz 2128
12. seberg 2120
13. Scorched 2118
14. hooby 2114
15. yokke 2104
16. Conquerer 2103
17. mrundersun 2101
18. SPogorecki 2094
19. GabrielValle 2085
20. Megdan 2072
We can see the huge change almost immediately. There are a few computers on the best list, along with several strong humans. The lowest atomic rating on the best list as of right now is Megdan’s 2072. Much higher than a paltry 1465 from the first best list. There are currently 116 humans and 5 computers with active ratings (RD <= 80.0) on FICS. We can take a look at the statistics of the ratings on FICS at this point to see how atomic compares to the other variants:
rank hrank crank
Blitz 0/13846 0/13774 0/72
Standard 0/2658 0/2619 0/39
Lightning 0/2668 0/2617 0/51
Wild 0/91 0/89 0/2
Bughouse 0/406 0/402 0/4
Crazyhouse 0/663 0/654 0/9
Suicide 0/252 0/242 0/10
Losers 0/50 0/48 0/2
Atomic 0/121 0/116 0/5
Server rating statistics:
mean sd hmean hsd cmean csd
Blitz 1386.29 281.84 1382.20 275.11 2168.76 426.02
Standard 1604.58 227.82 1595.11 212.27 2240.77 317.42
Lightning 1606.09 279.59 1593.33 259.58 2260.80 441.42
Wild 1896.60 205.81 1892.01 200.85 2101.00 299.00
Bughouse 1726.09 315.66 1725.76 315.63 1759.00 316.44
Crazyhouse 1805.17 263.74 1800.76 260.29 2125.78 311.12
Suicide 1740.16 257.61 1722.02 238.41 2179.20 310.07
Losers 1934.38 168.44 1922.60 156.27 2217.00 200.00
Atomic 1793.64 261.95 1779.09 254.14 2131.20 208.03
It looks that Atomic compares very well with the other variants except bughouse which is an anomaly by itself anyway. Blitz has gotten outrageously deflated at this point in time. In 1995, if person could have gotten 2200 then that was great. If that person’s strength stayed exactly the same, in 2006 a 1800 rating would be his. This is a general statement and not calibrated to any single person but a deflation of 400 points doesn’t make much sense to me.
Highest Rating (Computer): 2758 – TrojanKnight – July 15, 2005
Human Ratings
Highest (unestablished) Rating: 2575 – Chronatog – May 11, 2003
Highest (established) Rating: 2515 – tipau – Feburary 14, 2006
Highest (current) Rating: 2510 – EdgeCrusher – June 21, 2006
2400 Club:
2515 – tipau – Feburary 14, 2006
2479 – siggemannen – November 28, 2005
2467 – Chelpo – May 21, 2005
2438 – WildKiller – August 2, 2006
2416 – supertfc – November 6, 2003
2400 – EdgeCrusher – March 25, 2003
2350 Club:
2395 – MoltenThinker – September 1, 2004
2388 – MillzesChess – November 2, 2004
2384 – ComboKid – January 10, 2006
2381 – Toprank – April 15, 2003
2373 – TCK – October 13, 2005
2372 – Chronatog – May 11, 2003
2364 – blumkinator – May 31, 2004 *** EdgeCrusher’s dupe
Champions:
2005 – FICS 10th Anniversary Tournaments Atomic Champion – szura
2005 – FICS Atomic Champion – WildKiller
2005 – Atomic World Championships – siggemannen
August 19, 2006’s Atomic Best List:
Atomic
1. tipau 2450
2. siggemannen 2438
3. WildKiller 2408
4. Sordid 2405
5. tipow 2333
6. Pallokala 2300
strippedpuls 2300
8. ComboKid 2282
9. SPogorecki 2266
10. GrandLapin 2246
11. MillzesChess 2222
12. TheNecromanc 2200
13. Francisko 2191
hooby 2191
15. wbapi 2164
16. JWaceking 2157
17. Conquerer 2142
18. StupidGenuis 2138
19. Scorched 2123
20. Chronatog 2100
In only two months (from June 19), we can see a vast increase in the number of active players produced, when it only requires a few more players to return to active play. The biggest increase came from WildKiller (2329, 2399 best) who is now at 2408, 2438 best. Pallokala remains inactive but his RD was so low that it still remains below 80. tipau, siggemannen, SPogorecki, TheNecromancer, and Chronatog returned to active play. Several other players gained points to land onto the list.
There’s also the introduction of tipow(C) who used to be unregistered but is now registered and available for rated play.