What determines starting ELO?

Hi all

I have noticed that some accounts follow the same pattern. They start out at ELO 1000 or so, and have a very high win rate, basically only gaining ELO.

It feels very different playing these players than other accounts which do not follow this pattern.

When I started, I was assigned 1500. What is different about these accounts that determines they should start at 1000?

Nobody starts at 1000 elo. Everybody starts at 1500. I think you are mistaken.

@Nadavian_Wolf said in #2:
> Nobody starts at 1000 elo. Everybody starts at 1500. I think you are mistaken.

incorrect. there's two exceptions:
1. titled players sometimes start at a higher rating, 2000+
2. accounts created by a teacher for a class start at a lower rating

though i don't remember the exact numbers for either.

I mean ive seen 1500? start a LOT of correspondence games in one day. Then, they unsurprisingly win ALL of them cuz they r prolly higher. They gain up to 2200, or even up to 2400 by just those starting games.

@glbert said in #3:
> 1. titled players sometimes start at a higher rating, 2000+
> 2. accounts created by a teacher for a class start at a lower rating
As @glbert said, players who share their Fide ID and their documents, etc. to get their Title displayed on their account start at different ratings, although this should be done while registering and before playing a game, I think.
If you are a coach, and you access to lichess.org/class , and have a class there, and have created a account for your student, (without the e-mail, as a kid account), they will start at a rating of 800.
For the titles it depends ON the title. LM will not count.
I think that their rating is as per the required FIDE rating, if I am correct.
So on that way,
CMs will start at - 2200; WCMs will start at - 2000
FMs will start - 2300; WFMs will start at - 2100
IMs will start - 2400+; WIMs will start at - 2200-2250
GMs will start - 2500+; WGMs will start at - 2300-2400
Of course, I'm not sure.
There aren't many regular GM/IM/FM forum posters, although some CM can tell us ;)

@leid24 said in #4:
> I mean ive seen 1500? start a LOT of correspondence games in one day. Then, they unsurprisingly win ALL of them cuz they r prolly higher. They gain up to 2200, or even up to 2400 by just those starting games.
Yes, I had an alt to play on my desktop previously, and there I gained 2400 blitz and 2200 bullet. Surprisingly, I'm just 1500 on bliz and 1600 on bullet right now on my OG acc.

Worth adding to the above that if it's provisional (ie if it has a ?), it's to be taken with a pinch of salt anyway. Once you've played enough to get rid of the ?, it becomes pretty much irrelevant where you started.

I've occasionally wondered whether it would be better just not displaying provisional ratings for the first few games so it would feel like OTB ratings where you play a few games in order to receive your first rating.

> 2. accounts created by a teacher for a class start at a lower rating

Ah, this explains it! Yes, I think these are students, tyvm.