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So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer

Posted By: phil simborg
Date: Friday, 4 March 2016, at 11:14 a.m.

In Response To: So who are the best players (Trunky)

We will never have a good method of determining who is best, because many of the best players in the world don't play very much. We have no idea how good Sander, Gus, Levermann, Nack, Snelling, KG, Sylvester, Dwek, Svobo, Tardeiu, Othello and maybe a few others I have missed would stack up against the best today if they competed more.

So the best we can hope for is to find a method to determine who are the best "active" players in the world...that's what the current rating systems and Giant's list is trying to tell us, and as I have said before, I think those lists do a fairly good job of identifying those who belong at the top, but then the accuracy drops off tremendously. And we still have a problem with some players who only play in 2-5 tournaments who might well rise to the top if they played more.

And of course, we have a problem with the definition of "best." A strong argument can be made that the best player wins the most, and another argument can be made that the best player has the lowest PR. Most of us would agree that one who wins more is truly "better" against other humans, but we don't have enough matches of great players playing each other to make a good judgement based solely on win percentage. A player who enters more Masters will certainly have a worse percentage than a player who only plays open, for example. A player who enters more smaller, less prestigious tournaments will also have a higher percentage than one who just enters the biggies where there is tougher competition.

Bottom line is there will always be subjectivity in getting to the answer, and I think it is a mistake to get too hung up on the exact order...good enough to say that someone belongs in the top 10 or top 20 or top 32 of "active" players, and again, that has never been clearly defined....I think active should mean at least 6 major tournaments a year, but I know we will never have complete agreement on this.

Messages In This Thread

• So who are the best players
  Trunky -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 2:36 p.m.
  • So who are the best players
    Mike Clapsadle -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 3:41 p.m.
  • So who are the best players
    Barry Silliman -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 4:05 p.m.
    • So who are the best players
      Rick Janowski -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 4:29 p.m.
    • So who are the best players
      Jakob Garal -- Thursday, 3 March 2016, at 11:18 a.m.
      • So who are the best players
        Taper_Mike -- Thursday, 3 March 2016, at 8:39 p.m.
        • So who are the best players
          Barry Silliman -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 2:13 p.m.
  • So who are the best players
    Stick -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 5:57 p.m.
    • So who are the best players
      Trunky -- Thursday, 3 March 2016, at 10:56 a.m.
      • So who are the best players
        Stick -- Thursday, 3 March 2016, at 6:16 p.m.
  • So who are the best players
    Ken Larsen -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 6:35 p.m.
    • So who are the best players
      Trunky -- Thursday, 3 March 2016, at 11:15 a.m.
  • So who are the best players
    Bill Riles -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 6:43 p.m.
    • So who are the best players
      Stick -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 7:03 p.m.
      • So who are the best players
        Bill Riles -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 7:22 p.m.
        • So who are the best players
          Stick -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 7:33 p.m.
        • So who are the best players
          Casper Van der Tak -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 7:34 p.m.
      • So who are the best players
        Coolrey -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 8:05 p.m.
        • So who are the best players
          Stick -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 8:18 p.m.
          • So who are the best players
            Coolrey -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 8:29 p.m.
        • So who are the best players
          johnk -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 9:45 p.m.
          • So who are the best players
            Keene -- Wednesday, 2 March 2016, at 10:40 p.m.
  • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
    phil simborg -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 11:14 a.m.
    • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
      Florin Popa -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 11:35 a.m.
    • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
      Stick -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 2:49 p.m.
      • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
        Barry Silliman -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 3:31 p.m.
      • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
        John McDonald -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 8:32 p.m.
        • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
          Florin Popa -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 8:45 p.m.
          • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
            JOHN MCDONALD -- Saturday, 5 March 2016, at 2:11 a.m.
            • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
              Rick Janowski -- Saturday, 5 March 2016, at 3:11 a.m.
            • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
              Florin Popa -- Saturday, 5 March 2016, at 4:23 p.m.
    • So who are the best players--we will never have a good answer
      Christian Munk-Christensen -- Friday, 4 March 2016, at 4:28 p.m.