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Clarification & more

Posted By: Chuck Bower
Date: Monday, 29 October 2007, at 4:28 p.m.

In Response To: 2008 Giants list voting (Chuck Bower)

I have come to the realization that my previous (above) comments may have been overly negative. That wasn't the intent.

There is no perfect+practical system of evaluating relative strengths of players. There have (and still are) several systems, all having their own shortcomings. Some examples:

ABT: Advantages: objective; easily spelled out and understood; very difficult /impossible to manipulate. Disadvantages: regional (US events only); measures cumulative performance as opposed to absolute performance.

ELO rankings: Advantages: objective; has potential of measuring absolute preformance; Disadvantage: long settling time; tends to be regionalized in practice; susceptible (in some cases) to manipulation.

Bot analyzed ratings: Advantages: insensitive to luck (thus short settling time); objective; measures absolute performance; Disadvantages: in practice, susceptible to manipulation by selective reporting; in practice, regionalized (e.g. for the current Ristov-Nielsen system, taken from GamesGrid and selected live matches).

Survey/voting (Giant 32): Advantages: democratic; Disadvantages:: subjective; potentially regionalized (see early years results with underrepresentation of non-US players).

I've said before that all of the above have their values. Best if we take all into account rather than just one being the blessed world ranking.

I find it interesting that with the exception of some online ratings (like FIBS), the Giant 32 is the longest running ranking system. KG's ELO and Johanni's Snowie Rating were good while they lasted, but have unfortunately died off. That says a lot about the persistence of Giant-32's proprietors (Cole, Jacobs, Yamin).

Messages In This Thread

• 2008 Giants list voting
  Stick -- Saturday, 27 October 2007, at 5:03 p.m.
  • 2008 Giants list voting
    RobertFontaine -- Saturday, 27 October 2007, at 6:29 p.m.
  • 2008 Giants list voting
    Bill Riles -- Saturday, 27 October 2007, at 7:05 p.m.
  • 2008 Giants list voting *NM*
    David Rockwell -- Saturday, 27 October 2007, at 10:49 p.m.
    • 2008 Giants list voting
      David Rockwell -- Saturday, 27 October 2007, at 10:52 p.m.
      • 2008 Giants list voting
        bob koca -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 1:07 a.m.
        • 2008 Giants list voting
          Stick -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 1:09 a.m.
          • 2008 Giants list voting
            happyjuggler0 -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 2:28 a.m.
            • 2008 Giants list voting
              bob koca -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 2:35 a.m.
              • 2008 Giants list voting
                David Rockwell -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 4:17 a.m.
                • 2008 Giants list voting
                  Daniel Murphy -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 5:59 a.m.
          • 2008 Giants list voting
            bob koca -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 2:31 a.m.
            • 2008 Giants list voting
              Chuck Bower -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 3:29 p.m.
  • 2008 Giants list voting
    rew -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 12:35 p.m.
  • 2008 Giants list voting
    Chuck Bower -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 3:27 p.m.
    • Clarification & more
      Chuck Bower -- Monday, 29 October 2007, at 4:28 p.m.
    • Correction on eligibility
      Chuck Bower -- Monday, 29 October 2007, at 8:43 p.m.
  • Snowie Rankings
    pekfrench -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 10:40 p.m.
    • Link that works
      Stick -- Sunday, 28 October 2007, at 10:45 p.m.
      • Interesting opinion...
        Chuck Bower -- Monday, 29 October 2007, at 1:19 p.m.