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BGonline.org Forums
Its a start
Posted By: Rich Munitz In Response To: Its a start (Chuck Bower)
Date: Thursday, 18 June 2009, at 9:46 p.m.
Valid question, Chuck. If you have two independent rating scales, the starting point is arbitrary. Start them both at 1500, or at 10,000, or start the Open at 1000 and the intermediate at 5000. It doesn't really matter. Unless it is of use to understand how the ratings in one list relate to the ratings in the other. Elephants don't breed with humans (at least not legally) and are therefore distinct populations. However, it is helpful to measure both species in meters (lets ignore the US for a moment) so that everyone has a basis for how elephants compare in size with humans.
People are used to backgammon ratings from other sources such as online sites. The standard is generally that all players start at 1500 and that it is expected that the world's very best backgammon player may top out at around 2000 give or take. We know that the average intermediate tournament player is a level above average in the backgammon playing world, and we know that the average open tournament player is a level above that. So I think in terms of working with numbers that people can relate to, there is some logic to trying to assess where on this somewhat familiar Elo scale that these populations are likely to fall so that reasonable initial values can be chosen. I have no idea what the proper values here are, so I guessed, but I doubt I'm off by more than 50 Elo points.
Anyway, if we pick the right numbers, we should see over time that players on the edge who shift back and forth between intermediate and open divisions should build up two independent ratings in each population, and those two ratings should be approximately the same. And at the same time, people who play rated online at sites that have a good spread of skills including strong players and perhaps bots, or who play rated against Snowie or GNU (Snowie rates its strongest playing level at 2050) should find their ABT Elo ratings to be roughly comparable with the ratings they have achieved from these other sources. It will never be the same because populations will vary and results are volatile, but I think there is some value to try to choose initial numbers that aim to achieve some level of consistency since it is otherwise completely arbitrary what those numbers are.
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