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Giant versus average open player

Posted By: Steve Mellen
Date: Wednesday, 15 September 2010, at 4:03 a.m.

In Response To: Giant versus average open player (Stanley E. Richards)

I think I probably confused the issue by bringing up the mythical "perfect" player. Among actual players of whatever skill level, the factor you cite - fluctuation in one's performance from day to day - is indeed very important. If I beat Neil because he took a bad cube, I might say to my friends, "Wow, I was lucky he took that!" but I don't think you can really call it luck. For that particular match, I was more skillful than Neil.

The other thing I was trying to get at is that even when the players' skill cancels each other out, that doesn't change the fact that skill is involved. Imagine those two perfect players, sitting there making one correct play after another, all day long. If either of them started playing like a mere mortal they would most likely get crushed; it's only their skill that enables them to be competitive with a perfect opponent. If you think the outcome is 100% attributable to luck when two perfect backgammon players meet, then you ought to draw the same conclusion when two perfect chess players meet, when two perfect Go players meet, etc. I don't think that's a logical way to look at things.

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