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How to improve backgammon: Adopt a world ranking system like tennis or golf

Posted By: Steve Mellen
Date: Friday, 8 July 2011, at 3:53 a.m.

In Response To: How to improve backgammon: Adopt a world ranking system like tennis or golf (Ken Larsen)

There are people who only make one or two events a year (I am one of them, but am not making this point for personal reasons) who may actually be dissuaded by such a rating system. They may see the rate of decay and think, why bother, I'll never be able to maintain a decent ranking no matter what.

I think the issue is somewhat complicated. In chess where you have numerous inexpensive, local events, rating points are a decent incentive to spur attendance. In backgammon, I honestly don't know how strongly rating points would operate as an incentive to attend a national event, as opposed to other factors (distance, cost, etc). It's kind of complicated.

I do think it is important to recognize that we are talking about two separate issues here: (1) what system is the best way to determine who is truly "best" or "better"; and (2) what system will do the most to help grow the game? I'm not an expert on the tennis ranking system, for example, but my impression is that it is designed primarily to encourage top players to attend as many tour events as possible and only secondarily to tell us who the best player is right now.

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