Hideki Kato wrote:
In Nihon Kiin's ELO system(1), 1000 ELO is 1 rank,
The Elo rating is based on two assumptions:
a. The performance of each player in each game is a
normally distributed random variable.
b. All players performance have the same standard
deviation. (This is controversial, and other
rating systems modify this.)
Anything else is arbitrary! Including how many Elo
points produce a given probability.
Elo *tradition* (from chess) has always used the
convention:
100 points = 1/(1+10^.25) = 0.3599 approx = 1/3
200 points = 1/(1+10^.50) = 0.3204 approx = 1/4
1000 Elo points give a probability of 1/317
It is obvious that Nihon Kiin's use a different
scale (may be 1000 Nihon Kiin's = 100 traditional).
On the handicap subject:
I am very happy to have a 19x19 server either with
or without handicap, so I welcome it as it is.
Nevertheless, I have certain experience (not with
MC) of computer go with handicap and I can tell:
Waiting for the opponent to blunder is only a good
strategy if the handicap is lower than it should.
E.g. 7 kyu difference & Handi 3. If the handicap
approaches its real value, that does not work.
I have seen (many times) GnuGo not being able to
win a H7 game to an opponent more than 10 kyu
weaker. That happens because it had to invade
unclear positions. The more the invasion is
postponed, the worse. The weaker player simply
does defensive uninteresting play and so does the
stronger player (with better yose, but that's not
enough). If I (manually) use two or three turns
just to invade, GnuGo tries to save the invading
stones and that's more than enough to win the game.
As I said before, its a different game and the
more accurate you determine the handicap, the
worse. If at all, handicap should always be
underestimated by a factor of 1/2.
Handicap is used to make the game interesting
enough to white (but usually white still wins)
to honor a lower player with a learning game.
I hope weaker bots will learn at lot from the
games played against the stronger. ;-)
Jacques.
_______________________________________________
computer-go mailing list
computer-go@computer-go.org
http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
