Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 12:00:22 12/24/00
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On December 24, 2000 at 13:11:49, Christophe Theron wrote: >On December 24, 2000 at 09:09:27, Jeroen Noomen wrote: > >>My congratulations to Vishy Anand, for winning the >>FIDE World Championship 2000! >> >>3,5-0,5 in the final against Shirov, that leaves no >>discussion whatsoever. Anand was the best, remained >>unbeaten and scored a clear victory in the final. >>Well done! >> >>Jeroen > > >I am still absolutely amazed that a World Championship can be decided this way. > >A score of 3.5-0.5 is not statistically significant, not even with a low >confidence. > >It is now clear, at least amongst the experienced computers chess operators, >that such a result means NOTHING. > >I think that the computer chess community is on some topics much more advanced >than the human chess community. For example the human chess community has >adopted the ELO rating system, but still ignores most of the basic rules of this >system (margin of error, level of confidence). The computer chess community is >aware of these rules, and you can find these parameters published in the SSDF >rating list for example. > > > > Christophe The soccer World Cup is decided based upon one final game. Many other events are decided based upon seven games or fewer. I don't have a problem with this. They aren't trying to achieve statistical significance, they are trying to find a winner. They choose a way that is dramatic and entertaining, not scientific. Nothing wrong with that, as long as they don't call it scientific. What I object to is when people use scientific methods and then make conclusions that are not scientific. One does not become a scientist just because one wears a lab coat and tries to be fair. bruce
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