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Subject: Re: Test results and real Strength

Author: Rolf Tueschen

Date: 03:22:01 02/20/03

Go up one level in this thread


On February 18, 2003 at 23:34:50, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On February 18, 2003 at 05:21:00, Sune Fischer wrote:
>
>>On February 18, 2003 at 04:38:32, Alastair Scott wrote:
>>
>>>On February 17, 2003 at 14:41:34, Anthony Cozzie wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>the elo system has no defined 0.  results are only defined in terms of wins and
>>>>losses.  For example, suppose one defined the average elo to be 1600, and placed
>>>>Kramnik, Kasparov, and Shirov in a room together and had them play 5000 games.
>>>>Kasparov's rating would be 1650 at best.  Or we could define the 0 to be 0 -
>>>>Kasparov would have a rating of 1200, and some people would have negative
>>>>rating!  The whole thing is just like potential energy in physics: only
>>>>differences in the rating system are meaningful.
>>>
>>>Excellent explanation, and there is also the Flynn effect (such rating systems
>>>tend to progressively inflate the numbers over time), which I believe has never
>>>been explained.
>>
>>How do you know they inflate if you can't compare them?
>>
>>-S.
>>
>
>One simple idea is to compare the "average" rating for the pool, over
>time.  IE the average "IQ" is not going up, so the average rating should
>not go up since it is a relative measure among the pool members.  If it does
>go up, it has to be inflation since not _everybody_ is going to improve
>steadily...

Actually it goes up due to learning by doing, hence the testers will always
adapt their tests to the actual level of information - based on the fact that
the average as such - like you've stated - does NOT change. The average of
intelligence.

The same shoud be done with the Elo listing. The rise of the numbers on the top
implies a rising "strength" which is false! The strength is NOT rising but the
informational level about chess is still making progress.

Strength is not identical with historic progress because historic levels rise
for the whole population, but not their 'strength'.

It's clear that the strong players and more their claque try to confuse about
the historical relativity of their performance. But Kasparov is not stronger
than Fischer, actually he's already weaker than Kramnik, by 100 Elo points. This
is ridiculous to assume.

Rolf Tueschen


>
>
>
>
>>>Alastair



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