Author: Tony Essman
Date: 17:48:42 06/09/99
Go up one level in this thread
<snip>
>The maximum ELO is obtained by playing against a common houseplant, which >always forfeits on time. My ELO in this pool is quite impressive.
>;-)
I was intrigued by just what the Elo of a common house plant would be, so I
decided to put it to the test in a tournament. It would be unfair to pit it
against humans, or computers, though, and since I only have one house plant, I
used a potato for the other participant. I figure it could be a plant if I
didn't eat it.
Anyway, I ran the tournament as a double round-robin with game in 90. 45/2
would take way too long, and I can't wait very well for stuff I'm interested in
(reading about it also takes too long).
The house plant had white in the first round, and then the colors
alternated each round. Maybe some other format would have been better -- I don't
know I'm not a tournament director, but hey, I'm not a mathematician either!
Well here were the parings:
+---------+-----------------------+-------+
| Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total |
|---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+
| Plant | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+
| Potato | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
+---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+
Dann was right! Vegetables can't seem to get the thread of the game and
lose on time, and pretty consistently. On the plus side, though, there weren't
any boring draws.
But, we can still calculate the ratings (I think). I've never really done
it before, but I understand the general concept of how ratings work, and I've
never let not knowing something keep me from wading in. And, I think most folks
will overlook one or two inaccuracies. Hey, chess players are most reasonable
people I have ever met.
Well, both the plant and the potato have never been rated before, so I
assigned them a "provisional" rating. I used the mean for ratings, which I
guessed to be about 1500 (sue me if I'm wrong).
I don't really know how Elo's are calculated, but that's not really
important -- one rating system is probably as good as another. I did search the
web to try and find out how, but all I got was, ahem, alternate sites. It was
pretty discouraging, and I've already mentioned how impatient I am, so I used
this formula that I once read in a FAQ:
"*** For the first 20 games (provisional rating): ***
Take the rating of the opponent +400 if the player wins. Take the
rating of the opponent -400 if the player loses. Take the rating of the
opponent if the game is a draw.
Average these numbers. (If unrated players play other unrated players,
this requires several iterations of the above.) "
Here are the calculations, and may I say right up front -- I used a
calculator to check all the numbers, so don't be flaming me!
Round 1:
--------
Rating_potato = 1500 + 400 = 1900
Rating_plant = 1500 - 400 = 1100
Round 2:
--------
Rating_potato = 1900 - 400 = 1500
Rating_plant = 1100 + 400 = 1500
Round 3:
--------
Rating_potato = 1500 + 400 = 1900
Rating_plant = 1500 - 400 = 1100
Round 4:
--------
Rating_potato = 1900 - 400 = 1500
Rating_plant = 1100 + 400 = 1500
Provisional Rating_potato = 1900 + 1500 + 1900 + 1500 / 4 = 1700
Provisional Rating_plant = 1100 + 1500 + 1100 + 1500 / 4 = 1300
Well, there you have it. A potato is quite a bit stronger than a house
plant, although I would like to stress these ratings are only provisional.
I gained a great deal of insight into ratings and how they work as a result
of this experiment, and I hope it proves equally valuable to others. For one
thing, I'm hoping for more blacks in all my future tournaments, and I'm going to
treat potatoes with much more respect!
Cheers...
Tony.
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