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Subject: Re: Is there a rating inflation?

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 17:33:51 06/03/02

Go up one level in this thread


On June 03, 2002 at 15:02:39, Chris Carson wrote:

>On June 03, 2002 at 14:51:23, Sune Fischer wrote:
>
>>On June 03, 2002 at 14:39:22, Sune Fischer wrote:
>>
>>
>>>You have
>>>Elo_1970(strength)=F(T_1970(strength)) and
>>>Elo_2002(strength)=G(T_2002(strength)), now F(T(..)) and G(T(..)) are known
>>>distributions, namely the ratinglists.
>>>But we want to find how the strength evolved in time, how do we do that?
>>>
>>>If you treat F,G and T as unknowns (as I do), then you will get nowhere in you
>>>analysis, you need to make assumtions or approksimations, that is unless I'm
>>>overlooking something ;)
>>
>>Perhaps
>>Elo_1970(strength)=F(S(1970),1970) and
>>Elo_2002(strength)=G(S(2002),2002), would have been a better nameing
>>convention;)
>>So S is strength as function of time, and F and G are inflations, also functions
>>of time.
>>It seems hard to seperate S(time) from the other unknown functions, but perhaps
>>statistics has methods?
>>
>>-S.
>
>I will give your comments some thought, my opinion is that you are making this
>more complicated than it is, but I will consider it.
>
>My opinion is that FIDE ELO 1972 can be compared to FIDE ELO 2002.  There may be
>an inflation component (constant or percentage or time dependant variable or
>...), but if an inflation component exists, then the comparison is still valid
>with the time component factored in.  I also think a good question is how
>significant is the inflationary component?


And now _back_ to the issue at hand:  How is it possible to answer this?  There
is _no_ "absolute scale" that can be used to compare the players from two eras
to see how strong they are in comparison to each other.

And without such a measuring stick, there is nothing to normalize the FIDE
ratings to.  We are stuck with conjecture...



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