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Subject: Re: Comet A.96 - Wcrafty15.20 20 games blitz match

Author: Djordje Vidanovic

Date: 16:16:52 10/20/98

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On October 20, 1998 at 12:56:29, Ulrich Tuerke wrote:

>On October 20, 1998 at 12:29:59, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>>
>>60% is 100 Elo points,
>
>If I'm not wrong, 60% is rather in the range of a 50 - 60 ELO points
>difference. But it doesn't matter anyway, see below.
>
>>if you can assume that 60% is the "true" result for these
>>programs, which you can't from this sample, I would bet.
>
>No doubt about that. A sample of 200 games still has an uncertainty of about
>50 ELO points. So, a 20 game match has an uncertainty of several
>hundred ELO points.
>
>IMHO, the only rather safe conclusion is, that none of both programs is
>completely without chance against the other one. Not a very sophisticated
>conclusion, I'm afraid.
>
>Uli
>>bruce

The books say that 60% is actually a 72-rating-point difference, but never mind.
What is at issue here is the small sample, so that both B. Moreland and Uli
Tuerke are basically right.  Let me just add that I consider the whole matter of
rating as a daft little game made up of mere pointers, indicators of a sort,
that present us only with a very general idea about a program's strength.  Thus
we can only know whether a program is strong, less strong or a duffer, but not
really whether it's rated 2400, 2476 or 2512... All the  figures are silly by
themselves. And what is even more a laugh is that so many programs have been
purchased due to their being rated one or two ELO points higher than others...

Regards,
Djordje



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