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Subject: Re: Being better...

Author: Kolss

Date: 23:24:49 01/23/04

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On January 23, 2004 at 18:12:19, Rolf Tueschen wrote:

>On January 23, 2004 at 16:14:57, Kolss wrote:
>
>>On January 23, 2004 at 14:43:10, Bruce Cleaver wrote:
>>
>>>The real weakness here is accepting the 95% certainty claim.  It's traditional,
>>>and makes some kind of sense, but when you get down to it there is also an
>>>element of arbitrariness.  If you are satisfied with a 90% certainty, or perhaps
>>>+/- 1.5 sigma, or whatever, the scores that will impress you (out of 300 games)
>>>change.
>>>
>>>There are also times when 95% isn't good enough, and the claim has to be much
>>>tighter.
>>
>>I completely agree.
>>
>>95% is arbitrary; take 68% or 82.73% if that makes you happy. Only you should
>>know what confidence interval you employ and what it tells you. Keep in mind
>>that you can always only say something like "A is better than B" with a certain
>>(error) probability / confidence - it is entirely up to you what probability is
>>good enough for you (nothing magical about the 95%).
>>
>>Just to repeat the previous case (S8 vs. S7.04 162.5-137.5, +90 -65 =145): the
>>probability that S8 is the better of the two programs, based on this single
>>match and therefore only valid for a direct match between the two in this
>>particular setup etc., is about 97.5% (it will in fact even be slightly higher,
>>maybe 98%). If you say you want 99% certainty before you believe it, that is
>>fine - you may have to run a 1000-game match then after all. If you "believe" in
>>the 95% and want to show that one program is better than the other, then you can
>>stop. If you want 100% certainty, you will have to play an infinite number of
>>games.
>>
>>Best regards - Munjong.
>
>
>Munjong,
>you can repeat it as much as you want but it remains wrong!
>With your data you can NOT say that Shredder8 is now better with 97,5% or
>whatever "probability". That is nonsense. Period.
>
>Rolf

Rolf,

At least my assertions are based on some theory - namely statistical theory.
I suppose you would even deny that one can say that Shredder8 is better with at
least 50% probability...

Munjong.



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