Author: Alberto Rezza
Date: 08:21:51 02/13/04
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>How many players in the world are at least good level amateurs in go? It depends. If "good level amateur" is something like 1-dan (on the european rating) then there must be at least one million players in the world who are this strong or stronger. However, go and chess are too different, and it's very difficult to compare their rankings. I think some people have tried to get equivalent ramkings by comparing the probabilities of winning for a given rank difference in the two games, but the results are not very meaningful: it turns out that there are, from beginner to world champion, many more "steps" or levels to progress in go than in chess; so if you fix an equivalence like, for instance, 100 Elo points for every go stone, you get a much lower probability to win with a "one level" advantage in go than in chess. Another approach is to compare population sizes: there are many more chess players than go players - the go players are only about 30 million, mostly in China, Korea and Japan. From a much bigger pool you should also get better top players, so the chess GM's should really be compared to the very top go masters, the 9-dan professionals. This might put a 1-dan pro at about 2350 Elo, and a 1-dan amateur near 1700 Elo. The problem is that this is not consistent with the "feeling" reported by people who are strong in both games: for example, a friend of mine who was about 2000 Elo in chess, and also a 1-kyu (euro) amateur go player, told me he believed he was definitely stronger in go than in chess. Personally, I think 2000 Elo in chess would be slightly better than 1-kyu in go, but then again I am not a chess player... (beginner at chess, 1-dan in go). Alberto
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