Martin Brown wrote:
Kenneth Sloan wrote:
Martin Brown wrote:
One way of determining the original rating of a complete beginner is to
accept that they will improve with each game played and then model it.
Afterwards you can compute the intercept of their rating vs number of
games played at the 0 games played axis to get a fair estimate.
My instinct is that you would work hard to find someone with an ELO
rating below 500 (who wasn't deliberately playing to lose).
If you are restricting the population to "adults of normal
intelligence", then I would agree. However, if you include
all players, regardless of age or intelligence, I can find at least
10 players with deserved ratings 0000.
and hundreds upon hundreds of players with deserved ratings 0500
I may have been a little optimistic about the weakest player who knows
the basic rules (or perhaps more accurately doesn't break any of them
in a game). Or in beginners chess that no-one has noticed any of them
being broken...
I'm sorry - I wasn't clear. Most of these VERY low rated players do NOT
know the rules! Believe it or not, there are thousands of players
entering rated tournaments who do NOT know all the rules. And, many of
them are children with undeveloped attention spans. And, of course,
SOME of these will grow up to be "not so smart" adults. And, some of
them are only there because Mommy dropped them off and said she'll be
back at 5:00.
A motivated adult novice of normal intelligence, who has studied the
game enough to know all the rules of play is light-years ahead of
such seasoned tournament veterans!
"Knowing the rules" is by no means the bottom rung on the ladder.
And...oh yes...I think we all know chess players who "know a lot about
chess - especially the history and culture". They can perhaps even
quote famous games and pontificate on the relative merits of past
Champions. But, they can't actually *play* worth a damn. My point is
that "knowing much more than the rules" doesn't *necessarily* give you
an edge over the board against someone who *only* knows the rules.
--
Kenneth Sloan
Computer and Information Sciences +1-205-932-2213
University of Alabama at Birmingham FAX +1-205-934-5473
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 http://www.cis.uab.edu/sloan/