Now and again I chat with the geniuses who administer chess in this country.

One problem in conducting conversations is agreeing what words mean, and
yesterday we stumbled over this one: STRENGTH - [please ignore the computer
reference below, computer people get very emotional and upset if 'their'
subject is even mentioned by 'others']

So when you say 'strength' what do you mean?


Some people say that ratings don't equal strength, but I never understand
what that means - at least as a general statement ratings indicate
playing
strength, but no computer program has a real, honest-to-goodness rating.

PI


OK try this.

Run a coin flipping tournament. Assign ratings to the coins based on
their
win/loss results.


I'm sorry, but chess results are not random, but dependent on chess play,
some say skill, and most people understand Dr. Elo to have made a relative
scale which places those performed skills in its index.

You may have been thinking that if people flip an assortment of GMs up in
the air, the really heavy GMs could only be flipped by the strongest
flipper?

Some coin at the end of the tourney will have a high rating. Some coin
will
have a low rating.

Would you say the coins have "strength"?? Or would you finally understand
that ratings are only a direct relection of results....and we *assume*
that the
causal factor behind the results is "strength" (which is measured only
indirectly).

When you say "we *assume*" are you referring to yourselves? It wouldn't
occur to me to assign strength to the coins, any more than to the GMs in my
own example.

Is it the flipper who has the strength, not the flipped? I'm thinking
that could be it!

Anyway, please share more of your thoughts on this subject, since I am a bit
confused when people /do/ talk about 'strong' players, and so on, since they
co-incidentally [?] seem to be referring to players with high ratings - and
the relative difference in ratings is the way we talk of a player being
stronger than another.

A final example, if I flip a 2600 player up in the air, in your opinion, is
this the same as if I flip two 1300 players? No! that's not it.

One 2600 player is the same strength as two 1300 players? no, wait, I still
haven't said it right...

Confused in Vermont. PI

ECJ