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On May 15, 10:17 am, wrote:
On May 15, 8:06 am, "Chess One" wrote:





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"Alekhine's Parrot" (that quacking fowl Phil Innes) writes at the
_Chessville Weekly_:

"Coming up later this Year – Strongest ever US Tournament.

"September 19th to 28th sees a [so far] Category 15 tournament on US
soil in the 10 player SPICE CUP. Seven of the 10 invitees have
already signed up, and I understand average Elo is currently 2600."

Question: Is it really plausible to claim that this tournament is/will
be stronger than New York 1927, or the 1st and 2nd Piatigorsky Cups?
("Highest category" would be correct, but that's not what he wrote.)

---

Important News!

John Hillery thinks that any group of 10 US Players circa 1927
//averaged//
2600 ratings. ))))))

That is not what he is saying, Phil. By "US tournament," he clearly
means "a chess tournament played on US soil," and not "a tournament
limited to US citizens." The three events he refers to: New York 1927,
and the two Piatigorsky Cups (Los Angeles 1963 and Santa Monica 1966),
had only one or two American players each, out of six to 10 total
contestants.

[quite apart from the fact that no ratings existed, even as retrofitted
numbers against other players in the world, that is some might claim!]

Sometimes I don't know where his talents begin - somewhere on the Yellow
Brick Road? Anyway, now we know what the JKH definition of 'plausible'
is.
It is indeed possible that he thinks 1927 players could average 2600,
and
that is enough to write into these newsgroups, with disparaging comments
like a newbie or a follower of clan-Murray.

As a journalist, surely John Hillery will want to substatiate his point
by
mentioning even one fact; for example, a list of 10 players he proposes
to
average 2600 from 1927, would seem to me to be a minimum proposition on
his
part in order to be plausible.

Here are the contestants at New York 1927, with their 5-year peak
ratings as given by Dr. Elo in his book:

** Taylor covers for Hillery, who is shy of answering questions put to him
about his own utterances, and talks instead of ratings before there were
ratings! Retrogressive and guessed at ratings of a previous era.

Capablanca: 2725
Alekhine: 2690
Nimzovitch: 2615
Vidmar: 2600
Spielmann: 2560
Marshall: 2570

That's an average of 2627, which would nudge it just into Category
16 (Elo 2626-2650). Probably a pretty reasonable estimate, perhaps a
mite high -- with the exception of the oldest player, Marshall, these
masters were all at or near their time of peak performance. So it's
quite plausible to suggest that New York 1927 might be the strongest
tournament ever held on US soil. It certainly was the the strongest up
to that time.

** If indeed we were to speculate on regressions, and only say 'plausible'.
Sure!

Checking the list of "the world's strongest tournaments" in Fox &
James' "The Even More Complete Chess Addict" (Faber and Faber, 1993),
we do indeed find NY 1927, and the two Piatigorsky Cups, given as the
strongest American events, all at an estimated Category 15
(2601-2625).

**Hardly candid. Should it not be mentioned that these are regressive and
estimated ratings? Or maybe that is too much for this conversation to
withstand.

**For players with ratings, it is uncontested. For degrees of speculation
there is resort to untested performance, as if the named players above could
compete at the same level as those with similar rating today.

If this Spice Cup tournament surpasses them, it will be quite a
prestigious event.

Just for the sake of fuller information, here are the Patigorsky Cup
contestants, and their 5-year peak Elo ratings (or Jan 1978 rating
where Elo does not give a 5-year peak):

** What has this to do with the price of fish? These players with ratings
never played en group in the USA to achieve the current category level. It
merely establishes world ratings in 63 and 66, as some sort of benchmark.

**Phil Innes

1963:

Keres 2670
Petrosian 2680
Najdorf 2635
Olafsson 2530 (as of 1/1/1978)
Reshevsky 2680
Gligoric 2620
Benko 2570
Panno 2580 (1/1/1978)

1966:

Spassky 2680
Fischer 2780 (1/11978)
Larsen 2620 (1/1/1978)
Portisch 2630 (1/1/1978)
Unzicker 2590
Petrosian 2680
Reshevsky 2680
Najdorf 2635
Ivkov 2570
Donner 2500