RE: [Bug-gnubg] Snowie error rates versus gnubg error rates

[Albert Silver]

> > but the elite backgammon players (at least on a good day) are much
> > stronger than even what Snowie calls borderline WC. See, for
example,
> > the incomplete match between Malcolm Davis and Bob Zavoral currently
> > on the front page of GammonVillage, with error rates of 3.007 and
> > 3.337, despite the sloppy play at the end. Here are the Snowie error
> > rates of other recent matches there:
> 
> 3.5 seems like a reasonable threshold. That translates to
approximately
> 5.0 on the gnubg scale.

I think the comparison with grandmasters in chess to be complicated. In
chess one can find grandmasters within more than 200 Elo points of each
other so the question is whether the 3.5 average would represent all 600
players hypothetically presented here, or are these the elite of the
elite? The lower end of grandmasters range anywhere between 2450-2500
Elo in chess, but you'll find the elite to range between 2650-2750 Elo,
and these would be the top 30-40 players or so. 

Would these top 600 players in backgammon truly *average* a 3.5
error-rate? Are there really that many? If so, then I would concur that
setting the bar to 3.5 is fine, but if not, then perhaps not. If World
Class is supposed to represent the grandmaster range in chess this means
including the lower rnage as well as the higher. In any case, permit me
to say that becoming a grandmaster in chess is FAR more difficult than
rating 3.5 on any day in backgammon could ever be. No offense. I can get
a 3.5 rating in some 5-game matches but know I'll definitely not be
playing at a 2550 Elo level in chess that often (maybe 1 game in 40) and
I was rated more than 2200 for several years in my prime. I've been
inactive for several years so my rating is currently somewhat decadent
(~2150).

                                                        Albert