From: Matthias Mutz <mutz <at> FMI <dot> UNI-PASSAU <dot> DE>
Date: 14 oct 1996
Subject: changing the email shogi ladder rules?

Dear E-mail Shogi players,

I would like to request a change of the ladder rules. I present the
suggestions from George I. Fernandez and me.
Are there any suggestions from the Shogi-l community?

    Matthias Mutz
       (current email shogi ladder coordinator,
         mutz <at> fmi <dot> uni-passau <dot> de)

MATTHIAS:

        I know, it's a bit strange that climbing the ladder sometimes depends
on the sequence of wins and losses if players are engaged in several
games. Maybe, we should discuss a change of the ladder rules for such
cases, for example that the maximum difference between previous and new
position is 5 places. What do you think?

GEORGE:

        At this time, I have not yet formed any opinions regarding the rules
in general. However, I don't see any reason to limit a players accession.
The current rules seem to add a bit of strategy to choosing an opponent and
that is good. Over time the stronger players will presumably rise anyway.
        One observation I do have is that as the ladder grows, it will take
a much longer period of time for new players to get up anywhere near to the
top. At present, that period seems to be about 5 years(taking into account
losses, delays and other players getting up in front along the way), but if
the ladder should grow to 100 participants, for example, that period could
increase to 10 years!!
        Not having a realistic chance to get up near the top may discourage
higher ranked players from getting involved, perhaps in favor of playing a
friend or two instead. During my 7 years of activities in the DC Shogi
Club(probably over 1000 games), I've only played about 20 official even
[hirate]games with players ranked below 2 Dan. We employ liberal handicaps
in our club, both in the regular club meetings and in most of the
tournaments, so it is a little odd for me to play within a completely mixed
group of players.
        What do you think about this? Do you have certain guidelines with
respect to the ladder and how easy or hard you want to be on newcomers? I
haven't much experience with ladders, so it is hard to draw any comparisions.

MATTHIAS:

        My suggestion is to compute the position of a person which can be
challenged depending on the grade and the current position.
Maybe, it also could depend on the grades of players ahead of the
person. We could discuss a proper formula. I plan to introduce
computer support for managing the ladder standing, because manually
changing the ladder standing is time consuming and susceptible for
errors. This would allow to compute the highest position for challenges
for each player according the formula. I would add this value to each
record in the ladder standing, so that nobody is forced to deal with
the formula.
        Persons without a grade get assigned a grade (only relevant for
the email shogi ladder) depending on wins and losses against persons
with grades.

GEORGE:

        This all sounds great. If you could find the time to implement such
a formula, it would make things much easier for all involved. Opening the
door for discussion will likely yield more ideas.