From: Larry Kaufman WIZARD NET> Date: 25 feb 1997 Subject: shogi ratings/rankings Currently there is discussion in the U.S. about converting the Washington D.C. shogi rating system into a national one, since it is already functioning as such at least for the Eastern half of the country. Before taking this step we would like to make some adjustments to try to keep the ratings/rankings more or less in line with both Europe and Japan. We use a rating system that is rather similar to the European one, with the most notable difference being that we rate handicap games as well as even ones. However, the European system defines the Dan ranks as one hundred points apart (less for the kyu ranks), while we use two hundred points for the dan ranks (again less for the kyu ranks). Mathematically the European system works out to implying that a difference of one Dan rank means the stronger player will win 64% of the time in even games, whereas our system implies that the stronger player will win 75% of the time. It is my opinion that the 75% figure is much more realistic, and probably even conservative, because the ranks have become very compressed in Japan, with shodan being rather easy to earn, but 5 and 6 dan quite difficult to obtain. Other players I have talked to agree, but I would be interested in hearing the opinion of other dan players with experience in Japan on this topic. The question I ask is: if a player who typically scores 50% against other players of his rank (2 dan or above) plays even games against average players of the next lower rank, what percentage will he score? Thanks in advance for your opinions.