From: Pieter Stouten <stouten <at> SHOGI <dot> NET>
Date: 14 mar 2001
Subject: Re: Evaluation of handicap games (please comment)

On 01/03/14 at 13:38 +0100, Rikard Nordgren wrote:

>Just because there is a
>documented so-called forced mate for six piece handicap doesn't mean
>that everyone knows this, have read the articles and figured all the
>sidelines out.
>
The problem is that a large difference in ratings may mean very
different things when considering a game between, say, a top pro and
an amateur shodan or a game between, say, an amateur nidan and a
15-kyu. In the first case, the weaker player (shodan) probably knows
the forced win; in the latter case, the weaker player (15-kyu) may
not. What that is saying is that not only might handicaps depend on
the Elo difference between the opponents, but also on the absolute
strengths of the players. Larry and Asle tried to analyze and
quantify this dependence on absolute strength, but there is not
enough data to draw any statistically meaningful conclusions.

Ciao,

Pieter