From: "Stouten, Pieter [R&D/0467]" <pieter.stouten <at> PHARMACIA <dot> COM>
Date: 11 dec 2002
Subject: Re: FESA Homepage and ratings

Hello Marc,

--- Marc Marian <shogilist <at> SHOGI <dot> DE> wrote:

> I assume there is simply no link between european and asian ELO
> calculation yet. Maybe they didn't need it before.
>
There is always a problem if two or more populations do not have many
interactions as then their ratings systems may drift apart. One of the goals
of the Pan-Atlantic Shogi Championships (PASCs) of 1998 and 1999, and the
MSO Worldwide Championship of 2000 was to tie the American and European
populations together.

Recently, we encountered a situation where Ukraine/Russia on the one hand
and America/Western Europe on the other seemed to have drifted apart. This
was due to a large influx of new, quickly improving players in
Ukraine/Russia. That issue is currently being addressed and we now have
enough games to tie these sublists together again. As a result, several
Russian and Ukrainian players will get a higher rating than they currently
have. The adjustment won't significantly affect Artem Kolomiyets (whose case
started this thread), though.

Generally, we don't rate tournaments in Japan. However, since quite a few
European and American players participated in the ISF, this was too good an
opportunity to make the Pan-Atlantic list even more self-consistent, so it
was decided to rate the ISF games anyway.

Ciao,

Pieter