From: DANERUD MARTIN TELIA COM> Date: 13 dec 2002 Subject: Intentional misunderstandings? Dear Hugo and all other shogi friends, Excuse me for being too harsh, but I have to make the following remark, since this occurs too frequently. >> There are only in two areas where >> the grades or ratings really matter in Europe: the qualification to the >> European Championship (the best 32 Europeans by means of ELO rating) and >> the qualification and board order of a shogi team. In tournament pairings, >> if a McMahon system is not used, the grades and ratings do not really >> decide if you will be the winner or if you will end up further down the >> table of results. > Elo-ratings are important in all tournaments, as these in most cases will > determine the pairings in the 1st round (and thus indirectly also those of > the other rounds). What is this? Is it the informal world championship of intentional misunderstandings? I stated: 1) There are cases (the 32 qualifiers to the ESC and shogi teams) where the ELO rating REALLY matters. That means, that you will be excluded from the right to participate, that you will not have a chance to play, that you cannot win the tournament, and that you are a non-actor in that drama if your ELO rating is not high enough. 2) There are other cases (excluding the McMahon system), where the ELO rating is just a tool for pairing. When you start the tournament you have the right to participate, you have a chance to play, you can win the tournament, and you are definitely an actor in the drama. If you are the best player (at the time of the tournament), but if you do not have the highest ELO rating in the tournament, then you will have to play the highest rated players anyway in order to win the tournament, and the pairing system just determines in what order you will have to play them (with some minor differences depending on the number of participants etc). There is a main difference between the cases 1) and 2). As expected as a reply mail on Shogi-L, that had to be commented with an obvious remark. I have grown very tired of that type of behaviour. Please reply to this if you also intentionally misunderstood my initial e-mail! Best regards, Martin Danerud FESA president