From: Reijer Grimbergen yz yamagata-u ac jp> Date: 01 sep 2004 Subject: Re: Results from Shogi ESC WOSC 2004 in Munich / Germany Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Save on inkjet and toner, and get free shipping on orders over $50. http://click.topica.com/= caacAsfa2i6YsbnuqMaa/Inksoutlet ------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not an expert on pairing systems, but I do not think that=20 equalizing SOS points is strange. The philosophy is that after the final= =20 round, all players have had more or less the same average strength of=20 opponents. To me, it seems quite unfair to get all the strong opponents=20 and end up with the same score (or even with less points) than a player=20 who got an easy ride. In the CSA computer shogi tournament, this has actually been a point of=20 ongoing debate. Because five programs qualify for the final day,=20 decisions for the final spots always involve SOS points. In the past,=20 there have been a number of heartbreaking cases where a good program got= =20 all the strong programs as opponents (four or five rounds in a row) and=20 ended up with less points than a program that was paired consistently=20 with weaker opponents. As a result, the objectively stronger program=20 failed to qualify. This always seemed unfair to me and I have always=20 been in favour of a system that equalizes SOS points, even though this=20 is not officially part of the Swiss system. As for strangeness, when I was still playing chess as a 12-year old=20 (yes, 25 years ago), the tournaments I played in always used equalizing=20 SOS points as one of the main criteria for deciding pairings. Reijer Eric wrote: >=20 >> Ad 2: >> You are right! There were really some strange pairings at the WOSC. >> I also was paired once down one group although i was the strongest=20 >> player of my group. >> >> The problem was in my opinion the used pairing program MacMahon, which= =20 >> supports a kind of swiss pariing system, but no real swiss system. It= =20 >> works well for Mac mahon tournaments but not well for swiss systems. >> >> The program tries always to equalize the SOS-points of the players.=20 >> So if there is an uneven number of players i one group, it pairs down= =20 >> the strongest player of a group (the player with the highest actual=20 >> SOS-points) to the weakest player (!) of the next group. >=20 >=20 > I unsderstand better. Equalizing SOS seems really strange. I have never= =20 > seen this before ! >=20 --=20 Reijer Grimbergen Department of Informatics, Yamagata University Jonan 4-3-16, Yonezawa, 992-8510 Japan Tel: +81-(0)238-26-3740 FAX: +81-(0)238-26-3299 http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/ Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Stories from the Civil Rights Movement. Extraordinary stories,=20 ordinary people. Share your memories today! http://click.topica.com/= caacvgla2i6YsbnuqMaf/AARP ------------------------------------------------------------------- --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: = shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.= bnuqMa.= c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=3DTEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------