Chess One <OneChess@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "David Richerby" <davidr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> 36.8% of games (167,000) are won by White
>> 36.6% of games (166,000) are drawn
>> 26.6% of games (120,000) are won by Black
>>
>> We already have 63.4% of games ending in a win by one player or the
>> other. Is it really necessary to `solve' this `draw problem'?
>
> a) The other idea being kicked around [and collated at Chessbase] is
> to maintain current scoring systems in terms of overall points, but
> to adjust the score for white draws to 0.4 and black draws to 0.6.
That would ****ft the points balance towards Black: White would score
51.4% and Black 48.6%. Of course, in practice, the distribution of
wins and draws would change, too.
Indeed, this is something that worries me a great deal about plans to
change the scoring of draws. Schemes where the sum of the two
players' scores in a draw is less than that in a win have problems
associated with the game no longer being zero-sum and increasing the
profit of cheating. Schemes that keep draws worth one point in total
but give more of that point to one side or the other seem to increase
the temptation for the player who gets more points (usually Black) to
play for the draw. This would be the case particularly in schemes
where Black gets more than about 73% of the point, as, then, Black
would be getting more than half of his score from draws, at the
current rates of draws.
> d) I wonder if W : D : L is significantly different in the top 1% of
> players than to all other players of the game? And if so, then at
> /that/ level some experiments might be made.
Yes, the results are clearly different at different strengths. Among
beginners, hardly any games are drawn; among the very top players,
well over half of the games are drawn.
> e) Given the introduction of computers and also the net as means of
> researching opponents games, I also wonder if the top 1% of players
> now have a different W : D : L ratio than, say, the generation
> playing during 1950-1980?
Perhaps, yes.
Dave.
--
David Richerby Flammable Widget (TM): it's
like a
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ thingy but it burns really
easily!
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