HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jim Yu)
Subject: Re: Japanese Players' Names
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 00:44:15 GMT

In article <1emec2INN2gd@bang.hal.COM> landman@hal.COM (Howard Landman) writes:
>In article <1992Nov21.011614.20229@news.acns.nwu.edu> jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jim Yu) writes:

>>Gao-Chuan Xiu4-Ge2		Takagawa Shukaku
>
>This is not consistent.  Takagawa's given name was Kaku.  When he won the
>Honinbo title, he chose the titular name Honinbo Shukaku.  But he's very

Thanks for pointing out.  Unfortunately, I was translating Pinyin to Kana,
so when there is a "Xiu4" in the Pinyin colunm, I have to put a "Shu" in
the Kana colunm.  So I hope it's understood that when there is only a
"Ge2", Takagawa's first name should be "Kaku" but not "Shukaku."

Personally, I feel Takagawa deserved to have this "Shu" in his name.  He
once won Honinbo 9 times in a row, and was therefore awarded "Lifetime
Honorable Honinbo" title.  I remember when I was in China, this "Xiu4" or
"Shu" was used as often as not used following "Takagawa."  It was pretty
loose, because when we talked about Takagawa, we didn't expect anyone else.
:-) 

>
>>Teng2-Ze2 Ku4-Zhi-Zhu4 *	Fujisawa Kuranoshuke
>
>That's Kuranosuke, I believe.  No "h".

That is 100% correct.  The last character, Zhu4, is sometimes pronounced
"suke", but never "shuke." 

>	Howard A. Landman

Thanks, Howard.


Jim Z Yu
--
Go isn't everything.  Go is the only thing.           -- zhuge

"zhuge, why does your .plan change every minute -- when i finger you?"
"you must have used a different finger each time."
From: landman@hal.COM (Howard Landman)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: Japanese Players' Names
Summary: Kuranosuke
Date: 21 Nov 92 22:48:34 GMT
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: bang.hal.com

In article <1992Nov21.011614.20229@news.acns.nwu.edu> jzy@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jim Yu) writes:
>Ban3-Tian2 Rong2-Nan2		Sakata Eio
>Gao-Chuan Xiu4-Ge2		Takagawa Shukaku

This is not consistent.  Takagawa's given name was Kaku.  When he won the
Honinbo title, he chose the titular name Honinbo Shukaku.  But he's very rarely
referred to as Takagawa Shukaku.  And Sakata, when he won the same title, chose
to call himself Honinbo Eiju; but no one ever calls him Sakata Eiju.

>Teng2-Ze2 Ku4-Zhi-Zhu4 *	Fujisawa Kuranoshuke

That's Kuranosuke, I believe.  No "h".

>Jia-Teng2 Zheng4-Fu		Kato Masao

Notice that the Teng2, the "fuji" in Fujisawa, is the same character as the "to"
in Kato.  (It means "wisteria" and indicates descent from an ancient and
venerable Japanese family.)  Just one of the joys of learning Japanese is
figuring out when to pronounce it which way.  In names, it's usually "fuji" if
it's the first syllable (Fujisawa, Fujimori, ...) and "to" or "do" otherwise
(Kato, Kudo, Ando, ...).

	Howard A. Landman
From: jlzhong@focus.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: for Ms J. H. Wang only
Date: 20 Nov 1992 20:08:57 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NNTP-Posting-Host: focus.csl.uiuc.edu

Hi June,

My email to you was bounced. Could you send me your email address so that I can
send you my message. My email addresses is jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu.

Jialin Zhong
--
Jialin Zhong		    *   /  l    l        l   l  *    ---O--O--O--O---
1614 Beckman Institute	    *  / l-l-l -l-l l-l -l- -l- *   /--*--*--*--O--O
Urbana, IL 61801	    * /l l-l-l /  l l-l /l\ /l\ *  /--/--*--/--*--O
jlzhong@uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu */ l   l  /  \l    / l X l \* /--/--/--/--/--/
From: jwang@gaas.uwindsor.ca (Ms. Jing Hong (June) Wang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: go-world no.67
Date: 18 Nov 1992 19:06:59 GMT
Reply-To: jwang@gaas.uwindsor.ca
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Hello all! I am a new reader of this newsgroup. 

I just got out of China this year and have been busying on accommodating the new enviroment. Therefore, please forgive my unawareness of the happenings recently in the GO world. 

My questiona are, is "go-world" an English written magazine? How can I get it?





Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: bate@silver.cs.umanitoba.ca (John Bate)
Subject: Go in Canada
Organization: Computer Science Dept., University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Distribution: can
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 15:21:58 GMT

In a recent posting, June Wang <jwang@gaas.uwindsor.ca> asked a question
about Go World and indicated that she was new to this country.

Hi, June. I can give you some information about Canadian Go, but my system
rejected your email address. :-( If you send me a brief email note (to
bate@cs.umanitoba.ca) I can get a reliable address and send you some info.
-John Bate <bate@cs.umanitoba.ca>
From: jonathan@cats.ucsc.edu (Jonathan Cano)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Is there a new version of IGC??
Date: 15 Nov 92 20:18:15 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


I just logged on to the net with igc (v50.0 I think) and I saw
the message about the client API being changed (or something)...
When I did a 'who' each line in the list of players was printed
twice.  I did a few more commands and then got a segmentation fault.

I reckon there isn't a new version of IGC out yet is there?

--Jonathan

-- 
============================================
| Jonathan Cano             |     //   _   |
| jonathan@cats.ucsc.edu    | \\ //   (_)  |
| 8kyu (+- 2kyu)            |  \X/     |<  |
============================================
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: doshay@ursa.arc.nasa.gov (David Doshay)
Subject: Re: Go History Books...
Organization: NASA-Ames Biocomputation Center
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:48:42 GMT

In <1992Nov13.210931.11915@ichips.intel.com>, Clark Brooks writes:
>In article <1992Nov13.172829.21105@news.arc.nasa.gov>, doshay@ursa.arc.nasa.gov (David Doshay) writes:
>|> Most of the first half of the Go book from The Charles Tuttle Publishing
>
>Probably refering to "The Theory and Practice of Go" By Korschelt -
>an otherwise difficult book.

I was actually refering to the book by Smith.

David		doshay@soma.arc.nasa.gov

The thought police insist I tell you:
my thoughts, not NASA's
From: jlzhong@uirvli.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: Change my strength?
Date: 22 Nov 1992 07:41:42 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NNTP-Posting-Host: uirvli.csl.uiuc.edu

li@bellman.aa.washington.edu (Rufeng Li) writes:

>In article <By19pv.BnC@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca>,
>yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) writes:
>>In article <1egs62INNjhm@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu>
>>jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong) writes:                   
>>^^^^^^^
>>>see why some people are so worried about other people's ranking on
>>igs. 
>>
>>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>^^
>>>As I said before, enjoy the game, 
>>
>>Great point! I like it.
>>
>>Stay turned for the coming article:

>Well, you may not care yours and others rank, but most players on IGS do. It
>always is a big deal. :-)

>It is very hard to set your rnak on IGS. Some people suggested that
>set rank by 
>ones record. That implied a big assumption that everyone except you
>already set 
>his/her rank correctly. What happened if you beat a 6d easily and lost
>to a 29k? 
>I believe that happened on IGS, so what is the subjective standard? It
>seems no 
>way out.

>Don't worry, I got an ORIGINAL idea. :-) We can choose someone who is
>well known 
>on IGS, say 'panx'. You can set your rank as fellows:

>	4.2panx,	1.3panx or	-1.25 panx.

>In first rank, you can give panx 4-stones and win about 60% games. In second 
>one, you play with panx in even game and win about 65% and in third one, you 
>always use b in no komi game and lose 62.5% when you play panx. Is this clear 
>enough? If you use this system, it is very easy to set your rank. Of course 
>we'll choose more standard players like 'ychen', 'zhong' and 'onek'
>and work out 
>conversion among those players. For example,

>	1ychen=2zhong=3onek. (please note, this is an example only.)

>BTW, 1 million thanks to 'tweet' for extra work for new system. :-)

>Have fun and enjoy IGS.

>--
>UFO[1.2onek] at U of W, Seattle. 206-525-8549(H)  206-685-1930(O)

While believe or not, I will never set my rank to 3.5UFO (only an example)
although UFO is some kind of standard on igs. The whole thing is not which
ranking system is better. Igs is only an informal forum for go lovers to have
a place to play. Any ranking system, even the UFO system, is not and will not
be perfect. So what is the point? As I and Youyi pointed out before, play with
someone who share the same kind of phylosophy and with someone whom you enjoy 
to play with. Enjoy the game the way you want to. I think UFO still have
a lot of fun by ranking himself at 30k, which obviously is too low for him. :)

Jialin
--
Jialin Zhong		    *   /  l    l        l   l  *    ---O--O--O--O---
1614 Beckman Institute	    *  / l-l-l -l-l l-l -l- -l- *   /--*--*--*--O--O
Urbana, IL 61801	    * /l l-l-l /  l l-l /l\ /l\ *  /--/--*--/--*--O
jlzhong@uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu */ l   l  /  \l    / l X l \* /--/--/--/--/--/
Date: Sunday, 15 November 1992 04:59:43 PDT
X-Mailer: TMail version 1.06
From: "Anton Dovydaitis" <anton@anton.infoserv.com>
Organization: Ishi Press International
Subject: Re: Go History Books...
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Distribution: world

The best collection in English that I know of is contained in
`The GO Player's Almanac,' edited by Richard Bozulich.  Much of the
historical material has appeared before in GO World (some of these
unavailable) and in `Invincible: The Games of Shusaku,' which is
out of print.

The only way to follow up the Almanac would be to search through
academic books and journal articles on Japanese history and
culture.  Not very many writers have appreciated GO, so it is
seldom mentioned, or briefly at best.  The Almanac is your best
single source for now.

---
---------------------------------------------------------------

Anton Dovydaitis
Ishi Press International
Date: Sunday, 15 November 1992 05:11:29 PDT
X-Mailer: TMail version 1.06
From: "Anton Dovydaitis" <anton@anton.infoserv.com>
Organization: Ishi Press International
Subject: Re: GO on The Sierra Network
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Distribution: world

In <BxK9FA.Br2@nic.umass.edu>, s9874203@titan.ucc.umass.edu (s9874203)  wrote:
> 
> 
> I hope Sierra Network would be an alternative to IGS, rather that a
> replacement. I don't want IGS to die. For us poor students, IGS is the
> only place we can play go for fun without worrying about our pockets.:-)
> Futhermore, it is reasonable to expect connection fee goes up if Sierra
> Network pay pros. Or is Sierra going to adopt the policy that whoever
> loses a game pays the connection fee? The games would smell bloody.
> 
> bn 2k

They haven't mentioned how special events will work, but I am working with
them on this.  I don't want TSN to supplant IGS anymore than I want IGS
to undercut TSN.  And it won't.  IGS is for information workers with cheap
internet access and the technical knowledge to exploit it.  TSN is for
commercial computer game players and is prepackaged, with technical support.

I think the goal with having pros play, or tournaments or other special
events, is just to get people to use the service more.  Besides, $12.95
for 30 hours per month is a pretty good deal.  I pay almost that much
for internet newsgroup access.

There's obviously room for both, and I hope both prosper.


---
---------------------------------------------------------------

Anton Dovydaitis
Ishi Press International
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen)
Subject: Re: Change my strength?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 21:15:30 GMT

In article <1egs62INNjhm@roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu> jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong) writes:
>olounela@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Olli Lounela) writes:
>>No wonder there were several 8 dans and all too many 7 dans in the IGS
>
>Do I have to remind everyone that I was the one and only 8d on igs? There
>are no "several 8 dans", only one, and that was a joke, period. I can't
                                                                 ^^^^^^^
>see why some people are so worried about other people's ranking on igs. 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>As I said before, enjoy the game, 

Great point! I like it.

Stay turned for the coming article:

    "The Mysteries of Weiqi (11) ---- On ranking system"

It's coming soon, very soon, to this newsgroup.


Youyi Chen
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: adrian@stein.u.washington.edu (Adrian Mariano)
Subject: Re: response to mgt comment, intended for dmw@prism1.com
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 22:56:32 GMT

In <9211231524.AA14062@enet-gw.pa.dec.com> osman@hannah.enet.dec.com ("Eric, dtn 235-8439, DSG1-2/D8  23-Nov-1992 1024") writes:

>I've got mgt, but I don't see any commands for doing mail.

Presumably dmw@prism1.com said:
>>	If you want to play Go via email, there is a package called "mgt"
>>that will do it for you. It allow full anotation of the games, and completely
>>handles the interface to email on it's own.

There is a unix bourne shell script called mailgo which interfaces
with mgt to manage email go games.  It is included with the mgt
distribution.

This works only under unix.  There is no corresponding program for VMS.
From: job@shusaku.escape.de (Joachim Beggerow)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Organization: ESCAPE
Subject: Re: go-world no.67
Reply-To: job@shusaku.escape.de
X-Software: HERMES GUS 1.03 Rev. Apr 14 1992
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 22:21:28 MET

In <168A3D34D.I0060301@dbstu1.rz.tu-bs.de>, Klaus Blumberg writes:
>and another thing about the go-world in general: i think it's a waste
>of space to dedicate 2 pages to the explanation of the title-picture.

I don't agree to this. I find it quite interesting to learn something about
the historical backgrounds. 

>but in general: it's a great paper.

I fully agree with this statement. :-)

Joachim
-- 
                        |  "The clam shells are heavy today."
Joachim Beggerow        |  Kajiwara Takeo, then 7-dan, muttered this after
job@shusaku.escape.de   |  he played four stones during a whole day.
  
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: det@hawkmoon.mn.org (Derek Terveer)
Subject: is there an "xboard" for go?
Organization: Demi-Public System (One of the Eternal Champions); Eagan, MN, 55123-2507, USA
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 06:28:45 GMT

I have just recently discovered the GNU program for chess called
"xboard".  It is really pretty nifty and, naturally, i immediately
started wondering if there was such a program for go?  Xboard is an
xwindows based chess board display that allows one to play other people
or the computer.  Having such a program for go would be really nice!!

derek
-- 
Derek Terveer   Work:	derekt@stpaul.gov	+1 612 292 6009
		Play:	det@hawkmoon.mn.org	+1 612 683 0413
"Big business and big government distract us with entertainment;
 they manufacture our consent while we destroy the environment."
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: Official rating discussion (was: Change my strength?)
Date: 23 Nov 1992 04:43:18 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NNTP-Posting-Host: vision.csl.uiuc.edu

dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) writes:

>jlzhong@vision.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong) writes...
>>No, I won't want to block the way of any system that most of the igsers
>>support to implement. However, I can foresee a lot of people will start
>>to critisize your new more restricted system as soon as it starts.
>Every system proposed so far is 100% optional. How can that possibly be
				 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>more restrictive? It actually allows people options they didn't have
>before.

If the new system is 100% optional, then the rating system on igs will be
no better than now in your opinion (forgive my presumption) because the
current rating system is truly 100% optional. The new system will be more
restricted no matter what option it has, and it will displease some people.

Since there are quite a few players that are unsatisfied with current system 
and push for a new rating system, why don't you guys get together and make a
group in which you practice what you pray. I don't think you need igs
operator to start a mailing list. You can report the results of games between
two group members to a single coordinator and get credit for it. Since 
you are all quite serious about each game and your official scores as well, 
there will be unlikely anyone causing trouble and complaining. For other's
convenience, you can even put something like "I belong to XXXX group and 
my official score is XXXX". If you are successful, the igs may have to follow 
your suit due to the snowball effect.

>>>Again I ask: why oppose it? What are the drawbacks (except for the
>>>programmers)?
>> 
>>Okey, my point is that igs is not neighborhood go club. I would like
>>see it as a loose forum that people can make friends through playing go and
>>learn and improve yourself in the meantime.

>And others would like to see it be something else. So who decides?

>We are suggesting a system so that everyone can decide for themselves.
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>How can there be any objections to that?

No, the current system is a system that everyone can decide for themselves.
As I said in previous paragraph, you can have your own private interest
group under igs. I don't think that constitution is the only way to do it.

BTW, what I voice here is not only my own feeling. Some other people also
hold same opinion as well. 

>Dave Ring (Cdude ?-kyu)

Jialin
--
Jialin Zhong		    *   /  l    l        l   l  *    ---O--O--O--O---
1614 Beckman Institute	    *  / l-l-l -l-l l-l -l- -l- *   /--*--*--*--O--O
Urbana, IL 61801	    * /l l-l-l /  l l-l /l\ /l\ *  /--/--*--/--*--O
jlzhong@uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu */ l   l  /  \l    / l X l \* /--/--/--/--/--/
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: blowfish@carina.unm.edu (rON.)
Subject: Re: winning ratio
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 11:09:57 GMT
Organization: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

In article <1992Nov18.021006.14737@uxmail.ust.hk> schmidt@uxmail.ust.hk (DR. ROY SCHMIDT) writes:
>2.  Such a formula would have to be strength-dependent.  That is, the
>    probability that a 16-kyu would beat a 12-kyu is likely much higher
>    than the probability that a ten-kyu would beat a six-kyu in an even
>    game, and so forth.

Not true...I used to believe that as well, and somebody proved me wrong. If
I manage to dig up the reference, I will post it, but, simply put, the 
percentage that a player will beat a player N stones in rank away from her is
exactly the same no matter if those players are 20 kyu or 6 dan.
r.
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: jwang@systolic.uwindsor.ca (Ms. Jing Hong (June) Wang)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: Change my strength?
Date: 20 Nov 1992 17:25:19 GMT
Reply-To: jwang@systolic.uwindsor.ca
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.



Dear Mr. Only 8d,

Do I have to remind you that the highest amateur rank is 7d. I wonder how did you get your "8 DUAN" honored. Anyways, I believe you are the best amateur player in the states. 

You mentioned that there are some good players in Europe. If you know Weidong Chi in France, please give me his address.

Thanks a lot.

June
From: jlzhong@focus.csl.uiuc.edu (Jialin Zhong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: The Mysteries of Weiqi (part 11) ---- On ranking system
Date: 21 Nov 1992 01:23:57 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NNTP-Posting-Host: focus.csl.uiuc.edu

yychen@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca (Youyi Chen) writes:

>If you agree with what I say, please don't look by ranks when look for 
>players. Remember the Chinese proverb 

>        "Yi Qi Hui You"

>meaning that use Weiqi (go) to meet friends. Look for those who have
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>the same understanding as you do (understanding of go and other things)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>although who may happen to be a lot weaker or stronger on the board at the 
>time when you meet. 

I can't agree with Youyi on this one anymore. You play with the players that
have similar moral and philosophy which are not necessarily confined to
the Go board only. When you play on igs for certain period of time (two weeks,
IMHO), you should know who is your opponents. I, for example, would not play
with someone that changes his/her name every other day (ok, jjs is an exception
:-)), evev if he/she may have strength or high ranking. But do I need to whine
about too many fake 6d's on igs whenever I open my mouth? I guess not.
I wish everyone just enjoy the game, make some friends, have some fun, and
stop worrying about the ranking too much. After all, the thing that really
matters (on igs, of course) is to improving your skill, not how to set your
ranking.

Cheers,

Jialin Zhong
--
Jialin Zhong		    *   /  l    l        l   l  *    ---O--O--O--O---
1614 Beckman Institute	    *  / l-l-l -l-l l-l -l- -l- *   /--*--*--*--O--O
Urbana, IL 61801	    * /l l-l-l /  l l-l /l\ /l\ *  /--/--*--/--*--O
jlzhong@uirvld.csl.uiuc.edu */ l   l  /  \l    / l X l \* /--/--/--/--/--/
From: rjs@citi.umich.edu (Robert J. Skrobola)
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
Subject: Re: Change my strength?
Date: 20 Nov 1992 19:52:42 GMT
Organization: Center for Information Technology Intergration, University of Michigan
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: bodwin.citi.umich.edu

In article <2078@newsserver.cs.uwindsor.ca>, jwang@systolic.uwindsor.ca (Ms. Jing Hong (June) Wang) writes:
|> 
|> 
|> Dear Mr. Only 8d,
|> 
|> Do I have to remind you that the highest amateur rank is 7d. I wonder how did you get your "8 DUAN" honored. Anyways, I believe you are the best amateur player in the states. 
|> 
|> You mentioned that there are some good players in Europe. If you know Weidong Chi in France, please give me his address.
|> 
|> Thanks a lot.
|> 
|> June

He clearly stated that it was a bogus rank. In his info on IGS it said it
was a bogus rank. I think, therefore, it was a bogus rank.
		Rob

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------
Rob Skrobola      Institutional File Server Project
Normal Disclaimer: I speak only for myself
-----------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.go
From: adrian@stein.u.washington.edu (Adrian Mariano)
Subject: Re: winning ratio
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 06:09:17 GMT

In <1992Nov18.021006.14737@uxmail.ust.hk> schmidt@uxmail.ust.hk (DR. ROY SCHMIDT) writes:

>>>
>>>P = 1/2 * (2/3)^(2*d)
>>>
>>>where d is the absolute rank difference and P is the probability
>>>that the weaker player will win.

>There are several problems with such a "formula" approach.

>1.  If we assume no difference in ranks, then the formula yields a 
>    probability of 0.333 of a given player winning.  Since the game is
>    not three-handed, we would have to assign the remaining 1/3 to draws
>    Having played not a few games in my life, draws just don't seem to
>    come up often enough :-).

No.  1/2 * (2/3)^0 = 1/2.  This is the expected result. 

>2.  Such a formula would have to be strength-dependent.  That is, the
>    probability that a 16-kyu would beat a 12-kyu is likely much higher
>    than the probability that a ten-kyu would beat a six-kyu in an even
>    game, and so forth.

So you would think, but it turns out not to be the case. 

[ one problem omitted]

>4.  The formula lacks an empirical basis.  First, you have to find a

The formula was obtained from study of over 2000 games played in
tournaments.  The study was done by Jos Vermaseren.  This doesn't
conform to the (omitted) guidlines you demand, but it is the best
emperical basis you can reasonably expect.  It shows (to some degree)
what happens when real people with real ranks (however they were
determined) play games.

Newsgroups: rec.games.go